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COLUMBIA, Mo. – Former NFL head coach and 30-year coaching veteran Scott Linehan has joined the Tigers staff as an offensive analyst, it was announced Thursday by Mizzou football head coach Eliah Drinkwitz. Most recently, Linehan served as Passing Game Coordinator at LSU (2020) and as Offensive Coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys (2015-18). “Scott Linehan is an exciting addition to our staff,” Drinkwitz said. “He’s a true veteran of the profession with experience at a variety of levels. We all look forward to working with him.” Linehan played quarterback at Idaho from 1982-86, earning team offensive MVP honors in 1986 when he led the team to an 8-4 overall mark and a berth in the I-AA playoffs. In 1984, Linehan passed for 2,407 yards and 17 TDs and then in 1986, he threw for 3,954 yards and 22 scores. He and his wife, Kristen, have three sons: Matt, Michael and Marcus. Matt – also a former Idaho quarterback (2014-17) – is currently a graduate assistant with Mizzou. Michael played collegiately at Idaho (2015-16) and North Texas (2018-19). read more: https://www.ozarkradionews.com/sports/nfl-veteran-scott-linehan-joins-football-coaching-staff

At 30 years old, Walters’ star is rising. He said he fielded “a couple offers” during the offseason to become a defensive coordinator elsewhere. Walters stood pat at MU with his pot sweetened. Odom added a co-defensive coordinator label to Walters’ job title, and Walters received a pay raise to $340,000 this season, a $100,000 increase. “For one, I wanted to stay,” Walters said, “and two, the title, that made it an easier decision.” Pinkel’s 15 seasons on the Missouri sideline featured remarkably little movement from his assistant coaches. Odom already has said goodbye to one of his hires. Defensive line coach Chris Wilson bolted for the same position with the Philadelphia Eagles less than six weeks after joining Odom’s staff. Walters feels loyalty to Odom. He also has lofty career aspirations. “I don’t care if you’re a janitor or the president, you try to be the best at what you do,” Walters said. “And in our profession, the head coach is the pinnacle of the coaching tree, so obviously, one day, God willing, if I get the chance to do so, that’d be great.” Walters is the second-youngest coach in the Southeastern Conference to have the title of offensive or defensive coordinator or co-coordinator. Kodi Burns, 27, is the co-offensive coordinator at Auburn under offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee. Although Walters added the co-coordinator title, Missouri’s defensive coordinator duties are not shared. Cross is in charge of the defense. “He is the defensive coordinator, and he deserves that title,” Walters said. Walters will continue coaching the safeties while also offering any insight he thinks will be beneficial to the entire defense. Additionally, Odom said that other than himself, Walters probably has more special-teams coaching responsibilities than anyone on staff. “You can tell he has a lot of input on the entire program at the age of 30,” said tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley, who was a graduate assistant with Walters at Oklahoma in 2012. Walters tries to make his youth an asset. Finley called Walters “probably the best recruiter in America.” Walters said he relates easily to the athletes he’s recruiting, in part because he’s closer in age to the prospects than most other coaches who come calling. Walters’ musical interests probably aren’t all that different than many of his players. He likes hip hop artists Drake, Travis Scott and Future. Walters was left playing catch-up on popular television show “Breaking Bad,” which went off the air in 2013 — Walters recently finished watching the show — but he tries to stay current. He’s a fan of the Netflix original crime thriller “Narcos” and is eagerly awaiting the next season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” “I don’t play video games, but I know how to get on the Xbox if I need to,” Walters said. Relatability only goes so far in recruiting, though. It’s Walters’ ability to build bonds, Finley said, that sets him apart. “He’s very personable,” Finley said. “He can talk to an 18-year-old kid for the first time, and it feels like they’ve been talking for two years.” read more: http://www.columbiatribune.com/sports/mu_football/walters-star-is-rising-as-he-prepares-for-his-second/article_20b28661-7d53-53de-b4b3-2769865de75d.html

