Not many coaches had as easy a start to their college coaching career as Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz.
Drinkwitz broke into the college scene in 2010 after a successful stint as offensive coordinator at Arkansas high school power, Springdale. His first job was to run offensive quality control under [autotag]Gene Chizik[/autotag] at Auburn, and it could not have been a sweeter gig.
During his weekly preview press conference, Drinkwitz described the 2010 season as “great” but says that it provided unrealistic expectations for what coaching college football is.
“When I went there, I thought coaching college football was easy,” Drinkwitz said. “We went 13-0, and you just get the two best players in college football, and you put them on your team and you win. That’s what (quarterback) Cam Newton and (defensive tackle) Nick Fairley did for us. But outside of those two, there was a really strong team spirit.”
Drinkwitz mentioned Newton’s leadership as an important reason for the team’s success that season despite the adversity he faced throughout the season. He also says that he uses what he learned from Chizik, as well as former Auburn offensive coordinator turned head coach Gus Malzahn, and applies it to his program today.
“As far as building a team, I thought coach Chizik, (Ted) Roof, Malzahn, as coordinators, really did a nice job working together — low ego, high output approach, and a lot of the foundational stuff that we do in our program now, I learned from coach Chizik and coach Malzahn, that was a great season.”
Drinkwitz spent two seasons at Auburn before joining Malzahn’s staff at Arkansas State as running backs coach in 2012. He has also spent time at Boise State and NC State as offensive coordinator before taking his first head coaching job at Appalachian State in 2019.
Since becoming a head coach, Drinkwitz has built a 45-23 record over five seasons, with the 2023 season being his best to date. He led the Tigers to an impressive 11-2 campaign and a Cotton Bowl win over Ohio State after three straight seasons of winning six or fewer games.
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