COLUMBIA, Mo. - New Missouri football coach Eliah Drinkwitz promised Tuesday make special teams the "heartbeat of the program" and that he plans to hire a special teams coordinator to exclusively coach the kicking game units. That coach will be Erik Link, Yahoo! Sports college football writer Pete Thamel first reported Wednesday. Link held that same role at Appalachian State this season. He was Louisiana Tech's special teams coordinator in 2018.
The two coaches previously worked together at Auburn as quality control assistants in 2010. After a stop at Montana State to coach special teams and tight ends, Link served as a special teams/offensive analyst at Auburn in 2013, the year Missouri lost to Auburn in the SEC championship game.