Matt Drinkall takes blame for Central Michigan’s out-of-sorts opener, outlines course corrections
Central Michigan might've lost before it got off the bus as the Chippewas' head coach acknowledged his team wasn't ready for the moment.
Looking back to Saturday night’s flat, underwhelming performance in a 38-7 loss at New Mexico, Central Michigan head coach Matt Drinkall quickly acknowledged his culprit for the Chippewas getting flattened: Himself.
After a performance where Central Michigan struggled operationally, committed several bad penalties, and looked out of sorts in all three phases, its head coach felt like he didn’t do a good job of heightening the intensity for his players going into the opener.
“It was very evident to me that I completely failed as the head coach to prepare our team for, like, the environment and the intensity,” Drinkall said. “You've got to remember, these are new guys that played at Cornell last year, 500 other schools and all that, and I didn't do a good enough job getting us aligned and prepared and ready and out of the chute.”
Now heading into a home opener against an FCS foe in Colgate (1-0) at 1 p.m., Drinkall has had the chance to reflect on the shortcomings, also seeking direct feedback from his player leadership group on how to be a better head coach in preparing the team. The Chippewas (0-1) will alter practices to better dial in the focus and fervor before game days, Drinkall said. And the hope is that challenging the players in this way will make the whole operation cleaner and better on Saturday afternoon.
“Our kids, they'll do whatever we ask,” Drinkall said. “I’ve got to put them in a better position to be successful. And I do that — where the head coach makes the biggest impact is the environment. And you can tell I did not have them ready to perform their best.”
