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Missouri Hires Appalachian State's Eliah Drinkwitz As New Head Coach

MU columns and Jesse Hall
Sara Shahriari / KBIA

Nine days after firing Barry Odom, MU has found his successor. Missouri will hire Appalachian State's Eliah Drinkwitz as its new head football coach. An athletic department official confirmed to the Missourian on Sunday evening that a deal between MU and Drinkwitz has been reached, though a contract has not yet been signed.

Drinkwitz led Appalachian State to a 12-1 record and a Sun Belt Conference championship in his first season as a head coach in 2019. The 36-year-old had previously been the offensive coordinator at Boise State and then North Carolina State before taking the job at Appalachian State, which will play UAB in the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 21. Drinkwitz is currently the sixth-youngest head coach in the FBS.

Drinkwitz's contract is subject to approval by Missouri's Board of Curators.

The hire means that Missouri is turning to someone with just one year of head coaching experience, but Drinkwitz was successful in this first season. In addition to the conference championship, Drinkwitz's Mountaineers won road games over two Power 5 teams, North Carolina and South Carolina, the latter of which plays Missouri every year.

When Odom took the Missouri job in 2016, he had never been a head coach at the collegiate level.

To read more, visit our partners at the Columbia Missourian.

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