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Eli Drinkwitz is coaching against Auburn because of Bryan Harsin

To fans, when Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz steps on the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium he will be coaching against Bryan Harsin and the Auburn Tigers as both teams look to score a conference win and move to 3-1. For Drinkwitz, he will be trying to defeat Auburn and the man he believes kept his college football coaching dreams alive.

“Coach Harsin, gave me an opportunity and believed in me when not very many other people did and really kept me in college football in 2013,” Drinkwitz said.” And so I'm very appreciative to him for that and will always be indebted to him.”

Drinkwitz is not the only Missouri coach with ties to Harsin. Missouri defensive coordinator Blake Baker and quarterbacks coach Bush Hamdan also have ties to Harsin. When Harsin got his first head coaching job at Arkansas State, he hired Hamdan and Drinkwitz as co-offensive coordinators and Baker as the safeties coach. Baker had gotten to know Harsin during three seasons as a graduate assistant at Texas while Harsin was the offensive coordinator for the Longhorns.

“There's no way in the world I'd be where I'm at today without Bryan Harsin. … Who knows what would have happened if I didn't get a full-time job,” Baker said. “You can only be a graduate assistant in a school for three years. So, I echo coach Drinkwitz’s sentiments. I'm indebted to him forever.”

“He (Baker) was one of those young coaches who did everything, and there was no task too small and there was no challenge too big," Harsin said. "Even if he wasn’t qualified for it, he was resourceful and got it done."

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For Drinkwitz, the road game is two-fold because he has a connection with Harsin and Auburn.

Drinkwitz, and his wife Lindsey, were grade school teachers when Drinkwitz was the offensive coordinator at Springdale High School from 2006-2009. Drinkwitz, who said his wife and he were making around $90,000 at the time, took a leap of faith and accepted a $13,000 a year salary to be quality control coach for Auburn in 2010-2011.

He would then go to Arkansas State to be the running backs coach for the 2012 season before he reached a crossroads in his college football coaching journey.

Gus Malzahn, who had brought Drinkwitz with him to Arkansas State when Malzahn was hired as the head coach of the Red Wolves in 2012, had accepted the job back at Auburn to replace Gene Chizik as the head coach.

Malzahn would miss the 2012 GoDaddy.com Bowl and defensive coordinator John Thompson would fill in as the interim head coach for the game. After Harsin had his introductory press conference, he went into the staff room where Drinkwitz and other coaches were and talked to them for a few minutes. Harsin went back to his office and not too long after Drinkwitz introduced himself personally.

“Eli introduced himself and said that he wanted to be there, and I appreciated the desire to want to be a part of something I was doing,” Harsin said. “I was always impressed with Eli. He’s very intelligent, does a good job planning, has great energy and teaches really well.”

Drinkwitz had the opportunity to accept an off-the-field position in operations back at Auburn but instead decided to interview with Harsin for the offensive coordinator job at Arkansas State.

“I didn't know coach Harsin. I never met him and I had no connection to him,” Drinkwitz said. “I interviewed for the job, and he kept me on and gave me a chance as the running backs coach and co-offensive coordinator, so that's kind of how that worked out.”

Arkansas State went 7-5 and finished the 2013 season with a second straight win in the GoDaddy.com Bowl.

When Harsin got his second head coaching opportunity at his alma mater Boise State in 2014 he brought Drinkwitz along to be his tight ends coach before promoting him to quarterbacks coach and the offensive coordinator in 2015.

Boise State went 12-2 in 2014 and capped off the season with a win in the Fiesta Bowl. In 2015, with Drinkwitz as Harsin’s right-hand man the team went 9-4 with a win in the Poinsettia Bowl. The Broncos finished with the 15th-best offense in the FBS putting up 501.5 yards per game and 39.1 points per game that season.

“He took a chance on me taking me to Boise State. I've never been out of Arkansas. I've never been west of the Rocky Mountains before really,” Drinkwitz said.

Now, nine seasons removed from the pair’s first season as coaches on the same staff they will face off as foes in similar situations at their respective schools.

They both run similar offensive schemes, they both are coming off of 6-7 seasons and they both need a conference win in what is the toughest conference in the sport. But nonetheless, Harsin is glad to see that it will be Drinkwitz (and Baker and Hamdan) who will be standing 53.3 yards away from him on the opposite sideline.

“Once he (Drinkwitz) got his opportunity to be a head football coach, I wasn't surprised by that. So, we got to the SEC and I was very proud of him for that and not knowing this opportunity would come up but here we are. That’s the circle of coaching, and it’s a small world," Harsin said. "I’m proud of those guys. I’m proud of who they are as people.”

As for Drinkwitz, when he was asked what would he be doing if he didn’t stay in college football after the 2012 season he kept it jovial.

“According to a couple of SEC memes, I’d probably be a bank president, so I’ll stick with that,” Drinkwitz said.

Instead, his job will lead him back to the place his career began against the man who made it possible.

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