Why Eli Drinkwitz, Brady Cook are ecstatic with Alabama's decision to promote from within
The word out of Tuscaloosa on Tuesday was that first-year Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer had opted to promote receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard and tight ends coach Nick Sheridan to co-offensive coordinator roles, with Sheridan assuming play-calling responsibilities in 2024.
The two happiest people with such news?
Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz and Tigers quarterback Brady Cook.
Seriously.
Suddenly, the program’s 2024 College Football Playoff hopes remain on track because the team didn’t lose its wunderkind offensive coordinator to another SEC foe.
Let me explain.
When Ryan Grubb left Alabama for the NFL after less than a month on the job, DeBoer was looking at three different OC options — and one of those included hiring a play-caller with whom he had prior ties to.
The top candidate to fit that description was Mizzou OC Kirby Moore, who did such a fantastic job in Year 1 in Columbia that he received a fat race and contract extension. The 31-year-old sparked Missouri’s offense into an explosive attack, going from 86th nationally in scoring to 29th at 32.5 points per game. He turned Cook from a quarterback getting booed at home games into an All-SEC candidate who accounted for 30 total touchdowns.
Moore was an obvious target for DeBoer if Alabama’s head coach decided to look outside the walls of Tuscaloosa. Moore served as DeBoer’s receivers coach and passing game coordinator in 2021 at Fresno State, and now he’d proved himself in the SEC. With the work he did with an athletic quarterback like Brady Cook, imagine what he could do for Jalen Milroe’s development.
Maybe DeBoer reached out. Maybe he didn’t. But now that the dust settled, Kirby Moore remains Missouri’s offensive coordinator, and for a program looking to continue its momentum after its best season in a decade, that’s massive news.
Why holding onto Kirby Moore is so important for Missouri
Last offseason, Eli Drinkwitz made the difficult decision to cede play-calling so that he could better serve as the head coach for the entire program. He plucked Moore off Fresno State’s staff, and the move became his latest all-star hire.
Moore provided the offense a “fresh set of eyes,” breathing life into a listless attack, and allowing Drinkwitz to become a better head coach — dialing up special teams fakes and being more involved with the whole roster. Paired with Blake Baker calling the defense, Missouri had one of the best coordinator combinations in the country in 2023.
Prior to beating Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, both Baker and Moore netted raises and extensions, and Baker infamously tweeted out the famed Wolf of Wall Street gif after initially rebuffing LSU’s advances for its open DC gig.
Only Baker ended up taking the Tigers’ job, becoming the highest-paid coordinator in the country in the process. He took veteran DL coach Kevin Peoples with him to Baton Rouge, gutting Missouri’s defensive staff. Drinkwitz tabbed a solid replacement for Baker in South Alabama defensive coordinator Corey Batoon, who oversaw a top 15 unit nationally in 2023, but losing both hot coordinators off an 11-2 team would’ve been a major blow for the program’s quest for continuity.
According to Fan Duel, the Tigers have an early preseason win total set at 9.5. This is a program that has won 10+ games in back-to-back seasons just twice in its 133-year history.
With Moore still in the fold, Missouri’s hopes for a dark horse run to the SEC Championship — or a trip to the CFP — remain on track.
The Tigers rank 16th nationally in offensive returning production, bringing back Cook, All-SEC wideout Luther Burden III, plus impact playmakers Mookie Cooper and Marquis Johnson. They also added Georgia State transfer tailback Marcus Carroll (1,350 yards, 13 touchdowns) to replace Cody Schrader. They have the firepower to threaten any defenses in the SEC, especially with a schedule that doesn’t include Georgia, Texas or LSU. There are questions at offensive line, where four starters are off to the NFL, but the Tigers did add former Oklahoma blue-chip guard/tackle Cayden Green from the portal in December.
It’s not a certainty that losing Moore just weeks before spring practice would’ve been a death blow to Missouri’s 2024 season, but it absolutely would’ve complicated matters for Drinkwitz, Cook and the rest of the offense.
But Moore is still a Tiger, and that’s a big deal for Mizzou — and the rest of the SEC.