Blake Baker, who had a strong, two-year stint as defensive coordinator at Miami under Manny Diaz and spent the 2021 season at LSU, is poised to become the new defensive coordinator at the University of Missouri, sources tell FootballScoop.
It’s a quick ascension in Eli Drinkwitz’s program for Baker, who was hired last month at Missouri as the school’s safeties coach.
But veteran Steve Wilks departed the Missouri program last week for a return to the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
Baker’s consistently had some of his respective conferences’ top defensive units in recent years. His two years running the Hurricanes’ defense followed a strong four-year run in charge of Louisiana Tech’s defense.
A Texas native who played at Tulane, Baker was courted last offseason by Josh Heupel and the University of Tennessee, shortly after returning to his wife’s family roots in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Baker also has previous stops at the University of Texas as a graduate assistant and Arkansas State, as well as coaching safeties for a season at Tech prior to taking over the Bulldogs’ defensive play-caller role.
Matt Zenitz has also reported the same.
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