COLUMBIA, Mo. — When Chase Daniel first noticed Eliah Drinkwitz’s age, he faced a mind-bending realization: At 33, he’s only 3 1/2 years younger than Missouri’s new coach.
I was like “Oh my gosh, I’m getting old!” Daniel told The Athletic.
But Missouri’s all-time leading passer is still going strong on the gridiron. He signed with the Detroit Lions on a reported three-year, $13.05 million deal. He’s been in the league for more than a decade, working almost exclusively as a backup quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears.
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Though he’s started only five career games, he’s earned more than $30 million.
Daniel is currently staying at his offseason home in San Diego, and the spread of COVID-19 has prevented him from getting to Detroit to buy a house. While waiting for normal life to resume, Daniel started “Chase Chats,” an online series of interviews he conducts. His guests so far have included fellow NFL quarterback Nick Foles, sports power couple Zach and Julie Ertz, former Missouri coach Gary Pinkel and Drinkwitz. He’s even planning a virtual reunion on the show with members of the 2007 team, which finished 12-2 and won the Cotton Bowl.
Daniel, recently voted Missouri fans’ favorite player of all time, talked with The Athletic about his time at Missouri, fellow Tigers quarterbacks and if he’d ever consider coaching.
Editor’s note: Edited for length and clarity.
How are you? How’s your family — your wife, Hillary, and kids Preston and Parker — doing?
We’re great. We’re just out here in sunny Southern California. The weather is great, we’re happy. It’s a weird time, as you can imagine, with everything happening. We’re staying super positive. We have two small kids, so we’re trying to keep them happy.
How closely do you keep up with Mizzou news?
I follow a few beat writers on Twitter. I’m a big Twitter guy. I get really all of my news from there. I don’t really watch TV. You can find me constantly scrolling through Twitter. I have a lot of news people I follow, whether it be world news, America, sports, whatever.
I’m still pretty close to some people there at Mizzou. I follow it as close as I can. Obviously I’m, shoot, going on 12 years past graduation, which is insane, actually, even saying that. And it’s even crazier to think I’m three years younger than Drink.
Are you able to watch many Mizzou games during the season?
A lot of the college games are obviously on Saturday. There are some Fridays, some Thursdays, whatever. Saturday is our travel day in the NFL, so unless they’re playing on Saturday night, it’s hard to actually watch them live. I’ll follow on Twitter and stuff, but we travel quite a bit.
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What’s your relationship with Missouri quarterbacks in the NFL such as Drew Lock and Blaine Gabbert?
We all keep in contact. It’s not like we’re talking every single day, but I think there’s a level of respect that everyone has for each other, whether it be Brad Smith or Blaine or Drew or James Franklin or Maty Mauk. I talk to Blaine, and Drew and I text every once in a while. We try to keep as caught up as possible, but everyone’s in different phases of their lives.
You talked in your conversation with Drinkwitz about Brad Smith, Missouri’s quarterback from 2001-2005. What does that relationship mean to you?
I look up to him. I remember watching him even in high school before Mizzou was even a thought for me, just seeing him tear defenses up, specifically the 2003 Nebraska game. Gosh, that’s a long time ago. Just following him and actually being able to be in a quarterback room with him and took me under the wing. We had a great quarterback room: Brandon Coleman, Chase Patton, myself, Brad. It seems like it was a long time ago, but when you really think about it, it’s good memories.
Did watching Brad and seeing how he played at Mizzou impact your thought process in coming to Mizzou from Southlake, Texas?
A little bit, yeah. I think that, and I think they were getting some notoriety nationally. I liked that it was in the Big 12 at the time because my parents could travel closely to all the away games, a lot of them in Texas, obviously. It made a lot of sense for me. I really liked coach Dave Steckel (Missouri’s former lead recruiter in Texas). We still stay in contact. Coach David Yost, who is now the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech, and even (former Missouri offensive coordinator) coach Dave Christensen. All those guys.
It seemed like the right fit for me, and they promised they were going to be moving the offense more toward spread and what we did in high school. That’s sort of what they did and sort of what we did, and we were pretty good at it at the time.
What was the biggest thing Brad did for you?
That’s a hard question. There’s not one thing. You heard me talking about it with Drinkwitz: just sort of how to be a college player. How to study film. How to interact with your teammates. How to interact with the coaches, the student body. All that stuff, all encompassing of being a leader on a team, being the quarterback on a Big 12 football team. That’s sort of what I learned, especially my first summer there. That’s what I tried to take with me through my time there and sort of instill in Blaine and some of the other guys that I had there.
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What was it like watching Drew’s success with the Broncos last year, as he went 4-1 as a starter?
That was awesome. Just seeing what he went through at the beginning of the year with his thumb injury, and then maybe not getting drafted as high as he thought he should have been, and then to come in and just have the success that he’s had in those games and just win ball games. That’s mainly what a quarterback in the National Football League needs to do: Win no matter what. It was cool, man. It’ll be fun to watch him moving forward.
How often are you in touch with Drinkwitz?
