COLUMBIA, Mo. _ On the first day of the Eliah Drinkwitz era, the first-year Mizzou football coach made a promise to the Show-Me State: He and his staff would leave no stone unturned in their search for the best talent in Missouri.
Drinkwitz made the guarantee Dec. 10 at his introductory news conference mere hours after the Board of Curators approved his six-year, $24 million contract. Fresh off a successful season at Appalachian State and subsequent courtship with and hire by MU, Drinkwitz explained that his philosophy as he "shoots for the moon" but relies on a solid foundation within state borders.
"We're going to spend every single minute trying to recruit this state," Drinkwitz told the hundreds of fans in attendance in Columbia that December day. "It starts with the state of Missouri. We're going to St. Louis, we're going to Kansas City ... we're going to the northern tip."
While it's still early in his tenure, Drinkwitz has managed to rekindle excitement along the recruiting trails crisscrossing Missouri.
Last week, he and his 10 assistant coaches fanned out around the state, if only virtually. They invested two days into the St. Louis area, then two days in Kansas City, with the rest of their time spent connecting with high school coaches elsewhere throughout the state.
The NCAA has barred on- and off-campus recruiting through May 31 because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In any other year, MU coaches would've physically visited St. Louis- and area high schools to evaluate potential future Tigers; in 2020, turning over those stones is being done via phone calls and Zoom conferencing.
"It was kind of a grassroots effort there," Casey Woods, MU's tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator, told The Star in a phone interview. "We dug our heels in, and all 10 coaches, we made calls. Honestly, we found four, five names that maybe we hadn't come across and we needed to look at again."
Woods described the effort as creative _ a massive social-media effort, a campaign involving even some current Tigers. While assistant coaches worked the phones, Mizzou also tapped into its vast alumni network. Droves of former Tigers _ from Kearney High's Cale Garrett to Lincoln Prep's Charles Harris and Liberty product Marcus Lucas _ tweeted graphics and quotes about why they chose to stay in-state.
An increasingly common tactic for Drinkwitz: generate your own hype.
"The goal was to remind kids that grew up Missouri fans why they ought to play for Missouri," Woods said. "We wanted to do that. Coach Drinkwitz talked about early on in his time here to do this state right.
"There are doers and then there are talkers _ and we wanted to make sure we were doing instead of just talking. It paid off for us."
