Central Michigan University Athletics
First-year CMU football coach Matt Drinkall: 'We might go the rest of our lives and never be around a group of guys like this'
Photo by: Mac Mayhew '25 - @macmayhew
Football Senior Day 2025: Prideful Group Bought In, Paid the Price, and Laid the Foundation
11/27/2025 9:00:00 AM | Football
Central Michigan will honor 23-member senior class on Saturday prior to the regular season finale vs. Toledo (noon).
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – At some point, Matt Drinkell may lead the Central Michigan football team to a Mid-American Conference championship.
When that day comes, and it most certainly will, the first-year Chippewa mentor will look back on the seniors who have led the 2025 team with a sincere tip of the cap and a knowing nod of acknowledgement that they did the heavy lifting in laying the foundation.
"That senior group is going to be remembered for how they steered the direction of Central Michigan football," Drinkall said this week as he prepared his Chippewas to entertain Toledo in their home finale on Saturday (noon, ESPN+) at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. "Those guys bought all in, and I mean, (I was) floored with it.
"Saturday will be a very emotional day for me. … I had a team meeting without the seniors this week just to be like, 'You guys understand, we might go the rest of our lives and never be around a group of guys like this.'"
Those 25 seniors will be honored before Saturday's game. It's a group to which the 42-year-old Drinkall, in his first season in charge of a Football Bowl Subdivision program, will be eternally grateful.
When he took over the program 11 months ago, he laid out his vision and his roadmap. Discipline and commitment were the cornerstones.
Drinkall's coaching resume, to the unitiated, was far from sexy with stops at the likes of Western Illinois, St. Ambrose College and Kansas Wesleyan and, finally, six years as an assistant at Army West Point. No Alabama, no Michigan, no Notre Dame on there.
And he was taking over a program that had coagulated into mediocrity since a 9-4 finish and a Sun Bowl victory in 2021.
His new team was filled with players, particularly veterans, hungry for success and with roster leadership willing to put in the necessary work, and adopt a disciplined approach, to get there. The Chippewas have won more games (seven) than in any season since '21, and they are headed to a bowl game for the first time since then.
"I remember having a meeting with coach Drinkall and seeing … you can see the commitment in his eyes and how, when he speaks to you, he means everything that he's preaching," senior running back Nahree Biggins said. "And him just sitting down and speaking to the whole team and talking about everything that we are going to accomplish.
"He means business, and it's not just something he says. He really means it. All the words that he's preaching – it's something that you got to really listen to and take in because he means every bit of it."
It's a credit, as Drinkell has pointed out to any and all, to those veterans – those 25 seniors – that the program has made those strides.
"This has been the most rewarding, fun year of football I've ever had," said Drinkell, who is in his 22nd year as a college coach. "It's easy to recruit now. We've gotten seven commitments in the last 48 hours. Because the rebuild's over. It's done.
"Those guys took care of it, not us (coaches). We just came in and implemented a system for these guys. Those guys handled all of that on their own. Everybody associated with Central Michigan is forever indebted to this group of seniors."
There are those seniors who, while they will play their final home game on Saturday, will have more. A potential MAC Championship Game followed by a bowl game and then, for a lucky few, a shot at the NFL.
But playing at that level isn't necessarily what it's all about. It is now, and always has been, about the journey and not the destination.
"I've actually just now started to understand that, because when I was in those younger years, everyone was like, 'You don't have a lot of time,'" defensive back Brenden Deasfernades said. "And I told myself, like, 'I got all these years.' And now all these years are gone like that. Man, it goes fast.
"It feels really good to be a part of that first team that gets this train rolling, gets this plane flying in the air."
Long snapper Ben Pratt, like so many Chippewas, harbors hopes of a career in professional football. Yet he knows that even if that comes to fruition, the feeling of playing for his college team – the one FBS program that believed him and gave him an opportunity – is one he will likely never match.
"It feels like I was reporting for the first day of fall camp in 2021 just yesterday," Pratt said. "I've been very blessed to go through all this process, coming in here as a walk-on and earning my scholarship two years in. It's just going to be a surreal feeling, going out there with my brothers one last time with Kelly/Shorts."
For Pratt – and so many others – it has indeed been a process, a life-changing experience, whether they gave five years of their respective lives to CMU football or transferred in for the final year or two.
The memories stack up. Could be as prominent as a big win or a heartbreaking loss. More likely, it is the hours spent toiling in the weight room, the grueling two-a-day practices in the heat and humidity of August, the meeting 100 new faces as an idealistic 18-year-old freshman.
The bonds that are formed throughout. Those bonds last a lifetime, and so do the memories.
For Pratt, it was his first collegiate start in 2023 when the Chippewas played at Michigan State. It coincided with the birthday of his father.
"Leading up to college and through the recruiting process, he would always be out there catching my snap," Pratt said. "So it was a really cool feeling to go out there at Spartan Stadium, play my first game on his birthday. It was just kind of a tribute to him in a way.
"My dad's only missed one game in my career, and then my mom's missed three just because she's been sick a couple times."