Jim Sterk will become Mizzou's new Athletic Director, University of Missouri Interim Chancellor Hank Foley announced today. Sterk, who joined San Diego State University in 2010, has overseen the most successful five seasons in SDSU's athletic history with 32 team conference championships for the Aztecs since the beginning of the 2011-2012 academic year and the fourth-highest combined winning percentage in the country in football and men's basketball. In addition, SDSU is one of only four schools nationally to have appeared in six consecutive NCAA tournaments and have its football team play in five straight bowl games. "This is a wonderful day for Mizzou and Tiger fans everywhere," Foley said. "Jim's leadership in intercollegiate athletics is unparalleled, and we are thrilled he is going to bring his talents, energy and passion for working with student-athletes to Columbia. He is just what Mizzou needs at this time." read more:http://mutigers.com/news/2016/8/9/mizzou-announces-jim-sterk-as-new-athletic-director.aspx

I discussed the latest in the AD search this morning with Randy Moehlman on The Mole Hole. The full interview can be found here. Some of the names on the list include Sean Frazier of Northern Illinois, Rick Hart of SMU, and Jon Sunvold, who currently serves on the MU Board of Curators. What it comes down to with this position is simply who wants to be at Missouri and who is willing to stick around long term and help fix this mess? read more: http://www.ponyfans.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=81996&sid=91f60787ac7f960c37c00bad77443e29

The University of North Texas Board of Regents unanimously approved the hiring of Wren Baker as the school’s athletic director Friday. The man who spent the past 14 months as Missouri’s deputy athletic director and the past two weeks overseeing the department on an interim basis after the abrupt departure of Mack Rhoades to Baylor will be formally introduced in his new job during a press conference Monday morning. Baker took time Saturday morning to talk to the Tribune’s Steve Walentik about the decision to move to Denton, Texas, the timing with which it was made and some impressions of the program he’s leaving behind in Columbia. Here is a transcript of that conversation, edited for length and clarity. Q: Why was this a good opportunity for you? A: One, there’s only a finite number Division I, FBS AD jobs, and those are hard to get, and when you get that opportunity — kind of like a head-coaching opportunity — it’s something that you’ve really got to look at. And North Texas is one that I think is a really great opportunity, because they have a lot of the things that you need to be successful — all the things that you need. They’ve got great location. It’s an area that’s rich in talent for just about every sport. It’s in a city that’s a desirable location to live and to recruit to in Denton and the DFW Metroplex, and then for Heather and I, it really fits us just because it’s by far and away the closest that we’ve been to home, especially since we had our two kids. So to be 90 miles from her parents (in Calera, Okla.) and 150 miles from where I grew up (in Valliant, Okla.) was something that was important to us. Q: I wanted to ask you about the timing of things. North Texas officials have known they were going to need a new athletic director since late May, and Rick Villareal left officially in late June. How long had you been talking to them? How long was your name in the mix for this job? A: The timeline gets a little bit blurry just in terms of knowing the days and stuff. We had a baseball search and then Mack’s situation. When they selected a search firm, the search firm initially kind of reached out to me and said, “We’ve got this job. We still have to visit with them, find out a little bit more about the profile they’re looking for, but we think this is one that you would be a good candidate for.” I don’t remember the exact time. It was before our baseball search for sure. But it’s one of those things where I’ve gotten probably a couple of dozen of those calls over the past few years, so you’re not guaranteed the job. It’s just like, “Hey, we’re going to present them with 10-20 candidates. You might be one of those names we present. With your permission we’d like to do a little more work on this.” So that call came, and then probably maybe somewhere else along the way a few weeks later, maybe shortly before or shortly after the baseball search, they just said, “OK, we’ve defined more of the profile of the candidate that we’re looking for. We still feel like that you would be a really good fit. Would you be OK with us moving your candidacy forward?” At that point in time, I told them that I would, and then you just kind of play the waiting game. So I didn’t know anything more until probably four or five days after Mack’s announcement. I did tell the chancellor in our conversation that, “Hey, this could become an opportunity. There’s no defined timeline. I haven’t been promised a job. I haven’t been promised an interview. But this would be something — if it developed — that I’d want to take a look at.” I got the call a few days after Mack’s announcement and then came down a few days after that and interviewed in Dallas, and that led to them ultimately offering me the job. read more: http://www.columbiatribune.com/sports/mu/baker-says-unt-showed-early-interest/article_d65e4853-4828-55df-aa81-612f4c16861b.html

