Have checked with various people on this throughout the day. My sense is that the story about Baker being LSU's "leading candidate" may very well be true, but by no means is anyone telling me anything is done or imminent. There are a couple places this could be coming from:
Baker's agent is Jimmy Sexton. We know what that means.
LSU could be putting it out to people to apply a little bit of urgency to Blake.
He signed a new contract a few days before Christmas. I do not yet have that contract. The old contract paid him $1.1 million in year one with a $100,000 jump every year. The original buyout was $1.4 million and dropped to $800,000 on December 21 (which is the same day he signed the extension, which I believe to be for one year which would mean he is under contract through approximately February 28, 2027 (the old contract ran to February 26, 2028). I would assume the new deal also re-increased the buyout. So let's say the new deal is up to something like $1.5 (I don't know if that's the exact number, but I do think it's probably at least that). I'd assume that puts the buyout back up in that neighborhood or a little higher. It's a decent amount of money but it's not an amount of money that is going to prevent LSU from hiring him if they want to hire him.
I can confidently say Baker (or his reps) have had some conversations with LSU. I don't know how far along those are. My sense is that there's no reason to freak out yet, but it is something to watch. Ultimately, if Baker leaves, I had someone tell me with the new deal that it wouldn't be because of money. That doesn't mean LSU wouldn't pay him more (they generally pay coordinators around 2 million) but just that it wouldn't be so much more that he'd leave because he couldn't say no to the money. I also don't see a situation where this interest from LSU is going to cause Missouri to up a contract that was just signed two weeks ago. The offer is the offer and it's already been accepted. If he's going to go, he's going to go and I don't think another couple hundred thousand would change that.
His wife being a former LSU athlete, him being from Texas and a Tulane alum are probably the biggest factors here that should cause concern. Earlier in the year when I asked Drinkwitz about keeping his coordinators he said he didn't want guys to make lateral moves but also knew that there were times where a move made sense for someone because of family or personal reasons and he didn't begrudge guys for that. When he said that, it immediately made me think of Baker and LSU.
So the upshot is I don't think he's gone by any means, but I do think it's possible. I don't think this drags on for a long time. Once stories get out saying a guy is a leading candidate, he's generally going to take the job or publicly say he's staying within about 48 hours. I think we have resolution on this by the end of the weekend and potentially even by the end of the week.
I'll remain in contact with sources and update you guys if I have anything to update.
Baker's agent is Jimmy Sexton. We know what that means.
LSU could be putting it out to people to apply a little bit of urgency to Blake.
He signed a new contract a few days before Christmas. I do not yet have that contract. The old contract paid him $1.1 million in year one with a $100,000 jump every year. The original buyout was $1.4 million and dropped to $800,000 on December 21 (which is the same day he signed the extension, which I believe to be for one year which would mean he is under contract through approximately February 28, 2027 (the old contract ran to February 26, 2028). I would assume the new deal also re-increased the buyout. So let's say the new deal is up to something like $1.5 (I don't know if that's the exact number, but I do think it's probably at least that). I'd assume that puts the buyout back up in that neighborhood or a little higher. It's a decent amount of money but it's not an amount of money that is going to prevent LSU from hiring him if they want to hire him.
I can confidently say Baker (or his reps) have had some conversations with LSU. I don't know how far along those are. My sense is that there's no reason to freak out yet, but it is something to watch. Ultimately, if Baker leaves, I had someone tell me with the new deal that it wouldn't be because of money. That doesn't mean LSU wouldn't pay him more (they generally pay coordinators around 2 million) but just that it wouldn't be so much more that he'd leave because he couldn't say no to the money. I also don't see a situation where this interest from LSU is going to cause Missouri to up a contract that was just signed two weeks ago. The offer is the offer and it's already been accepted. If he's going to go, he's going to go and I don't think another couple hundred thousand would change that.
His wife being a former LSU athlete, him being from Texas and a Tulane alum are probably the biggest factors here that should cause concern. Earlier in the year when I asked Drinkwitz about keeping his coordinators he said he didn't want guys to make lateral moves but also knew that there were times where a move made sense for someone because of family or personal reasons and he didn't begrudge guys for that. When he said that, it immediately made me think of Baker and LSU.
So the upshot is I don't think he's gone by any means, but I do think it's possible. I don't think this drags on for a long time. Once stories get out saying a guy is a leading candidate, he's generally going to take the job or publicly say he's staying within about 48 hours. I think we have resolution on this by the end of the weekend and potentially even by the end of the week.
I'll remain in contact with sources and update you guys if I have anything to update.
