Voice of the Scantlebury: No more Old Missouri
On Sunday, while driving back from St. Louis, I got the notification on my phone that Missouri had hired Appalachian State head coach Eliah Drinkwitz to replace Barry Odom.
My reaction?
Home run.
I’ve been thinking about that first gut reaction over the last couple of days. Was thinking about it while listening to Drinkwitz’s introductory press conference Tuesday morning. He didn’t say anything earth-shattering — he hit the basic beats of new-coach-stump-speech (re-invigorating the program, getting it back to where it needs to be, recruiting the state, etc.). Nothing Drinkwitz has done or said so far has proven that this hire was a home run; Gabe was right in pointing out that the only way to properly assess that is years down the road.
I realized, though, I stand by that reaction. It’s not because of what Drinkwritz has done. It’s because of what the hire of Drinkwitz represents.
This isn’t old Missouri anymore.
You know, the Missouri where three of its last four high-profile coaching searches ended up with Frank Haith, Kim Anderson and Barry Odom. For so long, the athletic department seemed either unwilling or unable to make a bold hire, to go beyond its comfort zone and take a chance on a coach who was on the ascent of his career. Instead, it either went with what appeared to be the safe choice with Missouri connections (Anderson, Odom) or a coach that had reached the plateau of his career.
(Quick aside: Though I just did it there, I do think it’s unfair to take shots at Odom’s hire. Fact remains, the Missouri job was likely not in high regard following the events of the 2015 season. I honestly don’t know if they could have been bold during that coaching search.)
If you believe in string theory, I’m sure there’s some version of the multiverse in which Bob Stoops, bored of retirement and seeking a challenge, picked up the phone to call Jim Sterk. In a slightly more realistic world, It would have been great if Missouri could have just opened its checkbook and got an established coach like Bryan Harsin.
But when options like that don’t pan out, why not take a risk? Why not actively try to raise Missouri’s ceiling, even if it means you might have to be looking for a new coach again in four or so years?
The status quo, the “safe” picks, haven’t gotten Missouri very far of late. Gary Pinkel’s hire was something slightly more outside the box, but even he was a head coach with a decade of experience. After a few hires in which the final choice signaled more of a shoulder shrug from the decision makers, this one seems more emphatic.
The road that took us to Drinkwitz seemed to be the same path as old Missouri, but then it diverged. On one side of the fork were the original three (reported) choices in Jeff Monken, Skip Holtz and Blake Anderson -- the safe choices. The other path from that fork was the unknown. It wasn’t pretty how we got to Drinkwitz’s introduction on Tuesday, but, dammit, we got there. I don’t think old Missouri would have taken that risk.
This is a risk and I love it. I love what this hire signifies — a change that the old way isn’t good enough, and that to raise the ceiling of Missouri’s football program, the athletic department has to do something different.
That’s why the hire of Drinkwitz was a home run to me. Will his career be a home run? That remains to be seen.