COLUMBIA, Mo. — What if the best carousel ride isn’t a carousel ride at all?
When it comes to the coaching carousel, there’s plenty reason to avoid the churn. And across both football and men’s basketball, Missouri has largely avoided losing its collection of well-regarded assistant coaches — with a couple of notable exceptions — through this point in the offseason.
Coaches and players will quickly tout the benefits of the continuity that keeping assistants around provides, and the upcoming football and basketball seasons will put that to the test. But when looking at some of the jobs that have opened elsewhere around college sports, reiterated loyalty to Mizzou might reflect something broader.
In terms of retaining assistant coaches, the football offseason got off to a rocky start. MU defensive coordinator Blake Baker signed a contract extension as jobs at Tulane, his alma mater, and Houston, his hometown, opened. That agreement vaulted him into the $2 million-per-year territory and close to being one of the 10 highest-paid assistants in college football.
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And then, of course, he left for Louisiana State. Edge rushers coach Kevin Peoples — the Tigers’ nominee for the Broyles Award, which goes to the nation’s top assistant coach — followed Baker to Baton Rouge.
Since that point, Missouri has kept assistant coach leakage from happening.
Offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, whose alma mater, Boise State, had an offseason opening, assuaged his own players’ fears that he also might be in the mix for the same gig under new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer.
“My family and I, we love it here in Columbia,†Moore said at the start of spring practice in response to a question about whether he seriously considered leaving MU. “Obviously tremendous staff that I get to work with on a daily basis. Great group of players coming back and just looking forward to getting to work.â€
Running backs coach Curtis Luper, widely considered one of the best developmental coaches at that position, was a reportedly a possible candidate for that role at Ohio State. Running back Cody Schrader’s 128 yards and a touchdown against the Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl were perhaps a factor in Ohio State’s interest — but Luper isn’t leaving Columbia.
The likes of cornerbacks coach Al Pogue and wide receivers coach Jacob Peeler — two position coaches who might well be able to land coordinator or head coach gigs at other programs — remain in place.
On the basketball front, Mizzou has held onto top assistant Charlton Young, a former head coach at Georgia Southern. While he’s been an assistant for the vast majority of his nearly 30-year coaching career, Young’s developmental successes could well earn him a head coaching opportunity elsewhere if he wanted it.
The MU hoops assistant most likely to have left this offseason, though, was Kyle Smithpeters. A head coach at John A. Logan Community College before joining the Tigers’ staff, Smithpeters was quickly linked to an opening at his alma mater, Southern Illinois. There was no deal between him and the Salukis, though, keeping his services in Columbia instead of Carbondale.
Coaching carousels don’t grind to a halt during offseasons as programs would probably like, and shakeups can still happen. The Southeastern Conference-rattling move of John Calipari from Kentucky to Arkansas will have a trickle-down effecting in basketball coaching. And a year ago at this time, Mizzou had just hired offensive line coach Brandon Jones.
But if the Tigers can hold on to their assistant coaches from here, the next year could very well be set up by plenty of coaching staff continuity.