Assistant Coach David Yost has been with Head Coach Gary Pinkel for the past 15 seasons in a variety of capacities, and the 2011 campaign will be his 11th season at Mizzou playing a vital role in the success and development of the Tiger program. Pinkel's recruiting coordinator since 1997, Yost also serves as the Tigers' quarterbacks coach and placekickers coach at Mizzou. In August of 2011, he added assistant head coach to his array of titles.
Prior to the 2009 season, Yost assumed the added role of offensive coordinator, and in the last two seasons, he helped guide an attack which featured the arm of quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who is expected to be a first-round NFL Draft pick this April. Under Gabbert, the Tigers won 10 games in 2010 for only the fourth time in school history, thanks in large part to Yost's offense, which ranked 35th nationally in yards per game (409.62 avg.). Gabbert ended the year with his second-straight 3,000-yard campaign, throwing for 3,186 yards and 16 touchdowns, while running for 232 yards and five more scores in all, and he closed his three-year Tiger career by throwing for 434 yards - an MU bowl game record - in the 2010 Insight Bowl against Iowa.
In Yost's first season as coordinator, the Tiger offense ranked 14th in the nation in passing, averaging 285.46 yards per game, despite the relative inexperience of first-year starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert. In all, the Tiger offense ranked 32nd in the nation in total offense, averaging 412.46 yards per game, and just under 30 points per outing.
Gabbert continued MU's recent success at the quarterback position, following in the footsteps of Tiger legends Chase Daniel and Brad Smith. Gabbert completed his sophomore season by throwing for 3,593 yards (the 3rd-most in MU single-season history) and 24 touchdowns. He had six 300-yard passing games threw for 400 or more twice, including a 468-yard performance against Baylor, which stands as the second-best single-game mark in MU history. Gabbert earned honorable mention All-Big 12 status for his play in 2009, and is likely to be considered one of the top signal callers in the nation heading into the 2010 season.
As if that weren't enough for his ledger, Yost helped mold first-year starting kicker Grant Ressel into an automatic machine who won 1st-Team All-American honors for his near flawless 2009 season. Ressel stepped into the kicking job vacated by former record-setting Jeff Wolfert, and one-upped Wolfert, who left holding the NCAA career accuracy record for combined kicks. All Ressel did in his first year as a starter was break the NCAA single-season accuracy mark for combined kicks, as he connected on an amazing 65-of-66 total kicks, including 26-of-27 field goals and 39-of-39 extra points. Ressel led the nation in field goal accuracy, in addition to his NCAA season record. Those feats were good enough to earn him 1st-Team All-Big 12 acclaim as well. He followed with another stellar year in 2010, as Ressel made 17-of-19 field goals and 45-of-47 extra points.
Yost has been instrumental in the development of MU's renowned spread attack. The Tigers broke numerous offensive school records in 2008, thanks to the play of Yost's star pupil, quarterback Chase Daniel. In putting together only the third 10-win season in school history, the Tigers established records for points (591), points per game (42.2) and passing yards (4,625), just to name a few.
Yost has to be considered one of the top quarterback coaches in the nation, based on his work in helping develop Daniel, and his predecessor, Brad Smith. Daniel had an amazing three-year run as a starter come to a close in 2008, and he left holding virtually every major passing and total offense record on the books. The 22 wins amassed over the 2007 and 2008 seasons ranked third nationally during that stretch, trailing only Oklahoma and USC.
Daniel caught the nation's attention during the 2007 season, as he amassed 4,559 yards of total offense (ranking 7th in the NCAA) and 4,306 passing yards with 33 touchdowns while leading MU to a record 12 wins and a final No. 4 Associated Press top-25 ranking. That December, a proud Yost got to join Daniel for an experience of a lifetime, as Daniel was one of four invitees to the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City, where he finished fourth in final voting.
Yost has established himself as one of the best recruiting coordinators in the country, as evidenced by MU's recent classes, most of which were ranked among the nation's top 35 according to various outlets, including the 2010 class which was ranked 21st-best - MU's highest-ever ranked class. The 2008 class was MU's previous best, at 24th, and that was preceded by the 2007 class (32nd-best), the 2004 class which ranked 27th-best, and the 2003 class which was the 28th-best, all according to Rivals.com. He has also been instrumental in helping attract some highly-touted student-athletes to Mizzou, most recently among those Blaine Gabbert from the St. Louis, Mo. area, who was rated as the nation's top-rated pro-style quarterback prospect.
