Mizzou Set to Hire Corey Batoon as New Defensive Coordinator
It appears that the Missouri Tigers finally have found their new defensive coordinator. According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, Missouri has offered a contract to Southern Alabama defensive coordinator Corey Batoon.
The contract is yet to be agreed to. Batoon has spent the past three years as Southern Alabama's defensive coordinator, where the Jaguars ranked in the top 27 in scoring defense in each of the past two years.
Batoon has been in coaching since 1991, where he started out as an assistant coach for Pierce Community College in California. Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz and Batoon have never been on the same staff, but both worked at Arkansas State in the early 2010's. Batoon worked as a defensive backs and special teams coach for the team from 2009-'11 under Hugh Freeze. Drinkwitz worked as a running backs coach for the school under Gus Malzhan in 2012 and was also the team's co offensive coordinator in 2013 under Bryan Harsin.
Batoon has SEC experience as well. He wore many hats at Ole Miss under Hugh Freeze, working as an assistant athletic director, defensive assistant, safeties and special teams coordinator from 2012-'16. Following his stint at Ole Miss, Batoon became an assistant coach for Florida Atlantic where he would work as a co defensive coordinator as well as assisting with special teams and safeties in 2017. The coaching veteran would then take roles at Hawaii and Liberty before accepting the job at Southern Alabama.
The defensive coordinator role opened up for Missouri in early January after coordinator Blake Baker accepted the same job at LSU, becoming the highest paid assistant in the nation. Baker had spent two seasons as Missouri's defensive coordinator, leading the Tigers to being one of the top defenses in the SEC.
*Update: The team made the hiring official on Saturday afternoon*
"Our intent from the start of this search was to identify a leader for our death row defense who has proven success as a coordinator, and equally as important, is aligned with the philosophy of our defense," Drinkwitz said in a statement. "Corey has been a part of championship-level teams at every stop along his path. He's a veteran coach who's battle tested, and has an ability to break things down and teach the game at a high level. I'm excited to see him bring those skills and experience to fit with our defensive approach."
"The energy, passion and plan that Coach Drinkwitz has is absolutely incredible. I am truly grateful to him for allowing me an opportunity to coordinate the Mizzou defense," said Batoon. "As coaches, we want to challenge ourselves among the best of the best, and Missouri is in that mix. Just watching them from afar this past season, you could tell the program has a specialness to it and the upward trajectory is apparent. I can't wait to meet the rest of the staff and players and get to work."
