Missouri football head coach Eli Drinkwitz was named to the 2025 Dodd Trophy Preseason Watch List on Monday.
For the second straight season, Missouri football’s Eli Drinkwitz is on a preseason watch list for head coach of the year honors.
Drinkwitz, who is about to begin his sixth season in charge of Mizzou, was among 26 college football head coaches who were included on the 2025 Dodd Trophy Preseason Watch List, an award given to the top coach in the sport each year.
The Mizzou coach found himself on the same preseason list ahead of the 2024 campaign. He did not make the watch list in 2023, but after the Tigers went 11-2 and beat Ohio State in the Cotton, he was named as a finalist for the award.
Eight of the 16 head coaches in the SEC, including Drinkwitz, are included on the watch list. Kirby Smart (Georgia), Steve Sarkisian (Texas), Kalen DeBoer (Alabama), Brian Kelly (LSU), Josh Heupel (Tennessee), Brent Venables (Oklahoma) and Mike Elko (Texas A&M) also made the list.
Missouri faces three of those teams in SEC play this season, with Alabama and Texas A&M set to visit Columbia and the Tigers taking a road trip to play Oklahoma.
Five coaches from each of the Big Ten and Big 12 made the list — the most outside of the SEC. Four coaches from the ACC, two AAC coaches, one Mountain West coach and one FBS Independent coach round out the 26 head coaches named to the watch list.
Being on the preseason watch list is not a prerequisite to winning the award. First-year coaches are not eligible. Nominees must also coach a team with a Academic Progress Rate above the national average of 969.
Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame won in 2024. A Missouri coach has never won the award, which is in its 50th year this season.
Drinkwitz is 38-24 over five seasons as Mizzou’s head coach, including a 22-20 record in SEC games. He took the Tigers to double-digit win seasons in 2023 and 2024, marking just the third time in school history that MU won 10 or more games in back-to-back seasons.
If Mizzou manages to win 10 or more games in 2025, it would be the first time in school history that the Tigers have achieved the feat in three straight campaigns.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football’s Eli Drinkwitz on prestigious preseason award watch list
Category: General Sports
