Missouri Expected To Promote Blake Baker To Defensive Coordinator, Replacing Steve Wilks

It didn't take long for Eli Drinkwitz to find a replacement for the departed Steve Wilks, who was the defensive coordinator at Missouri until he went back to the NFL last week. The Tigers are promoting Blake Baker to DC.

The move was first reported by Matt Zenitz.

Baker, who was most recently the LB coach at LSU, had been hired by Drinkwitz in late January to be the safeties coach. Now, Baker will takeover a defense that has a lot of areas to improve. Missouri was 106th in total defense, 124th against the run, 30th against the pass and 113th in points allowed. The Tigers' defense was atrocious in rushing defense, which was evident as teams destroyed them on the ground, game after game.

Baker has also been a defensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech and Miami. Drinkwitz spoke about the hire recently.

“I thought that was an opportunity to add somebody who has coordinating experience at the collegiate level," Drinkwitz said last week. "(Someone) who has seen a lot of different things, been in this SEC, been in the ACC, can be a sounding board for Steve and continue to help us improve and be somebody who can really be a No. 2 in that room.”

It's great news for Drinkwitz that he didn't need to go outside his own coaching room to find a replacement, and Baker now gets another opportunity to run a defense and right the ship inside the Tigers' defensive room.