Every Tuesday, I’ve been offering up some fresh thoughts on Missouri’s upcoming SEC opponents.

Florida isn’t on that list — which is kind of a a bummer for the Tigers because the Gators look like an easy win — but I can’t be the only one wondering if what is supposed to be the Sunshine State’s premier program isn’t warming up to the idea of tying to take a bite out of Mizzou.

Not in the College Football Playoff. Florida, unlike Mizzou, has no shot of making it there. I’m talking about a potential coach poach.

If you hadn’t heard, third-year Gators coach Billy Napier is drowning in The Swamp. How bad is it? Well, he’s in even worse shape than Florida State’s Mike Norvell.

At least the Seminoles were good last season before this year’s disastrous start. Meanwhile, Napier’s Gators are 12-16 since he was hired in 2022, and this season, he’s 1-3 after deflating home losses to in-state rival Miami and first-year Texas A&M coach Mike Elko. That makes Napier, who jumped up from Louisiana, 2-10 against ranked foes at Florida, with seven consecutive L’s to power conference teams. Ouch.

Per multiple reports from those close to Florida’s program, Florida has big-money donors ready to cover the roughly $26 million buyout needed to kick Napier to the curb. The situation has taken on a when-not-if feel, and when things get to that point, we know what comes next. Prepare for massive speculation about who Florida could target to replace Napier, even while Napier tries to come up with some sort of Hail Mary.

Florida didn’t seem to realize what it had in Dan Mullen, who is now on TV talking for a living. Considering he recently posted a trolling tweet reminding UF fans of that, it’s hard to imagine a reunion.

Urban Meyer is everywhere again. TV. Podcasts. Does he want back in? I imagine the roar of Florida fans would deafen any complaints about how his previous run as Gators coach had as much off-field chaos as on-field success.

If Florida can get Lane Kiffin, the Gators should do that yesterday. He’s cranking out high-octane offense at Ole Miss, and he’s got a big-name brand that attracts talented transfers, plus previous Florida experience at Florida Atlantic.

After that, it’s hard to imagine the Gators getting very far down a shopping list before fifth-year Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz looks pretty, pretty good. And not just because it was his overtime win over Mullen in 2021 that convinced Florida to fire the guy whose Florida record read 34-15.

Drinkwitz is 14-2 since the start of last season, which included 11 wins and a takedown of Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. He’s led Mizzou to a top 10 ranking this season, has made quality hires for assistant roles, continually gets more out of the transfer portal than he loses to it, and has expanded his recruiting reach from mostly closing the state’s boarders to poaching some serious talent out from beneath the noses of more established Big Ten and SEC powers. Oh, and he spearheaded Mizzou during its creation of one of the most lucrative and aggressive name, image and likeness programs going.

There’s a lot to like, is the point. Interest in Drinkwitz from other programs is a compliment to how he’s reignited Mizzou football.

Now here’s the good news for Mizzou:

If Florida decides it wants Drinkwitz, it doesn’t mean Drinkwitz has to decide he wants Florida.

After making a great hire entering the 2020 season, Mizzou has followed through on its pledge to grow with Drinkwitz, sometimes even taking forward steps at times his team was trying to dislodge itself from a .500 trajectory. Drinkwitz hasn’t just received multiple, hefty contract improvements taking him up to $9 million annually now with more coming later. He’s welcomed a new practice facility and multiple rounds of Memorial Stadium improvements.

When he led on trying to make NIL a cutting-edge advantage for his program, the university and state lawmakers followed that lead. When former Mizzou athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois was chilly on the idea of Drinkwitz’s raise before the breakthrough 2023 season, he got one from his curators anyway, and then another after his breakthrough.

And then he got a new AD. And when new Mizzou athletics director Laird Veatch was introduced, among his first public comments was a pledge to continue to elevate Drinkwitz’s program.

No, there’s no truth to the rumor there will be a seventh column added to the quad named Drinkwitz, but who knows, maybe one day. If he stays.

Also worth mentioning: The last guy to leave the Mizzou football program despite determined attempts to keep him was former defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who convinced himself he would do bigger, better things at LSU.

Update: LSU through three games is giving up the 14th-most total yards per game in the SEC, and that includes letting winless Southland opponent Nicholls score 21. If LSU hadn’t come back to beat South Carolina this weekend, LSU fans would be dreaming up Brian Kelly replacements.

Sometimes the grass really is greenest where you stand.

The last time the Tigers were rolling like this, Michigan called and tried to hire Gary Pinkel. He declined to interview.

Mizzou can be the destination. Pinkel proved it. Maybe Drinkwitz will again.

All you can do in this crazy world of college football is hire the right guy and give him reasons to stay put. Mizzou has done a great job of that with Drinkwitz, and I think the list of places that could look better to him has shortened considerably since the day he was hired.

Take Florida State, for example. It’s not a better job than Mizzou’s. There’s a reason the Seminoles are desperate to enter the SEC. And there’s a reason Napier is being prepped for launch at Florida. It’s an incredibly impatient place.

Napier is 12-16 three games into his third season. Drinkwitz was 13-16 six games into his own, remember? Maybe not, because he made you forget. Before he could do so, though, he was given the time to do so.

He should remember that when his agent tells him someone’s interested, and it will happen, whether it’s with the Florida gig or other ones.

Yes, Drinkwitz patrols the sideline in a visor and once named his flag football team in college after Steve Spurrier. It would be silly to downplay the potential awe of being asked to lead Florida back to glory.

But when Drinkwitz talks about being and building at Mizzou for the long haul, like he has a lot lately, I don’t roll my eyes. Mizzou has shown it will fight to keep what it wants, and more important than that, it has been proactive about proving it even before outside leverage demands it.

In the end, the only way a school keeps a winning coach when poachers start calling is by having one who sees more reasons to stay than leave. The best reasons, other than the always increasing money, are the ones the place you currently coach gave you before the phone rang.

No. 7 Mizzou's run game finds early success with Nate Noel, outside zone play

Mizzou football snapshots: PFF grades, snap counts from Tigers' win over Boston College

Tipsheet: While Mizzou basks in limelight, Florida, Florida State face dark days