A less obvious choice to replace James Franklin, that some Penn State football fans are really high on, is Eli Drinkwitz. The Missouri head coach has found success with a typically average SEC team over his six seasons with the Tigers.

The most common reason Penn State fans have associated Drinkwitz with Happy Valley is because of Penn State transfer quarterback Beau Pribula, who joined Missouri before this season.

With Drew Allar likely going to the NFL after this season, Nittany Lions fans believe Drinkwitz taking the Penn State job would mean the return of the Pribula, a fan favorite after helping beat Wisconsin in 2024.

Drinkwitz has also already shown an ability to recruit the Pennsylvania area, landing the No. 2 player in the state, according to 247Sports, Matt Zollers. He also has three players committed from Ohio, a state the Nittany Lions rely on for talent.

The Tigers’ head coach has also shown an ability to win the transfer portal. This offseason, everyone knew Missouri would have a talented defense, but there were serious questions about what offensive production would look like.

Drinkwitz hit the portal and hit the portal hard, landing Pribula from Penn State, Ahmad Hardy from ULM, and Kevin Coleman Jr. from Mississippi State. Six games into the season, Pribula is playing as one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC, Hardy leads the SEC in rushing yards, and Coleman Jr leads the team in receiving yards.

Pribula and Hardy also both find themselves in the top 35 for Heisman odds, per DraftKings. The team’s three leading tacklers also joined this year from other schools.

History

Drinkwitz is starting his collegiate coaching career at Auburn, working as the offensive quality control assistant in 2010 and the offensive graduate assistant in 2011. The 2010 season was one of the best in school history as eventual Heisman winner Cam Newton led them to a BCS National Championship.

The Missouri head coach made the jump to positional coaching as the running backs coach for Arkansas State in 2012. The following season, he was promoted to co-offensive coordinator and helped lead the team to a Sun Belt championship and its first win over a top-25 team in FBS.

Drinkwitz spent his next two years as a tight ends coach and later the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Boise State. The Broncos had a two-year record of 21-6 while he was there and won the 2014 Mountain West title.

In those two seasons, seven Boise State players were named to All-Mountain West honors, including freshman quarterback Brett Rypien.

Two years were enough in Boise as Drinkwitz went on to become NC State’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for his first chance back in the power conferences. While he did not find immediate success in Raleigh, the offense improved every season, going from 63rd nationally in his first season to 25th in 2017 and 16th in 2018.

In those three seasons, the Wolfpack went 25-14, which included three straight bowl games and two nine-win seasons in 2017 and 2018.

Drinkwitz oversaw the development of three All-Americans at NC State, one being NFL running back Nyheim Hines. He also helped 17 players to All-ACC honors in his three seasons.

All this success landed him his first head coaching gig in 2019 with Appalachian State. Drinkwitz only spent one season there, but made the most of his time, becoming the first Sun Belt team to record two road Power 5 wins. These were against UNC and South Carolina.

The Mountaineers finished the season ranked No. 20 thanks to a 12-1 record and a Sun Belt Championship. App State’s win total was a Sun Belt record, and he was awarded the 019 North Carolina Coach of the Year award for it.

Since arriving in Missouri, Drinkwitz has 43 wins with 38 coming in the first five seasons, a school record. He has brought the team back into national conversations and won the 2023 SEC Coach of the Year honor.

In 2025, the No. 16-ranked Tigers are 5-1 with only a three-point loss to Alabama.

Is It Realistic?

The Drinkwitz situation is a similar but lesser situation to the Curt Cignetti one: Penn State is the better job, but will either leave a place where they are finding success for a little more money?

The difference is that the Missouri job has not shown as much promise as the Indiana one. The Hoosiers will compete for Big Ten titles in the future. In fact, they might win one this year. Missouri will never be a tier one SEC school.

The Missouri boosters were some of the first in the country to hop on the NIL wave. That is part of the reason for the transfer portal’s success and the winning season of late. As other teams catch up, though, the Tigers’ job becomes way less attractive.

The issue for Penn State is that Missouri has shown a willingness to match the offers of other suitors. Drinkwitz has found his name in the coaching carousel a few times since 2020, and Missouri responded by giving him an extension twice.

The most recent was in 2024, which gave the 42-year-old $9 million per year through 2025, $9.25 million in 2026, and $9.5 million in 2028, per the Columbia Daily Tribune. For reference, Franklin was only making $8.5 million a season before he was fired. It is going to take a lot to draw Drinkwitz away from his current job.

The positive is that the extension included a relatively low buyout on Drinkwitz’s end. If Penn State were to poach him before December 1, it would owe Missouri $5 million. If the Nittany Lions take him after that, it drops to $4 million.

Drinwitz was asked about the opening in his press conference on Monday, though, and did not deny the possibility of joining the Nittany Lions. Instead, he followed the blueprint other coaches have laid out for him by responding vaguely.

“Twitter ain’t real, and it’s just a bunch of bullcrap thrown on message boards,” Drinkwitz said. “So, how do I block it out? I ignore it, and I get mad about it when people ask me about it.”

An interesting note as well is that some Missouri fans seem to think of Drinkwitz as their Franklin. When looking through X, formally known as Twitter, and message boards, a few people agreed the Tigers should let him go to Penn State in an attempt to bring in someone to take them to the next level.