Mizzou football signs coordinators Kirby Moore and Blake Baker to contract extensions

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - In a week that has seen recruiting wins for Missouri football in both the high school ranks and in the transfer portal, the Tigers just announced perhaps their biggest win yet in of maintaining the continuity of the program’s bright future.

Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz posted to his Twitter Thursday afternoon a tweet that contained only emojis and hashtags along with a graphic that told the public everything it needed to know: Missouri has signed offensive coordinator Kirby Moore and defensive coordinator Blake Baker to contract extensions, ensuring the duo would remain in Columbia through this presently hectic coaching carousel.

The Mizzou football shared Drinkwitz’s post, further establishing the news as official on Thursday afternoon.

The news comes at a key time of year when coaching poaching is ever-present across the college football landscape. One publication that covers Notre Dame had already dialed up a full-scale column suggesting Kirby Moore should be a primary candidate for the Irish’s offensive coordinator vacancy.

Under Drinkwitz and with the backing of athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois, though, Missouri has seemingly ascended to a level upon which a move into a similar role at a perceived ‘big-time program’ would be considered a lateral move that isn’t worth the squeeze.

Baker, for his part, posted to Twitter a well-known video clip from the Leonardi DiCaprio film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ to indicate that he’s not going anywhere any time soon.

Due to the success of the Missouri football program this season—10 wins in the regular season for the first time since 2014 and the school’s first New Year’s Six Bowl appearance—there was some notion that Moore or Baker could conceivably be hired away to fill a head coaching vacancy at another program.

For that reason, Thursday’s news of key coaching continuity for another year is critical as Missouri looks to use its Top 25 recruiting class to bolster hopes for a run toward the expanded College Football Playoff in 2024.

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