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College football’s coaching carousel is spinning at full speed this season, with Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz finding himself at the center of speculation. The coach has been linked to openings at Florida and LSU (supposedly behind Lane Kiffin), as well as Penn State and Auburn. Drinkwitz tackled these rumors head-on Tuesday as his team prepares for Saturday’s matchup against Oklahoma.
The Tigers started hot with a 5-0 record but have cooled considerably, dropping three of their last five games to sit at 7-3. Things went south when quarterback Beau Pribula got hurt during the Vanderbilt loss. Without him, Mizzou fell to Texas A&M at home before bouncing back with a convincing 49-27 win over Mississippi State last weekend.
With Oklahoma heading to Columbia, Drinkwitz tried shifting the conversation away from his job status.
“I’m not going to comment on message board chatter, tweets, sources. I’ve maintained with you and our team that my complete focus is on the task at hand,” he said. “Last week, people were tired of me because I couldn’t win the big game. People had me meeting with my team and telling them that I was going to another school, none of which were true.”
“Now, this week, it’s a different story, because we scored the second most points in the SEC this year at 49. So all of this stuff is just a distraction. I’d like to remind everybody, including our fans, we absolutely love Mizzou. We love what we’re building. We’ve been to six straight bowl games. We got the sellout streak going. Our administration has been nothing but phenomenal to me.”
The coach’s résumé speaks for itself. Drinkwitz guided Missouri to 11 wins in 2023, capped by a statement victory over Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. He’s compiled a 45-27 overall record in six years, with a 25-23 mark against SEC competition.
His success hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Named the SEC’s Coach of the Year in 2023, Drinkwitz is locked up through 2029. Over the past three seasons, only Kirby Smart, Lane Kiffin, and Steve Sarkisian have more total wins in the conference.
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve signed multiple extensions. In fact, I signed one this past summer,” Drinkwitz pointed out. “So all the speculation is really a tribute to [the administration], and it’s a tribute to our team success and their commitment to our team. That’s where my focus is going to remain, on our team and our current situation. I’m not going to get into all that stuff, because, again, it’s just a distraction.”
What makes Drinkwitz special is his ability to do more with less — particularly his knack for finding hidden gems in the transfer portal. Missouri brought in 22 portal players for the 2025 cycle, building the seventh-best transfer class nationally according to 247Sports.
The results speak for themselves.
Former Louisiana-Monroe running back Ahmad Hardy currently leads the SEC with 1,346 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns. Last year, former Division II Truman State standout Cody Schrader broke Missouri’s single-season rushing record with 1,627 yards. And in 2023, former Appalachian State runner Nate Noel contributed 818 yards on the ground for the Tigers.
Despite improved NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) resources that helped Missouri land five-stars like Luther Burden III and Williams Nwaneri, Drinkwitz acknowledges his program still trails the SEC’s heavyweights in financial firepower.
“There’s teams that we’re playing with larger NIL budgets than we have,” he explained this week. “Doesn’t mean we’re not doing the absolute best we can. Doesn’t mean that we haven’t put together a really, really good football team, and there’s a lot of people helping us, but more is still more, and until there’s a cap on it, we want every advantage that we can possibly get.”
During Missouri’s Week 12 victory over Mississippi State, broadcaster Tom Hart mentioned Drinkwitz’s desire for support from the eight Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri.
“If we want to get more and more opportunities for our student-athletes, then that’s something that we need to lean into,” Drinkwitz said. “I’m always going to be pushing and trying to create whatever advantages we can for the University of Missouri in the NIL space.”