He is also known for his work with former record-setting quarterback Brad Smith. Yost helped guide Smith through four magical seasons that saw him break an eye-popping 69 different Mizzou, Big 12 and NCAA game, season and career records. Under Yost's tutelage, Smith became the greatest run-pass dual threat QB in NCAA Division I-A history, as he is the only athlete to throw for 8,000 yards and rush for 4,000 yards in a career. In 2005 alone, Smith amassed 2,304 yards in the air and 1,301 more on the ground - making him the first player in NCAA D-IA history to reach the 2,000/1,000 mark twice in a career.
With Smith gone to the NFL (he was a 4th-round draft pick in 2006 by the New York Jets), outside expectations were that Mizzou would take a huge step back in quarterback play in 2006, but Yost helped develop then-sophomore Chase Daniel into one of the most prolific passers in school history. As a first-year starter, Daniel earned 2nd-Team All-Big 12 status for an outstanding season that saw him shatter numerous records, just a few of which included total offense (3,906), passing yards (3,527) and touchdowns (28). He ended the year ranking 5th in the nation in total offense, averaging 300.5 yards per contest.
Yost oversaw the transformation of previously unheralded walk-on Jeff Wolfert into one of the best Cinderella stories in all of college football. Wolfert, who won the kicking job in fall camp just prior to the 2006 season, had kicked in just one high school game before coming to MU as a scholarship diver on the men's swim team. Wolfert was an all-conference diver in 2004-05, but spurned his diving scholarship to pursue his dream of kicking. After seeing no action as a walk-on in 2005, Wolfert emerged from the pack in camp and was simply amazing as he connected on an MU record 18 field goals (in 20 attempts) and was a perfect 45-of-45 on extra points to earn himself on the prestigious Lou Groza Award list of semifinalists.
Wolfert followed his surprising 2006 season with an even better year in 2007, as he made an amazing 88-of-92 combined kicks (21-of-25 field goals, 67-of-67 extra points) and won honorable mention All-America honors by Sports Illustrated, while winning 1st-Team All-Big 12 acclaim as he scored an MU single-season record 130 points. He closed his career in 2008 by repeating as a 1st-Team All-Big 12 pick, and ended as the most accurate kicker in NCAA history for combined field goals and extra points (185-of-185 extra points, 59-of-72 field goals).
The 2002 season saw Yost guide Smith, a redshirt freshman, during an historical season as he became only the second player in NCAA Division I-A history to throw for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
Smith was at it again in 2003, as he broke his own single-season total offense record, with 3,383 yards. He ended the season with 1,977 passing yards and rushed for 1,406 yards, the latter of which is the No. 2 single-season rushing mark in MU history.
Also the chief coach for Mizzou's placekickers, Yost helped develop walk-ons Brad Hammerich and Mike Matheny into all-conference performers, with Hammerich earning 3rd-Team All-Big 12 status in 2001, and Matheny gaining honorable mention acclaim the next year.
From 1997 to 2000, Yost held the same responsibilities for Pinkel at Toledo. He spent four seasons coaching two of the most productive quarterbacks in Toledo history in Tavares Bolden and Chris Wallace. Bolden developed into one of the most versatile signal-callers in the MAC.
Prior to Bolden, Yost coached Chris Wallace from 1997-98, one of the top quarterbacks in Toledo history. In just two seasons as the starter, Wallace jumped into the school's all-time top four in four major statistical categories: touchdown passes (44), passes attempted (848), passes completed (454) and passing yardage (5,454).
Yost came to Toledo from Tiffin University, where he coordinated the offense along with coaching quarterbacks and receivers in 1995. During the 1994 season, he coached wide receivers.
A native of Carrollton, Ohio, Yost spent time coaching his former high school team after graduating from Kent State University. A graduate of Kent State, Yost earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in early childhood education in 1992. He has done graduate work in educational psychology. He was married to the former Carrie Crossett, a former soccer student-athlete at Mizzou (and sister of former MU kicker Adam Crossett) in June of 2005, and the couple had their first child, daughter Kennedy Caroline, in December of 2006. Son, Keaton, was born in December of 2008, and son Kamden was born in April of 2011.
