How Brian Early became Mizzou football's defensive ends coach, and what he envisions for position

Now that Brian Early is the new defensive ends coach at Missouri football, he's surrounded by familiar faces.

There’s current MU offensive line coach Brandon Jones, who he worked with at his last coaching stop — Houston under Dana Holgorsen.

Early is so acquainted with Missouri defensive tackles coach Al Davis, he’s one of the few people on the planet who calls him ‘Alfred.’ Davis said it was Early who gave him his first job, as an intern at Fayetteville (Ark.) High School.

It also was there that Early first met Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz, the man who has hired him to run the Tigers’ defensive ends room. In 2009, Drinkwitz was the offensive coordinator at Springdale High, also in northwest Arkansas, while Early was the defensive coordinator at Fayetteville.

They faced off once while coaching in a conference together.

“He got me,” Early said. “We played once, I think, before he ended up taking an analyst job at Auburn, but they got after us pretty good my first year there.”

The Missouri head coach has got him again.

Early said his route to Columbia started with reaching out to Drinkwitz after Holgerson was let go by Houston at the end of the 2023 campaign. Without a job, Early proposed coming on board at MU as an analyst.

But then Blake Baker left his position as MU’s defensive coordinator for the same role at LSU. Baker brought MU defensive ends coach Kevin Peoples with him to Baton Rouge.

The door was open.

“I've known Kevin Peoples for a number of years, too, so when I saw Peeps leave, I knew there was an opportunity for me to slide into a full-time position,” Early said. “So Coach Drink and I started talking, and things worked out. Really, really smooth transition.”

Even the smoothest of transitions brings not-unsubstantial challenges.

Peoples was Missouri’s nomination — and was a semifinalist — last season for the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in the country.

After conversations with players and coaches, Early said he’s seen that NFL-bound edge Darius Robinson, an increasingly likely first-round draft pick in April, was “the alpha in this room” last season. He’ll need to replace him, as well as role player Nyles Gaddy.

But Early has some tools at his disposal, both present and future. He mentioned the list of players he’s thankful Peoples brought on board before departing: transfers Zion Young (Michigan State) and Darris Smith (Georgia) being two, and five-star summer enrollee Williams Nwaneri, another.

Young and Smith are the prototypes, Early said, for the roles the coach and new defensive coordinator Corey Batoon envision for their two defensive ends.

First: the role Batoon is installing called the ‘Joker’, which will be “a hybrid outside linebacker type” that lines up on the edge of the line closest to the sideline when the ball is spotted. This, Early said, will be Missouri’s premier pass rusher, and right now Smith is fitting the bill.

“You're looking for longer and leaner, you know, he would look like a basketball player,” Early said. “(That’s) the prototype you're looking for at that position over there into the boundary.”

Then there’s the field end, where the 6-foot-6, 265-pound Young fits Early’s ideal — a “bigger, anchor type.”

Missouri also did retain fellow end Johnny Walker Jr. from last season. Early envisions him, like Smith, competing for the ‘Joker’ role as the boundary edge.

More than that, though, Walker will take on a much bigger off-field role, too, in Early’s eyes.

“Those standards that have been set here and upheld by players in the past like (Robinson) — it’s Johnny's turn now,” Early said. “So, understanding that that is his job, to make sure that standard stays the standard. … He's embraced that leadership part of that.”

The new position coach describes himself as a high-energy guy, which is an extension of being a “high-caffeine” guy, he joked.

Missouri has lost a likely first-rounder and the position coach who helped the player get there. The Tigers are coming off a Cotton Bowl win and their best season in a decade — a season greatly buoyed by an outstanding pass-rush unit.

Now, it’s Early’s turn.

“I feel like just through my journey, since I started chasing this dream of coaching at the highest level possible in 1999, that every step has prepared me for this moment,” Early said. ... “I have always had a desire to coach the best and coach against the best, so I'm excited to be here, but in no way am I thinking it's time to kick my feet up now, because I've arrived. We're just getting started, and I'm anxious to keep going.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Brian Early became MU's defensive ends coach, and what he envisions for position