LSU coaching search: Eli Drinkwitz pressed on interest in job

The coaching carousel is fully underway in college football and the LSU search is one of the most important of the offseason. As of now, several major names in coaching have been tied to that job, including Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz.

On Wednesday, during the weekly SEC teleconference, Drinkwitz was directly asked about his interest in the LSU job. He would dismiss the question completely, instead insisting his focus is on Missouri’s next game.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna make any comments about jobs,” Eli Drinkwitz said. “I’m talking about the Oklahoma game. See my press conference from yesterday about my statement regarding that position. But I appreciate the question.”

Among the SEC coaches who are being courted, Eli Drinkwitz does make sense in several regards. He now has experience in the SEC, where he rebuilt Missouri into a consistent threat within the conference. That includes going 28-8 over the past three seasons, even amid injury issues at quarterback this year.

Drinkwitz did recently comment on other job openings that his name has been linked to. As recently as Monday, he shot down the idea that he wants to leave Missouri, calling it a distraction.

“All of this stuff is just a distraction,” Drinkwitz said. “I would like to remind everybody, including our fans, we absolutely love Mizzou. We love what we’re building. … My focus is going to remain on our team and our current situation and I am not going to get into all of that.”

The LSU job has been an interesting one this cycle for a few reasons. It’s considered one of the premier jobs in the sport with premier resources available. Three out of the last four head coaches won national championships, and Brian Kelly was a surprise firing, which came down because he hadn’t gotten the Tigers to the College Football Playoff.

On top of that, however, it also seemed to be a difficult situation at the administrative level. When Kelly was fired, LSU had no president. The school has since hired one. On top of that, Governor Jeff Landry has been very open about how he wants the program run, and he seemingly forced out athletic director Scott Woodward shortly after Kelly was fired. Now, Landry says he won’t have involvement in the hiring process moving forward. At the same time, a report from Peter Hamby shared he had spoken to Lane Kiffin, which was later refuted by a report from ESPN Baton Rouge’s Matt Moscona.

One thing is clear, for the time being, Eli Drinkwitz wants to focus on Saturday’s test against Oklahoma. If the LSU coaching search comes calling down the road, it’s something he’ll deal with then.