To curb early offseason overload, CMU eschews football specifics: ‘We want these kids to stay here and do well’
The Chippewas are still hard at work in the weight room and on campus, but Central Michigan's staff won't start getting into scheme and the playbook until March rolls around.
Mt. Pleasant — Central Michigan is about a month into its winter program, and there’s been nary a discussion about football.
The Chippewas are still working hard, to be clear, in the weight room and the coaching offices. But until spring practice rolls around, the coaching staff and players won’t spend much time, if any, talking about plays or schemes or anything specific to on-the-field matters. And that’s a very conscious choice by head coach Matt Drinkall.
“Well we basically starve them of the football during the winter phase and it's all about them hanging out with each other,” Drinkall said in an interview with Mitten Football. “And it's them crushing in the weight room together and it's those guys building relationships and hanging out socially with each other.”
As Central Michigan embarks on the 2026 offseason, Drinkall and Co. are holding back on the ball, focusing instead on team and relationship building with 40 new players joining the program via the transfer portal, junior college and high school (nine more freshmen are set to enroll in the summer.) Drinkall made this choice out of recognition for the big transitions that are being heaped on these players as they arrive. He’d rather not add more to their plate, leave players feeling overwhelmed and souring the vibes before spring practice even begins.
Instead, Central Michigan is using the approximate two months leading up to spring football as an acclimation period, where workouts and settling in to new routines and building new social bonds take precedence over football.
“And then, as that goes through, as that transitions as we start to get a little bit closer to spring ball, then we start to bridge those two and blend those two,” Drinkall said.
Forgoing football specifics for the time being doesn’t mean there isn’t regimen to what the Chippewas are doing through January, February and the start of March.