Biggins came to CMU from Hillside, N.J. He's lived the ups and downs, the physical and, more importantly, the emotional.
"I remember being a freshman and not really understanding things, being in the position I am now, I see, like, the bigger picture," he said. "Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. You've got to leave everything out there because time doesn't stop for anybody.
"You know, you can't get this stuff back."
When that day comes, and it most certainly will, the first-year Chippewa mentor will look back on the seniors who have led the 2025 team with a sincere tip of the cap and a knowing nod of acknowledgement that they did the heavy lifting in laying the foundation.
"That senior group is going to be remembered for how they steered the direction of Central Michigan football," Drinkall said this week as he prepared his Chippewas to entertain Toledo in their home finale on Saturday (noon, ESPN+) at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. "Those guys bought all in, and I mean, (I was) floored with it.
"Saturday will be a very emotional day for me. … I had a team meeting without the seniors this week just to be like, 'You guys understand, we might go the rest of our lives and never be around a group of guys like this.'"
Those 25 seniors will be honored before Saturday's game. It's a group to which the 42-year-old Drinkall, in his first season in charge of a Football Bowl Subdivision program, will be eternally grateful.
When he took over the program 11 months ago, he laid out his vision and his roadmap. Discipline and commitment were the cornerstones.
Drinkall's coaching resume, to the unitiated, was far from sexy with stops at the likes of Western Illinois, St. Ambrose College and Kansas Wesleyan and, finally, six years as an assistant at Army West Point. No Alabama, no Michigan, no Notre Dame on there.
And he was taking over a program that had coagulated into mediocrity since a 9-4 finish and a Sun Bowl victory in 2021.
His new team was filled with players, particularly veterans, hungry for success and with roster leadership willing to put in the necessary work, and adopt a disciplined approach, to get there. The Chippewas have won more games (seven) than in any season since '21, and they are headed to a bowl game for the first time since then.
"I remember having a meeting with coach Drinkall and seeing … you can see the commitment in his eyes and how, when he speaks to you, he means everything that he's preaching," senior running back Nahree Biggins said. "And him just sitting down and speaking to the whole team and talking about everything that we are going to accomplish.
"He means business, and it's not just something he says. He really means it. All the words that he's preaching – it's something that you got to really listen to and take in because he means every bit of it."
It's a credit, as Drinkell has pointed out to any and all, to those veterans – those 25 seniors – that the program has made those strides.
"This has been the most rewarding, fun year of football I've ever had," said Drinkell, who is in his 22nd year as a college coach. "It's easy to recruit now. We've gotten seven commitments in the last 48 hours. Because the rebuild's over. It's done.
"Those guys took care of it, not us (coaches). We just came in and implemented a system for these guys. Those guys handled all of that on their own. Everybody associated with Central Michigan is forever indebted to this group of seniors."
There are those seniors who, while they will play their final home game on Saturday, will have more. A potential MAC Championship Game followed by a bowl game and then, for a lucky few, a shot at the NFL.
But playing at that level isn't necessarily what it's all about. It is now, and always has been, about the journey and not the destination.
"I've actually just now started to understand that, because when I was in those younger years, everyone was like, 'You don't have a lot of time,'" defensive back Brenden Deasfernades said. "And I told myself, like, 'I got all these years.' And now all these years are gone like that. Man, it goes fast.
"It feels really good to be a part of that first team that gets this train rolling, gets this plane flying in the air."
Long snapper Ben Pratt, like so many Chippewas, harbors hopes of a career in professional football. Yet he knows that even if that comes to fruition, the feeling of playing for his college team – the one FBS program that believed him and gave him an opportunity – is one he will likely never match.
"It feels like I was reporting for the first day of fall camp in 2021 just yesterday," Pratt said. "I've been very blessed to go through all this process, coming in here as a walk-on and earning my scholarship two years in. It's just going to be a surreal feeling, going out there with my brothers one last time with Kelly/Shorts."
For Pratt – and so many others – it has indeed been a process, a life-changing experience, whether they gave five years of their respective lives to CMU football or transferred in for the final year or two.
The memories stack up. Could be as prominent as a big win or a heartbreaking loss. More likely, it is the hours spent toiling in the weight room, the grueling two-a-day practices in the heat and humidity of August, the meeting 100 new faces as an idealistic 18-year-old freshman.
The bonds that are formed throughout. Those bonds last a lifetime, and so do the memories.
For Pratt, it was his first collegiate start in 2023 when the Chippewas played at Michigan State. It coincided with the birthday of his father.
"Leading up to college and through the recruiting process, he would always be out there catching my snap," Pratt said. "So it was a really cool feeling to go out there at Spartan Stadium, play my first game on his birthday. It was just kind of a tribute to him in a way.
"My dad's only missed one game in my career, and then my mom's missed three just because she's been sick a couple times."
Biggins came to CMU from Hillside, N.J. He's lived the ups and downs, the physical and, more importantly, the emotional.
"I remember being a freshman and not really understanding things, being in the position I am now, I see, like, the bigger picture," he said. "Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. You've got to leave everything out there because time doesn't stop for anybody.
"You know, you can't get this stuff back."
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