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SUN BELT CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYSJuly 22, 2019Eliah DrinkwitzNew Orleans, Louisiana ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Just want to say thank you to the Sun Belt for a great event. This is a great thing, not only for the exposure of our conference but for our student-athletes, to be able to be here in the Superdome, to have all the media availability. And so very thankful to the Sun Belt for a great event. Feel very blessed to be the head coach at Appalachian State University. What a dream come true for me personally to be the head football coach here but also to represent such a great academic institution. And also would like to say thank you to Coach Moore and Coach Satterfield for laying a great foundation, a solid foundation which we can build on. With that, I'll open it up for any questions. Q. You're in an interesting situation, a lot of first-time head coaches don't walk into a situation like you did with the kind of talent you have at Appalachian State. That can be both a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. But how have you gone about navigating those expectations as a first-time head coach? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Well, when you get an opportunity to be a head football coach, you're either going to get an opportunity where you have to turn the program around or you're trying to build and stay on top. And for us it was just an opportunity that we couldn't turn down. Each job has its own unique challenges and unique opportunities, and what we're focused on is the opportunities that we have at Appalachian State to build on the championship traditions and to compete to do it better than it's been done before. There's a lot of things that they've accomplished in the past that are tremendous, but we've found those things that we can do better, that we can try to focus on, that we can try to achieve and set our mark. And the thing that we've talked to our team is about we have to form our new identity. We're not the 2018 Mountaineers, we're not the 2005 Mountaineers, we're the 2019 Appalachian State Mountaineers, and we have to form or new identity with our coaching staff and the players that we have, and that's what we're working hard every day to do. Q. How much was your schedule set before you walked into the job? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Are you talking about our opponents? Q. Yeah. ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, all of our opponents were set, and we're excited for each opportunity that we have. Q. Do you like an especially challenging opening game or a game that's more reasonable? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, I think any football game in college football is challenging. It's hard to win a college football game, whether it's home, away, whoever the opponent is. They all have good players and good football coaches, and there's so many distractions in college football that you have to make sure that your guys are focused on the opportunity at hand, and we're definitely excited about that opportunity. But there are no lay-ups in college football. I don't care who you're playing or when you're playing. They're all a challenge. Q. You were right that you did inherit a nice job here at Appalachian State, but what kind of problems have you inherited being the new head coach of the Mountaineers? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: You know, I haven't really focused on any problems. I think every job, like I said, has a unique challenge. For us our challenge is we do have a lot of returning starters. We do have a lot of players with experience. But they're not experienced in our schemes, in our system, with our coaching staff. So the unique challenge that we have is try to get up to speed as quickly as possible within our schemes, with what we're asking our players to do. And so we know we're kind of behind the 8-ball, especially when you look around the conference at the teams that have relatively had a lot of success in the past, that return their coaching staff intact with a lot of tremendous players. So we have to get our guys comfortable within our schemes as quickly as possible. And as a coaching staff, we have to identify the strengths of our players and how they're going to fit into our schemes so we can take advantage of their strengths within our schemes. Q. To play off of that, I was wondering, your team is one of the more experienced teams in terms of, like you said, returning starters, and I'm wondering both -- does that amount of returning talent have an impact on sort of -- I guess I'd say how quickly you implement your system? Do you put it all in there and hope these experienced guys can pick it up, or do you sort of pace through adding that in? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: We always start with our DNA, no matter whether I've been Springdale High School, Arkansas State, Auburn, Boise State, NC State. Whenever we've established this offense, we always start with a foundation, the DNA of who we are. When you cut us open, the game is on the line, we're going to be the best in the country at these things, and we're going to rely on those in key situations. So that's where it always starts. It starts with the foundation. We've been very detailed and thorough about establishing the foundations and the DNA of our schemes and who we're going to be as a football team, and then we'll build on those. And that's what training camp is all about. Training camp is about getting you ready for the entire 12 games that you have and introducing those guys to the different scenarios, whether it's end of game, the middle eight, the first part of the game, whatever it might be, making sure that they're familiar with what we're going to call in those situations. But right now the focus for spring, the focus for summer was all about the DNA. Q. How different are the schemes? Are you just whipping everything out? I don't know what you like to do versus what they were doing already. ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, here's the thing. We were able to bring in a tremendous staff with a lot of experience, and so when you do that, you've got guys who aren't so egotistical, oh, I've got to do it this way, this is exactly how I'm going to do it. I was fortunate enough to be able to keep some of the guys on staff. So what we did is say, hey, let's figure out what's the best way, preference versus performance, not what's the preference, all right, what's going to help us perform at our absolute best, because at Appalachian State, that's what the expectation is, to be at our best every time we step on the football field. So for us it was preference versus performance. That sign was up in our coaches' offices. So every single day we're trying to figure out what's going to help us perform the best. And so whether that was, hey, they used to call it this, I'm used to calling it this offensively, we'll just stick with what their terminology was for this specific route. If it was something, hey, it doesn't matter one way or the other, then we would tend to lean towards keeping it the same terminology. But it will be uniquely different. There are going to be some things that are totally different than what they've done in the past. And what we told those guys is what you did in the past wasn't right or wrong, it's just different, and we're focused on what we're doing now in order to help us be successful. Q. You spent two seasons with the Red Wolves under Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin. What did you learn from those two seasons in Jonesboro to really help you develop and become a good head coach? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: You know, I look back at my time at Arkansas State and I think about the familiarity that I have with the Sun Belt, so I'm used to the places that we're going to play. Obviously some of the coaching staffs are different, but I'm used to the fan base. And I think about those guys, what I learned from them, obviously from Coach Malzahn, I picked up a lot of our offensive philosophy, and from Coach Harsin, a lot of the nuts and bolts of how we call things and really started developing what we call our pro tempo style of offense. Those two guys, their philosophies and ideas combined, have really created what we are now. I look back at Jonesboro, obviously had my second daughter there, Emerson, so I think about I have a lot of good memories and won two conference championships, so it was a pretty good time. Q. Just building on an earlier question, what led you to hire Ted Roof as your defensive coordinator, and what will we see different about the defense under him? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: You know, when I was thinking about an opportunity to be a head football coach, one of the things I really studied was why were there guys that were more successful than other guys. And one of the things that happens is new head football coaches tend to hire other people who are new at their jobs. So I really wanted to focus on somebody who had experience at a championship level as a defensive coordinator, who had been through the fires, who knew what it takes to be successful. Obviously I had worked with Coach Roof at Auburn and at NC State and I knew about his background. I knew he had a multiple-front defensive package. And so I was excited to be able to get that experience, a guy who's been multiple places, has had to adapt his defense to different places and really rely on his experience. And so for me, the only person new at their job, my special teams coordinator had been previously a special teams coordinator, obviously I started at the offensive coordinator, that's something I know, Coach Roof has been a defensive coordinator. The only person new at their job is me as the head football coach. The other three positions are not unproven commodities. And that for me was something I was adamant about, making sure I hired experience at those positions so that there wasn't a lot of newness and being new to the job. Q. Cutting through everything here, App State is projected to win a lot of games this year, and a lot of people have them winning the Sun Belt Conference. How do you go into the season having all these high expectations and, A, not let players kind of -- let players slip aside on what they need to be doing next? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: When you get bit by a snake, do you dress the wound or do you chase down the snake? That's the question. For us, we're chasing down the expectation. We're embracing the target. Whatever people's expectations or perceptions are, they really don't mean anything to us. In college football you have to go out and prove it every single day, and we're focused on our week 1 opponent, we're focused on creating our identity of what the 2019 Appalachian State Mountaineers are. All that other stuff is just noise. There's been plenty of preseason hype that never made through. You don't buy the hype, you invest in the process. For us, we're investing in the process every single day. We know that the most important game on our schedule is week 1, August 31st versus East Tennessee State University, and whatever we do after that is going to be a product of what we put into that game. So for us, that's what we're focused on. I don't get caught up, these guys don't get caught up in hype. It's kind of fun to like it on Instagram and all that other stuff, but the realities of that is it doesn't matter. What matters is what you prove on the football field, and that's why sports are so great. You have to prove it. You don't have to post it, you have to prove it. Q. I wondered if you'd talk about the two kids you brought, Zac and Josh, and what they do for your program? