So y'all may have noticed that we've added a new name to the mix. We wrote a little about Eliah Drinkwitz here.
In case you weren't on the board at midnight on a Saturday (I don't know what the hell else you'd have been doing, but I guess some of you found something else to do), if you have an extra hour or so, you can catch up on last night's happenings here. If you'd rather try to get it done in more like five minutes, read this.
So, I know this might shock you guys because it rarely happens on the Internet, but it's possible some of you guys are getting just a little ahead of yourselves. Here's what we know:
On Thursday, Jim Sterk brought three names to a few people for feedback. Those names were Blake Anderson, Skip Holtz and Jeff Monken. Those names were met with the opposite of enthusiasm. They weren't outright rejected, but Sterk was told, "Go talk to some other people. Cast the net a little wider. Let's see if we can maybe get something that will be met with a little more positivity."
So that's what he's doing. Eliah Drinkwitz is the only person we are confident he has spoken to and targeted at this point. That does not necessarily mean he is the only person he has spoken to and targeted. There could definitely be others. If there are, we don't know about them. What we are saying is, it's possible Drinkwitz is the top guy and he's the one they want and it's possible they're very close to an agreement. It's also possible that because his name is the only one out there right now you guys are drawing conclusions that shouldn't be drawn. We hope to be able to bring some clarity to that throughout the day today, but I'm not sure we'll be able to.
While Missouri is pursuing Drinkwitz, there is some indication Arkansas is as well. I don't know exactly where that stands right now. Some seem to think he's their guy, some seem to think he isn't. All I've really got right now is this
The Drinkwitz drama wasn't the only thing we were following yesterday. Ultimately, this led to nothing, but here's a little peek behind the curtain of covering a coaching search:
At about 2 pm yesterday, I got indications from an excellent source that Blake Anderson was no longer interested in the Missouri job after the shenanigans on Thursday night. Literally 15 minutes later I spoke to one of my best sources who told me that wasn't true and that if the job was offered Anderson would absolutely take it.
Probably an hour after that I got a call from a friend that covers Arkansas State. He told me the ASU players were being told that Anderson had accepted the Missouri job. This seemed very strange to me. It made absolutely no sense. The analogy I made was that it would be like Tennessee trying to hire Greg Schiano two days after VolTwitter unhired him. But I got on the phone to every single source I could at Missouri.
Most of them were stunned when I told them what I was hearing. They couldn't say it wasn't true, but they just didn't know and were surprised. Finally, maybe an hour in, I got someone who would know to tell me "That's wrong."
So that's what I told my Arkansas State guy. We were done with it. Except two hours later he called back and said Anderson was taking the Missouri job. At this point, I just said I'd have to wait and see an official report or something because I couldn't go back to everyone I'd already bothered and asked the same question. It was my theory that somewhere along the line wires were getting crossed at ASU. Because the alternative was that Jim Sterk had just gone rogue and offered Anderson a job and nobody knew about it. And if that had happened, two things seemed likely:
1) Jim Sterk would get fired
2) Blake Anderson still wouldn't be the head coach at Missouri
So in the end, we discovered wires had indeed been crossed. Word is that Anderson is indeed leaving ASU for another job...but it's not Missouri. People at ASU (not my guy, I want to be clear I'm not throwing him under the bus, he was definitely being told it was Mizzou) heard Anderson was leaving and they assumed it was for Missouri. It is not. He'll almost certainly be coaching somewhere else next year, but it's not going to be Mizzou. Crisis averted for you guys.
So that's where we are this morning. I don't know what today will bring. It could bring everything from breaking news to no news and anything in between. Whatever it does bring, we'll be here.
In case you weren't on the board at midnight on a Saturday (I don't know what the hell else you'd have been doing, but I guess some of you found something else to do), if you have an extra hour or so, you can catch up on last night's happenings here. If you'd rather try to get it done in more like five minutes, read this.
So, I know this might shock you guys because it rarely happens on the Internet, but it's possible some of you guys are getting just a little ahead of yourselves. Here's what we know:
On Thursday, Jim Sterk brought three names to a few people for feedback. Those names were Blake Anderson, Skip Holtz and Jeff Monken. Those names were met with the opposite of enthusiasm. They weren't outright rejected, but Sterk was told, "Go talk to some other people. Cast the net a little wider. Let's see if we can maybe get something that will be met with a little more positivity."
So that's what he's doing. Eliah Drinkwitz is the only person we are confident he has spoken to and targeted at this point. That does not necessarily mean he is the only person he has spoken to and targeted. There could definitely be others. If there are, we don't know about them. What we are saying is, it's possible Drinkwitz is the top guy and he's the one they want and it's possible they're very close to an agreement. It's also possible that because his name is the only one out there right now you guys are drawing conclusions that shouldn't be drawn. We hope to be able to bring some clarity to that throughout the day today, but I'm not sure we'll be able to.
While Missouri is pursuing Drinkwitz, there is some indication Arkansas is as well. I don't know exactly where that stands right now. Some seem to think he's their guy, some seem to think he isn't. All I've really got right now is this
The Drinkwitz drama wasn't the only thing we were following yesterday. Ultimately, this led to nothing, but here's a little peek behind the curtain of covering a coaching search:
At about 2 pm yesterday, I got indications from an excellent source that Blake Anderson was no longer interested in the Missouri job after the shenanigans on Thursday night. Literally 15 minutes later I spoke to one of my best sources who told me that wasn't true and that if the job was offered Anderson would absolutely take it.
Probably an hour after that I got a call from a friend that covers Arkansas State. He told me the ASU players were being told that Anderson had accepted the Missouri job. This seemed very strange to me. It made absolutely no sense. The analogy I made was that it would be like Tennessee trying to hire Greg Schiano two days after VolTwitter unhired him. But I got on the phone to every single source I could at Missouri.
Most of them were stunned when I told them what I was hearing. They couldn't say it wasn't true, but they just didn't know and were surprised. Finally, maybe an hour in, I got someone who would know to tell me "That's wrong."
So that's what I told my Arkansas State guy. We were done with it. Except two hours later he called back and said Anderson was taking the Missouri job. At this point, I just said I'd have to wait and see an official report or something because I couldn't go back to everyone I'd already bothered and asked the same question. It was my theory that somewhere along the line wires were getting crossed at ASU. Because the alternative was that Jim Sterk had just gone rogue and offered Anderson a job and nobody knew about it. And if that had happened, two things seemed likely:
1) Jim Sterk would get fired
2) Blake Anderson still wouldn't be the head coach at Missouri
So in the end, we discovered wires had indeed been crossed. Word is that Anderson is indeed leaving ASU for another job...but it's not Missouri. People at ASU (not my guy, I want to be clear I'm not throwing him under the bus, he was definitely being told it was Mizzou) heard Anderson was leaving and they assumed it was for Missouri. It is not. He'll almost certainly be coaching somewhere else next year, but it's not going to be Mizzou. Crisis averted for you guys.
So that's where we are this morning. I don't know what today will bring. It could bring everything from breaking news to no news and anything in between. Whatever it does bring, we'll be here.
