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Familiar signs were quiet but there.

A Missouri athletics director and the UM System Board of Curators were trending in opposite directions.

It’s a story as familiar as black and gold to Mizzou, and now Desiree Reed-Francois is the new AD at Arizona largely because of it.

A Mizzou ecosystem that by design allows for more cooks than kitchen space has prompted yet another change in athletics department leadership, and the quest for another leader better at herding Tigers begins. Maybe there is someone out there who can do it both successfully and with real staying power. Recent history suggests having doubts is wise.

Overlooked by most of us in the past year-plus were gradual but clear signs curators wanted more influence and involvement in the moves of Reed-Francois’ department. That’s almost always bad news for a Mizzou AD.

In December of 2022, the board partnered with a global consulting firm to identify areas where Mizzou could, “further invest in athletic excellence.� In 2023 ambitious sounding plans for what the athletics department described as an, "unprecedented transformation of the Mizzou Sports Park," was boiled down, at least for now, to football-based improvements to Memorial Stadium.

Earlier this month, system leadership announced a new oversight committee aimed to focus on athletics, one that called for more accountability from the department to the board. These were not the non-stories some suggested.

If your response upon reading about them at the time was, “Hey, those sound like things that should be unnecessary if Mizzou’s AD is being fully trusted to do her job as she sees fit,� you would have been correct.

Reed-Francois ultimately picked a fresh challenge over one that was becoming familiarly uncomfortable. And yes, there will be criticism that comes with it. For both sides.

“It’s not often someone in college athletics leaves an SEC (or Big Ten) job for a lateral position outside one of those two conferences,” read the Monday afternoon recap at industry leading site . “To make such a move for less money? That’s a club so rare, it might have a membership of one.”

Potential replacements at Mizzou are going to want to know why — and why it continues to be a theme at Mizzou

Less than eight years after Mack Rhoades bolted for Baylor following the Bears’ ugly sexual assault scandal in its football program and less than three years after Jim Sterk was nudged aside, Reed-Francois pivots to Arizona despite that university’s significant financial challenges and conference relocation.

We’re talking a reported Arizona deficit of $177 million, folks. Former Arizona AD Dave Heeke was fired last month — right after he hired a new football coach.

Reed-Francois is taking a cut in pay to make this move, another telling sign. She has a son, Jackson, who is still on the Missouri men’s basketball team. Yes, she grew up in California and went to law school at Arizona, but those suggesting these are the real reasons she made this pivot — more than what wasn’t working out at Mizzou in her eyes — are being misled or attempting to do the misleading.

Now the pressure is on Mizzou president Mun Choi and the board to make a strong hire because plenty of fans seemed to think Reed-Francois was doing a pretty good job. She made some sharp hires and did a lot to improve the fan experience at events. She did two rare things for her role in asking fans for feedback and actually implementing smart changes because of that information. She did not ultimately solve the Mizzou riddle of how to keep all parties happy all the time. It's easier said than done.

The last time a batch of curators caused a sudden sports change at Mizzou, it was when then-AD Jim Sterk’s search for a head football coach got derailed by curators who wanted Eli Drinkwitz to get a look. That worked out. Time to find out if this one will, too.

Mizzou always has a lot to offer — when everyone is on the same page. Some additional thoughts ...

• I don’t think the massively disappointing season Dennis Gates’ men’s basketball team is having in Year 2 following a resounding success and NCAA Tournament win in year 1 had much to do with this at all. More in play, I believe, was Reed-Francois and Tigers football coach Eli Drinkwitz never entirely bridging the kind of gap that can come to exist between a head coach and an AD who did not hire that head coach.

Drinkwitz’s previous contract extension in 2022, the one that came before his latest big bump after a Cotton Bowl win capped an 11-win season, was a curator-driven decision as opposed to an AD-championed move. Reed-Francois seemed to be in a bit of a wait-and-see mode on Drinkwitz entering his pivotal fourth season. He then won, big.

It’s not the only reason this happened. It is certainly part of the context.

• Doug Gillin is a name worth knowing. The Appalachian State athletics director during his nine years at App State helped the department successfully transition from the FCS to the FBS world. He also happened to hire Drinkwitz at App State before his jump to Mizzou. He also previously worked at Mizzou, most recently as a deputy athletics director (2012-15).

Wren Baker (West Virginia), Brian White (Florida Atlantic), Laird Veatch (Memphis) and Sarah Baumgartner (Texas) are among immediate names to know as well. Mizzou has been spending big recently. The SEC is appealing as it powers to new heights along with the Big Ten.

• Some fans have feared Reed-Francois departing means some massive NCAA-related anvil is about to fall upon the Tigers’ tails. Conversations on Monday suggest this instead had to do with internal MU friction and an Arizona alternative that was appealing to Reed-Francois.

You never really know what the suits in Indianapolis are up to, but if you’re worried about how Mizzou would ever go about an NIL-related investigation if one comes, just check out how Tennessee is fighting tooth and nail against one right now. Mizzou would follow the same playbook, regardless of its AD.

Missouri has one of the most proactive NIL laws in the nation and has support from state lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle. Drinkwitz, more than anyone else, has been the biggest driver in Mizzou’s NIL momentum.

• Mizzou doesn’t have to rush this AD hire, and it could be wise to wait to let some of the smoke clear as the surprise departure of Reed-Francois stirred deserved skepticism. Interim AD Marcy Girton is well-qualified and has held multiple high-level roles at SEC programs, including Auburn. She could be an internal candidate for the job.

There will be the traditional search firm hired and selection committee named. The news of Reed-Francois’ departure was not a shock to system leaders. They were aware she was open to outside opportunities. There does not appear to be an immediate replacement in mind at this time.

• One final thought: Mizzou has not had consistent, steady leadership connecting all sports and university silos that has passed significant time’s test since chancellor Brady Deaton, athletics director Mike Alden and head football coach Gary Pinkel were in lockstep. That trio helped Mizzou make the wise decision to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.

Great things can happen when there is real synergy. Every mismatched group since then has talked about it without displaying much, at least of the lasting variety.