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1) So you may have heard Missouri needs a new defensive coordinator. Friday night was yet another reminder that if you look at college sports as anything other than a stone-cold business you're going to be disappointed. First of all, I know that's hard for a lot of people. Looking at sports in general is hard for us. We want to believe the most important thing is the game. It's the competition. It's what we all did as kids with our friends in the street or on the playground or in a youth league. You want to win damn it. And you put it all on the line for the team you're a part of. Whole above self, greater good, all that.
And then one of the guys who helped lead your school to one of its best seasons ever and talked about the brotherhood and how he never thought about going anywhere else ups and leaves for another school in your own conference and that kind of rips all those illusions away. The coaches, the players, everybody that represents the team you cheer for, the truth is most of them would represent another team if it made sense for them. You can't imagine ever cheering for anyone but Mizzou, but most of them? They wouldn't have a problem playing for or coaching for another school. And there's really nothing wrong with that. Because we all do the same in our careers. You might work for American Family, but if State Farm gave you a better deal in a better place for your family, you'd take it. I went to Missouri, but if somebody offered me a better gig covering another team, I'd do it (or at least I would have at one point; now I'm too old and entrenched here to really think about it). And as hard as it is for us to wrap our heads around, it's a job for them. It's not a passion or a love for the school. It's not devotion to a specific program. It's a job. Don't get me wrong, some come to love a place or a program or a fanbase and some make it home forever. But a lot don't.
And that's okay because the lack of loyalty goes both ways. If Missouri got worse on defense next year and that's the reason they lost more games than you expected them to or the reason they missed the playoff, many would be screaming for Blake Baker's job. And who knows, maybe they'd get it. The vast majority of coaches are on (in effect) one year contracts. We can't ask them for loyalty and give them none in return.
Now, does that mean I think Baker handled his departure perfectly? No. Tweeting out the Wolf of Wall Street GIF, telling reporters before the Cotton Bowl he never considered going anywhere else set him up to look bad. Had he simply signed the extension, talked about how he appreciated what Mizzou and Eli Drinkwitz have done for him and his desire to finish the season out the right way with a win over Ohio State, there's probably a little less aggravation when he leaves. In the end, I understand why Baker did what he did, but also think it's fair game for him to take some heat from Missouri fans.
2) There's a way Missouri fans will dislike him more than they do right now. As of today, there's probably some immediate anger, but that will subside and most will appreciate what he did at Mizzou in turning an absolutely awful defense into a pretty good one. They probably won't root for him to succeed, but most won't really root against him either unless Mizzou plays LSU.
But if he takes assistants off Drinkwitz's staff? Then that's a different story.
There's generally been kind of a gentleman's agreement in coaching that if you leave a place, you don't take assistants unless you're offering them a promotion. Baker wouldn't be doing that for any Mizzou assistants. Of course, unwritten rules are unwritten and sometimes they're broken and honestly I don't know if there are any real rules--written or unwritten--in college sports anymore anyway.
There is talk in LSU circles that Baker is trying to add defensive ends coach Kevin Peoples to his staff at LSU. Some in Baton Rouge believe it's likely. There has been a little bit of chatter about other Mizzou assistants, but Peoples is the primary name that seems to be the focus. Around Columbia, they're not unaware of that talk. Missouri will do everything it can to keep Peoples--the staff's nominee for the Broyles Award this year--at Mizzou. Peoples was part of hosting recruits for Missouri this weekend (which Baker was not, even on Friday before he had officially taken the LSU job). So that's at least a positive sign. As for where it ultimately ends up? We don't know at this point.
3) The most important question for Mizzou at this point is obviously who's the next defensive coordinator?
We don't expect it to take long. With transfer visits happening and the late signing period coming up and spring football just about seven or eight weeks away, there's not a lot of time to waste here. There's only one more game to be played in the college football season and that's about 12 hours away. By Tuesday morning, it's the offseason for everyone. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a hire made this week.
Our initial list of candidates is here. I added one to that on Sunday. Is Missouri's eventual hire listed among those 13 names? I'd say there's a decent chance, but it's far from a sure thing. Drinkwitz knows a lot more coaches than I do. I'm sure he's had his list ready if he needs it (just a month ago, it was a very real possibility that Baker and Kirby Moore could both be gone).
The biggest thing for Mizzou fans to know is that the commitment from the administration is at a level it's never been. As I reported on Friday evening, Baker's extension was three years and an average of more than $2 million a year. It would have made him one of the five highest paid assistants in college football year one and would have gone up in the subsequent years. Last year, Baker made $1.1 million. That was going to go up by $800,000 (nearly 75%). Moore is going from $850,000 to something in the neighborhood of $1.5 million (I don't have the exact numbers, but expect to get them in the next day or two). Drinkwitz got a raise too.
I'm paraphrasing here, but talked to someone on Saturday about replacing Baker: "We'll go to the next level." I think it's fair to say Mizzou was disappointed Baker left if not caught off guard. But the commitment (financial and otherwise) is there. Everyone seems to be pulling in the same direction (AD, Curators, head coach, even the fanbase). That's the important thing. Baker is a good football coach who did a very good job here. He's not the only one. Missouri is swimming in waters it's never swum in before.
4) Not that what I think matters at all, but every now and then someone cares, so I'll share some thoughts. I will preface them by saying I'm not qualified to hire a defensive coordinator and any number of different hires could work. Everybody's going to judge whatever hire is made on day one even though I think everybody knows how dumb it is to do that.
Anyway, on the surface, I like Scott Symons from SMU. I like Greg Gasparato from Tulane. I wouldn't mind Andy Avalos, Zac Arnett or Travis Williams. I like the idea of Jim Leonhard, but am not sold on the likelihood of it happening. I can definitely see the intrigue with Jimmy Rogers.
There's no one right hire. There's no wrong hire. That doesn't mean it can't end up being wrong. But there are a million ways to skin a cat (or sack a quarterback). I'm interested to see what Drinkwitz does, but regardless of what he does (short of bringing back Steve Wilks) you aren't going to see me up in arms about the decision.
5) With the 2023 calendar year behind us, I wondered if it was the single best combined year for football and men's basketball. It was the first year in school history in which Mizzou both won a bowl game and an NCAA Tournament game. I know that seems impossible, but I went back through every season and every time the Tigers won a bowl game, they either missed the basketball tournament or lost in the first round. Every time they won an NCAA Tournament game, they either missed a bowl game or lost it. So in that regard, it's right up there.
Missouri won a combined 36 games in football and basketball in the seasons that were primarily contested in 2023 (basketball obviously started in 2022). In 2009 they combined to win 39 (31 in hoops, 8 in football). That's the only year in which the two programs combined for more than last year's 36 victories.
Basketball finished last season ranked 23rd. Football will finish ranked either 7th or 8th. Here are the other years in which Mizzou was ranked in both at the end of the year:
1973: Basketball 15, football 17
That's it. That's the whole list. So, yeah, I think you can make an argument 2023 was the best combined calendar year in the two main sports in Mizzou history.
