Paul Finebaum weighs in on Eli Drinkwitz, his future at Missouri

Eli Drinkwitz is one of the more interesting head coaches in the SEC. He certainly wouldn’t crack your upper tier, but several still believe in him to be a solid option at Missouri. However, with no winning seasons during his three-year tenure in Columbia so far, Paul Finebaum believes that conversation may start to shift as we head into next season.

Finebaum addressed Drinkwitz’s job security today on ‘McElroy & Cubelic In the Morning’. He said having a new athletic director at Mizzou is a twist that could go either way for him but, as of now, he wouldn’t feel nearly as good about where Drinkwitz stood had he not just signed an extension.

“Had he not received the extension? Yeah (I’d be concerned). But I don’t know what went into that. Other than I think athletic directors now just hand out extensions like Santa hands out candy canes at the mall. I don’t know what it means,” said Finebaum. “You have a relatively new athletic director, hasn’t been there a long time. She felt the need to give him an extension, although I don’t really know what was behind that…So I think he hangs in the balance.”

Drinkwitz signed the extension back in November which gave him a raise and added two years to his contract. That deal will lock him in with the Tigers through 2027.

Still, Finebaum doesn’t think those terms will matter much unless the product on the field improves. He started with a decent 5-5 mark during the pandemic season in 2020 but has followed that up with a pair of 6-7 campaigns. While you can make any excuse you want as to how or why they finished with those records, the fact of the matter to Finebaum is that they did and it’s now on Drinkwitz to turn it around heading in to year four of his tenure.

“I think when you’ve had two losing seasons in a row, pressure builds,” Finebaum said. “And you can argue ‘the losing season was created by a bowl game‘. Well, guess what? It’s still a losing season isn’t it?

“To me, he still looks like a really bright coach. To me, he still looks like somebody that can recruit at a pretty good level. (Someone) who came close in countless games…But, at some point, you have to win those games. And I think it’s time for him to start doing that,” said Finebaum. “Otherwise, if you’re asking me this question a year from today? I don’t know if you will be. Because, frankly in college football, you don’t have that long of a leash. So I think he really needs to start winning.”

After going 12-1 at Appalachian State in 2019 during his first head coaching gig, Drinkwitz has followed that up with a 17-19 stretch in the SEC. Now, if he wants to remain in a league where you can get left behind quickly, Finebaum says it has become now or never for him at Missouri.