Episode 12
Building Leadership and Culture in a College Football Program with Eli Drinkwitz
Building leadership and culture within a college football program is much like building it within your business or organization. Phil and Greg tackle this topic in this episode along with special guest Coach Eli Drinkwitz, head coach of the University of Missouri football team. Coach Drinkwitz shares his thoughts on how he became a coach, Mizzou’s team, and the upcoming football season.
Key Points:
- Coach Eli Drinkwitz is the head coach of the University of Missouri football team. He is considered one of college football's top offensive minds. The 2022 campaign will mark his third at the helm of the program and his fourth season as a head coach. In 2020, he became one of four new coaches in the SEC—the nation’s toughest conference.
- Coach Drinkwitz shares his perspective as a college football coach regarding leadership, recruiting and motivation. These are topics that Sea Captain Coaching and its team talk about with their clients every day.
- Coach encourages his players to develop their leadership skills and discusses his own route to becoming a football coach at such a high level.
- Phil emphasizes how the team you build around you is one of the most critical elements of success. Nowhere is that more evident than on a team that is trying to compete successfully in the SEC. Missouri has not previously been recognized as one of the top 10 recruiting schools in national rankings. Under Drinkwitz’s leadership, Mizzou produced its highest-ranked recruiting classes ever.
- Drinkwitz names some of the key areas that helped him achieve this new level of success in recruiting.
- Phil and his team at Sea Captain Coaching track a lot of different metrics for their clients to measure their success and progress toward goals. Drinkwitz discusses some of the metrics within Mizzou’s football program.
- SCC focuses a lot of its energy with its clients on helping them create a culture that allows each team member to reach his or her full potential. It’s also crucial to have team members understand their role on the team and commit to it. Leading a visionary life is a team sport.
- Coach Drinkwitz discusses the type of culture he’s trying to build for the Mizzou football team and how to get players to buy into it and commit to a shared vision.
- Phil uses the analogy that the journey to reaching your ultimate goal and vision is like trying to climb Mt. Everest. It all starts with establishing at what point you are at today—your base camp—and identifying the structural steps necessary to get you to the summit of your vision for the future.
- Coach Drinkwitz discusses the future of the Mizzou football program over the next 3 to 5 years.
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