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Well, you want to talk about two great representations of what it means to be an Appalachian State Mountaineer as a football person and also a student-athlete. Obviously Josh Thomas from Montgomery, Alabama, just a great young man. He's a guy who leads. He's a vocal leader for our football team. He's a guy this morning -- I was getting a workout this morning, and here comes Josh walking in at 5:45 making sure he got a workout in this morning, too, so that he wasn't letting his teammates down, making sure he was putting himself in the same type of grind that he would have been if he was back home. So that's the kind of leader that he is, and that's the kind of person that we're excited to have. And he's a guy that's made this coaching transition easy. When you talk about Zac Thomas, you talk about a guy that's exciting to coach. For me, when I was looking at college football jobs, you always want to have a quarterback, and Zac is a guy that's got a lot of talent. He reminds me of another quarterback in this conference. He reminds me of a Fredi Knighten back at Arkansas State. He's a guy that's got great feet, great intangibles. He's got leadership ability. He was down at the Manning Passing Academy just a couple of weeks ago. He's a guy that can really spin the football. There are things we're working to improve in his game, and he has bought into that. That's the thing I love. He has bought into trying to get better. He knows that whatever we accomplished last year is last year. There's plenty of people who have accomplished something and then didn't have a great next season, and that's not these guys. These guys are working hard to try to prove that all of y'all's talk was right. Q. (No microphone.) ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Well, anytime you can put your product on display for a national audience, you're excited about that. I've been to that stadium before. It's going to be a great environment obviously at night. It's going to be a really exciting time, and hopefully both programs will be able to put their best foot forward, and we'll see what comes. That game I think is in early October, which for me seems like a long way away, and you really don't know what the dynamics of your football team will be at that time, but we will be excited to be on national television. Q. You touched on it earlier, but how do you make sure (indiscernible)? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, it's real easy, you keep the chip. You keep the chip on your shoulder. The natural human tendency is for when you achieve something to kind of rest on your laurels, and that's not what we're going to do. We're going to keep that chip. We're going to stay motivated. Those things that get us out of bed every morning, the thing that got Josh Thomas out of bed this morning, that's keeping the chip. That's working to stay to try to be the best version of yourself every single day. One of our core values is to always compete, to be better today than we were yesterday, be better tomorrow than you were today, and if that's ingrained inside of you, then you don't ever have to worry about losing that chip on your shoulder, that thing that motivates you. Q. (No microphone.) ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Yeah, it's 3,300 feet up. It's a great opportunity for people to see the Appalachian Mountains. And I don't know if it's an advantage or not. It's a great place. And if you come, hopefully it snows and you can stay awhile and enjoy the ski mountains. You know, here's the deal. I don't know if it's an advantage or disadvantage. I don't think that there's any particular place within the Sun Belt that's just necessarily easy to travel to. We do have some elevation, but it's a great place, and the people are great. I do know that there's been some complaints about the travel and all that good stuff, but the reality of it is we all expect the football field to be 53 1/3 yards wide and 100 yards long. So as long as that's the same, however we get there, we get there. We all travel a day ahead and stay a night in the hotel, so I don't know why it matters. Q. What do you think of just the quality of football in this league? I don't know how much you've gotten a chance to study it, focusing on that week 1 opponent, but just across the league, maybe based on your time in Jonesboro. ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Well, you're familiar with the league obviously with Troy being able to beat Nebraska and LSU in consecutive seasons, and that puts you on the map, obviously. Our record the past three years versus other opponents has been pretty good. I know our bowl record is very strong versus other conferences. So we know our league is strong. Obviously having events like this, having three teams last year with 10-plus wins, having players that are getting an opportunity to play in the NFL, obviously for us and Chris, we know about J.D. McKissic and other guys that have played for Arkansas State, and obviously we've got several from Appalachian State with Douglas Middleton and Ronald Blair and Daniel Kilgore. This league is strong, it's represented in the NFL, and there's a great product on the football field, and our fan bases know it. Q. Last year Louisiana Monroe missed out on winning the west, missed a field goal basically at the end. Talk about them and their program and where they are just as far as a competitor in your league and how they've come along. ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Well, you know, for me when I think about ULM, I've got to retrace my steps back to when I was at Arkansas State and we played two games in 2012 and 2013 against them. In 2012 they had beat a Power Five team. They beat Arkansas to open the season. So I know we played them in Jonesboro, that was a huge game. I can't think of their quarterback's name off the top of my head, but he was a lefty, a very good player, and that was a marquee match-up. It was on ESPN, and a lot of excitement. The next season we went down there and had a great game against them, too, and so I know that that's a program, I know Coach Viator has done a really good job of being a stabling force for that program. The quarterback is a senior. He's a veteran quarterback. Anytime you've got that, you know there's never going to be a situation he's not prepared for. So I expect them to be a very good opponent and a player in the conference. I picked them to finish really high. I don't know who all voted for us, but I can tell you what, I voted for ULM, I know Georgia Southern is going to have a heck of a team, ULL, Arkansas State. There's some really strong football programs. Q. There's another coach from Oklahoma, young, in Jake Spavital for Texas State. What are your opinions on him? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Here's fun fact for you on Jake Spavital. Did you know Jake Spavital and myself both served as GAs for Gus Malzahn? He served for him at Tulsa and I did at Auburn. So I've got a lot of positive things to say about Jake. I know he does a tremendous job. I know he's going to have a creative offense. His dad was a longtime coach at Broken Arrow, and he's been around the game for a long time. I know he's going to be excited, organized, detailed, all those things you expect in a head football coach. He's got some great mentors with Coach Holgorsen and Coach Kingsbury and all those guys. And crud, he dresses pretty sharp, too. I think he's got the pocket square and all that good stuff. You know he's on his "A" game. Q. You mentioned Auburn; how has that National Championship run molded you into the coach that you are today? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Well, it was kind of a fairy-tale. It was my first experience in college football. We went 14-0. I kind of thought it was easy, and then you've got the realities that it's a little bit harder to win football games. Of course when you get a chance to be around Cam Newton, one of the all-time great college football players, it makes it easy. I think the biggest takeaway is to try to find a Cam Newton and recruit them; then you'll have a lot of success. Q. Where do you feel you'll be most impressive at this year, and what will be the challenge to be as good as last year? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: You know, for me it's really hard when you say you guys, because for me, and I told our guys on the way over, the only unproven commodity is myself. I wasn't a part of that team. They did a great job, that coaching staff did a great job of holding those guys together, and what we're going to do now is us. Our biggest challenge is how quickly we can become us, how quickly we can as a staff and players create that camaraderie, that unity, that "us" mentality in us against everybody else. We're not quite there yet. We've got some work to do, and that's what training camp is all about. But for me that's the biggest challenge, is how quickly we can become us. Q. What are some of your goals for your first year just personally in terms of putting your own identity on this team? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: Well, obviously to try to play the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl would be the No. 1 goal. No. We want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be, and we're not going to allow outside influences or outside noise dictate who we are and what we're going to try to become. We're going to try to become the best version that we can be. If we can consistently focus on the task at hand, our week 1 opponent, if we can always compete to be better today than we were yesterday, if we can always do more than expected, if we can build trust and respect, if we can enjoy the journey, if we'll do those things repeatedly, then we'll have a successful year. Our stated goal is to win the Sun Belt Conference championship and a bowl game with class, integrity and academic excellence. So we're trying to represent our great university with class, we're trying to do it the right way with integrity, don't cut corners, and we're going to try to make sure we graduate our players and do the very best we can in the classroom. If we do those things, then we'll consider it to be a successful season. Q. Could you talk about Zac Thomas for a second? ELIAH DRINKWITZ: I can. I can talk about him for minutes, even hours. You know, I think Zac is -- he is a tremendous quarterback because he has the No. 1 thing that I look for in quarterbacks, which are toughness. He's a physically and mentally tough young man. He loves to compete. He doesn't take anything personal. The very first thing I did when we got there was we watched all of his throws and we tried to say, okay, these are the things that you have to improve on, and he didn't take it personal, he didn't say, oh, gosh, I'm the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Year. He took those things and said this is exactly what I've got to do to improve. He had the opportunity to go to the Manning Passing Academy. He dove head first into that, was excited about the opportunity. And he's been just tremendous from a football standpoint. But from a leadership standpoint, he's really grown. He's a quiet young man by nature, but his vocal leadership has really stepped forward this summer, and he's been a guy who's really rallied the offense by, hey, we've got to get together, we've got to throw on Thursdays, we've got to be here Saturday, we're going to do Funk Friday, we're going to make sure that the things that we need to do in order to be successful, we're going to get done, and he's taken that leadership load on his shoulders. That's been exciting to see, and it's always fun to coach a quarterback who wants to improve and wants to take the team on his shoulders and really establish that identity, so we're excited about Zac and his leadership. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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