Someone new will be in charge of the Missouri athletic department. Here's what it means for Mizzou coaches in the four most high profile sports in my opinion.
Eli Drinkwitz--Nothing negative here. He's the king now. The AD will more or less report to him as long as he keeps winning at a relatively high level. Clearly the 2022 extension and the relationship between him and Desiree Reed-Francois was a factor in how things have gone down. I do not want that to be taken as saying Drinkwitz pushed Reed-Francois out. I do not think that's the case. But Drinkwitz had the backing of DRF's bosses more than DRF did. To quote George Costanza, "I've got hand, baby!" Drink has the backing of the right people. The new AD is going to come in with an understanding that his job when it comes to football is "Don't f--- with it."
As long as Drink keeps winning 8 games a year or more, he's the coach here for as long as he wants to be the coach here. Last season bought him (deservedly) a ton of equity and a long leash. If he's as good as people hope he will be next year, he's untouchable for at least four or five seasons. The only way he's leaving is if he chooses to leave (this is a discussion for another time, but I'd argue there aren't very many jobs he would leave for at this point. He has everything he needs here and he's above his boss in the pecking order. Why mess with that?)
Dennis Gates--It means he needs significant improvement next year. He's not going to get fired after this season, even if it ends without another win as many of us expect. But what changed for Gates is next year. I think if he'd gone 8-24 again next year, he's in deep, deep trouble unless his mother was the AD. But what if he improves to like 14-18, 15-17. It's not good. It's not good enough. But it's improvement from this year. Had the person who hired him still been in place, I think that would absolutely have earned him another year and the ultimate determination is made in 2025-26. But now? I'm less sure. To feel comfortable if I'm Gates, I'd probably want to go ahead and get above .500 next season. That said, even after next season, his buyout is $17.2 million so it's not a drop in the bucket.
Robin Pingeton--This one is probably the most interesting one. We've been operating under the foregone conclusion that this is Pingeton's last year. Whether that has been officially communicated or not, I don't know (I don't think it has). But Missouri is 2-10 in league play with four games left to go and going nowhere after the end of the SEC Tournament. There was a pretty clear "NCAA Tournament or else" directive after last season. But the person who put that in place is now gone. The season could be over in 15 days. Will Mizzou even have an AD in place at that point? Will they hire someone who is ready to fire Pingeton within a week of taking the job? The record says Missouri should make a move. But the timing of the AD change makes me wonder if they just decide it's not worth messing with and ride this out another year.
Kerrick Jackson--He's only three games into his career so it's not like he's in any danger any time soon. But Reed-Francois just hired him a few months ago and she's now gone (not dissimilar to Mack Rhodes hiring Steve Bieser and bolting shortly thereafter). Athletic directors give longer leashes to coaches they hired themselves because firing someone you hired reflects on you; firing someone the last person hired doesn't reflect on you. If Laird Veatch is Mizzou's next AD, he hired Jackson at Memphis and that would seem to indicate a good relationship so nothing has changed for Jackson. But if it's anybody else, the leash is probably a little shorter than it was Sunday. The major question for Jackson may be how much Mizzou's next AD wants to commit to baseball. If he wants to actually try to compete in baseball and dumps some money into it, the expectations will rise. If Missouri continues to treat the sport as it has for more than a decade then there's not that much pressure on Jackson for quite some time because you can't ask a guy to compete when you don't give him the resources to do so. Bieser got six full seasons without an NCAA appearance. If Missouri's cool with that, he's got some time.
As for the rest of the coaches they've mostly either been recently hired and should have some time or have things going to the point that they're under no pressure at all like Brian Smith and Shannon Welker.
Eli Drinkwitz--Nothing negative here. He's the king now. The AD will more or less report to him as long as he keeps winning at a relatively high level. Clearly the 2022 extension and the relationship between him and Desiree Reed-Francois was a factor in how things have gone down. I do not want that to be taken as saying Drinkwitz pushed Reed-Francois out. I do not think that's the case. But Drinkwitz had the backing of DRF's bosses more than DRF did. To quote George Costanza, "I've got hand, baby!" Drink has the backing of the right people. The new AD is going to come in with an understanding that his job when it comes to football is "Don't f--- with it."
As long as Drink keeps winning 8 games a year or more, he's the coach here for as long as he wants to be the coach here. Last season bought him (deservedly) a ton of equity and a long leash. If he's as good as people hope he will be next year, he's untouchable for at least four or five seasons. The only way he's leaving is if he chooses to leave (this is a discussion for another time, but I'd argue there aren't very many jobs he would leave for at this point. He has everything he needs here and he's above his boss in the pecking order. Why mess with that?)
Dennis Gates--It means he needs significant improvement next year. He's not going to get fired after this season, even if it ends without another win as many of us expect. But what changed for Gates is next year. I think if he'd gone 8-24 again next year, he's in deep, deep trouble unless his mother was the AD. But what if he improves to like 14-18, 15-17. It's not good. It's not good enough. But it's improvement from this year. Had the person who hired him still been in place, I think that would absolutely have earned him another year and the ultimate determination is made in 2025-26. But now? I'm less sure. To feel comfortable if I'm Gates, I'd probably want to go ahead and get above .500 next season. That said, even after next season, his buyout is $17.2 million so it's not a drop in the bucket.
Robin Pingeton--This one is probably the most interesting one. We've been operating under the foregone conclusion that this is Pingeton's last year. Whether that has been officially communicated or not, I don't know (I don't think it has). But Missouri is 2-10 in league play with four games left to go and going nowhere after the end of the SEC Tournament. There was a pretty clear "NCAA Tournament or else" directive after last season. But the person who put that in place is now gone. The season could be over in 15 days. Will Mizzou even have an AD in place at that point? Will they hire someone who is ready to fire Pingeton within a week of taking the job? The record says Missouri should make a move. But the timing of the AD change makes me wonder if they just decide it's not worth messing with and ride this out another year.
Kerrick Jackson--He's only three games into his career so it's not like he's in any danger any time soon. But Reed-Francois just hired him a few months ago and she's now gone (not dissimilar to Mack Rhodes hiring Steve Bieser and bolting shortly thereafter). Athletic directors give longer leashes to coaches they hired themselves because firing someone you hired reflects on you; firing someone the last person hired doesn't reflect on you. If Laird Veatch is Mizzou's next AD, he hired Jackson at Memphis and that would seem to indicate a good relationship so nothing has changed for Jackson. But if it's anybody else, the leash is probably a little shorter than it was Sunday. The major question for Jackson may be how much Mizzou's next AD wants to commit to baseball. If he wants to actually try to compete in baseball and dumps some money into it, the expectations will rise. If Missouri continues to treat the sport as it has for more than a decade then there's not that much pressure on Jackson for quite some time because you can't ask a guy to compete when you don't give him the resources to do so. Bieser got six full seasons without an NCAA appearance. If Missouri's cool with that, he's got some time.
As for the rest of the coaches they've mostly either been recently hired and should have some time or have things going to the point that they're under no pressure at all like Brian Smith and Shannon Welker.
