Disagree on some points

Posted on: July 26, 2022 at 17:06:06 CT

"It's highly likely that after 3 years Drink has a worse conference record than Odom."

Odom: 2-6, 4-4, 4-4 = 10-14
Drinkwitz: 5-5, 3-5, ??? = 8-10

For Drinkwitz to have a worse conference record than Odom after three years would require Mizzou to have a 2-6 (or worse) conference record in 2022. Do you really think that's highly likely? I don't.

"Whether or not Drink is an overall better football coach than Odom...remains to be seen"

Well, you've already stated that he's a better recruiter, so that leaves development (yes, the jury's out on that) and gameday coaching. As for the latter, a good indicator of gameday coaching skill is how well a coach's teams fare in close games. So, here are their records in games decided by 7 points or fewer:

Odom: 4-9 0.308
Drinkwitz (Mizzou only): 5-3: 0.625
Drinkwitz (Mizzou + App St): 8-4: 0.750

And, since you mentioned him:

Pinkel (Mizzou only): 27-24: 0.529

I didn't feel like pulling a decade of Toledo scores, but I'd bet those numbers look similar.

Those numbers make sense to me as a fan who has watched most of those games. I'm not saying that Drink is better than Pinkel yet, but it's looking pretty clear that he's better than Odom at closing out games and/or mounting comebacks.

So, recruiting...check
Gameday coaching...check
Player development...we'll see. If Drinkwitz is reasonably good, like Odom was, we're in good shape, and if he's as good as Pinkel was, the sky's the limit.