Tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Casey Woods to depart Mizzou football

Casey Woods, Missouri tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator, will depart Columbia to become the offensive coordinator at Southern Methodist, a source confirmed to the Tribune on Thursday evening.

Woods was one of Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz's first hires at Missouri, reuniting the two who first worked together as graduate assistants at Auburn.

SMU recently hired Rhett Lashlee to be its next head coach after Sonny Dykes left to take the head coaching job at TCU.

Woods made $350,000 per year with the Tigers and likely is in line for a big pay raise by being named one of the Mustangs' coordinators. He owes $35,000 back to MU for leaving his post without cause.

Lashlee also worked with Woods and Drinkwitz for a season at Auburn and again worked with Drinkwitz for a year at Arkansas State.

Davis' interim tag removed

Drinkwitz has promoted interim defensive line coach Al Davis into the permanent role, a source also confirmed Thursday.

Davis was promoted to the interim role Oct. 3 after Missouri's blowout loss to Tennessee and the firing of former defensive line coach Jethro Franklin.

Davis joined the MU staff in 2021 after coaching the defensive tackles at Illinois in 2020.

He also served as the associate head coach, co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at Hutchinson Community College from 2018-20.

The College Park, Georgia, native played defensive tackle at Arkansas from 2008-12 and was a graduate assistant for the Razorbacks from 2014-16.

Contact Eric Blum at eblum@columbiatribune.com. Follow @ByEricBlum on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football tight ends coach Casey Woods takes position at SMU