Two weeks after its athletic director abruptly resigned, Missouri is set to lose its interim athletic director, Wren Baker, by the end of the week. Baker is the leading candidate for the vacant athletic director job at North Texas and is expected to be offered the position Friday when the school’s board of regents meets, a source told The Star. The University of North Texas System Boards of Regents has convened “a Special Called meeting by telephone” at 1 p.m. Friday to discuss “consideration of individual personnel matters related to the appointment of and an employment agreement with a UNT Athletic Director.” At that meeting, Baker is expected to be hired as Rick Villarreal’s successor. Villarreal stepped down in May after 15 seasons with the Mean Green, which included the construction of Apogee Stadium for $78 million in 2011. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article92221477.html#storylink=cpy Baker was hired in May 2015 as Missouri’s deputy athletic director under Mack Rhoades, who resigned July 13 to accept the same post at Baylor. After Rhoades’ departure, MU interim chancellor Hank Foley made Baker interim athletic director despite the fact that Baker already had been contacted by a search firm representing North Texas about its opening, multiple sources told The Star. Baker’s anticipated departure will leave Missouri without an athletic director for the second time this month. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article92221477.html#storylink=cpy Read more:. http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article92221477.html

I know we have a ton of QB attention recently and we don't want to go all A&M by getting too many bodies for one position BUT it is our biggest need coming out of the last two years. This guy may not be someone we want to represent UNT but it probably would be worth a telephone call to see if he would be interested in Denton and bring him in as a preferred walk-on at the least. Here are the highlights from the ESPN story: "The Missouri Tigers on Thursday dismissed junior quarterback Maty Mauk from the football team for "violating team rules," new coach Barry Odom announced. Odom said Thursday he met with Mauk in December and gave him a fresh start, but Missouri suspended Mauk again this week after a brief video was posted on social media. It shows a person believed to be Mauk appearing to snort a white, powderlike substance, and an accompanying tweet mentioned Mauk by name, but there was no confirmation from Missouri that the video was of him. Mauk has a 17-5 record as Missouri's starter. In the four games he played last season, Mauk guided the Tigers to a 3-1 record and passed for 654 yards with six touchdowns and four interceptions." http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/14666830/missouri-tigers-dismiss-quarterback-maty-mauk-investigating-video

CHICAGO As it turned out, Tony Mitchells college detour didnt cause irreparable harm to his future. The former Mizzou recruit, who never was able to gain entrance, is projected as a first-round pick in next months NBA draft and said after his workout at the pre-draft combine that hes hoping to go as high as No. 20. Two seasons at North Texas were far from perfect, but the 6-foot-8 power forward doesnt feel he missed a beat by not playing for a major program. Not at all, he said. I just kept faith and the Lord just kept blessing me. Ive got an opportunity to do something amazing for my family and Im going to keep working at it. Mitchell otherwise avoided commenting on how a questionable academic record led to him being declared ineligible by the NCAA out of high school. He went on to enroll at North Texas and averaged 14.7 points and 10.3 rebounds his first season before dropping to 13.0 and 8.5. The Mean Green stumbled last season, posting a 12-20 record that frustrated Mitchell. He admitted to displaying terrible body language throughout the season and suspects teams are watching him closely. They want to know am I going to give it my all every possession, he said. This season I was going up and down, cruising. These guys are looking at my effort and how hard I really work. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/mitchell-keeps-faith-in-basketball-skills/article_b24d10a4-ae80-5cc3-bd3b-455ab2c361ae.html