We text every once in a while. He’s busy. I’m busy. It’s not like we’re texting best friends, but if he texts me, I text him right back. If I text him, he texts me right back. I understand there’s a job to do, but he definitely tries to stay in touch with me and tries to stay in touch with different alumni, which is great, too.
What was your initial reaction to the hire?
I wasn’t sure. I knew following him that he was at App State, but I followed the process Mizzou went through and I was just like “Oh, cool. All right.”
Personally, I was a big Barry Odom fan. Still am to this day. And the leadership at Mizzou thought we needed to go a separate way, and I was on board. At the end of the day, you’ve got to trust those guys. They have everyone’s best interests, including the university’s best interests, in mind when they hire. I was excited about an offensive head coach, offensive guru.
Was your “Chase Chats” episode with him your first non-text conversation?
That was my first time actually talking-talking to him. So it was cool, and he’s good with everyone and anyone. He has a great personality. But I thought we meshed pretty well that night.
He’s super authentic. He’s a very good talker. You can tell, like most college coaches do, they speak a lot, and I think that’s something he’s really good at. He won me over on the call that night. I know a ton of people watched the video: a ton of impressions, a ton of views.
When was the last time you got back to Columbia?
It’s been a few years. I try to get back every single year. I honestly don’t remember the last time I was back. I was planning on coming back April 9 for Gary Pinkel’s GP M.A.D.E. night, but obviously that fell through.
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I bet it would’ve been easier to get back when you were in Kansas City.
I got back quite a bit actually in Kansas City because it was only a two-hour drive.
Did you feel there was more fanfare for you in the Kansas City area than in other places you’ve been?
No question, because there’s a ton of Mizzou fans in Kansas City, so it was awesome. Some of the best times of my wife and my time in the NFL were in Kansas City, without a doubt, because of her family from there, the Mizzou community. All that stuff sort of played on each other.
What do you miss most about Columbia?
The town has changed so much since we’ve been in college, especially the last three, four, five years. To see it go from, not a sleepy college town but one where not much is going on, to everything it has now — high rises downtown, all these apartments, Brookside and so forth — that’s cool to me.
And the food. We talked about it on the Drinkwitz interview. Some of the food places he was mentioning, I was like “I need to get back there.”
Did you have a favorite food spot?
I’m going to do what Drinkwitz did and say, “No, I like them all.”
What’s the memory that sticks out most in your mind from your time at Mizzou?
I think there are a couple. I think honestly my true freshman year, the Independence Bowl, the comeback win, that sort of set the tone going into my sophomore year. Winning the job as a sophomore: We start 6-0 and we were just down the hill from there. So I think you sort of got both.
And then you look at ‘07 and what we were able to do. Obviously the 2007 Kansas game, right? Armageddon. That was like the big thing that I’ll always remember, probably my favorite memory there. And then obviously both (Big 12) championship games, losing those, but you’re one game away from the national championship game in ‘07.
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There were a lot of good memories.
What do you remember most about the 36-28 win against Kansas in the Armageddon game?
Everything. Literally everything. Everything from the hype leading up to it to the game itself for me, just how I felt going out on the field, just super confident. I remember dancing before the game and then just completing a high number of passes. To our team, to the defense, to (Kansas quarterback) Todd Reesing with the sod helmet at the end, to celebrating with the fans at the end of the game to doing gameday live with Kirk Herbstreit at the end. That whole thing, it’s a great memory.
Where were you standing during the Sod Reesing play — when Lorenzo Williams sacked him for a safety to clinch the game?
I was on the far 40-yard line I think, 30-yard line. They got it on film: I was just jumping up, going like crazy.
Where does attending the 2007 Heisman ceremony as a finalist rank for you?
That’s up there, too. The Heisman, personally that was really great. It was really cool just being at the Heisman. Being able to do that and see it and experience it and then bringing some coaches along, to the coach that recruited me, to Coach Pinkel to Christensen, it was awesome.
Did you kind of know at that point that you weren’t going to win that year and kind of could just take it all in?
No, because I think if I would have had a better game in the Big 12 Championship Game, I would have felt like I would’ve put myself in a really good position. Obviously that was the year Tim Tebow won it. He had a heckuva year. I feel like if I would’ve had a better performance in the ‘07 championship game, then I think it would’ve been a lot closer.
It’s kind of crazy to think that, of the finalists there — Tebow from Florida, Hawaii’s Colt Brennan, Arkansas’ Darren McFadden — you’re the only one still playing.
Yeah, that’s right. That is a little weird. Tebow is trying to do baseball, but Colt had a decent career with the Redskins, and then D-Mac. Yeah, that’s true.
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Why do you think backup quarterback has been a role you’ve been able to fall into so readily?
I don’t know. Before I got to the NFL I was never a backup, but throughout the years I think I’ve just been able to sort of turn myself into a good one. One, that’s staying ready at all times and, two, helping the starter out no matter what he needs. And I’ve been around some really good players, so they’ve helped me with the job. The biggest thing is when you get an opportunity to play, you have to play well. And for the most part I feel like I’ve done that.
Has not taking the hits that a starter would take helped preserve your body a bit?
Yeah, there’s no question. I’m 33 but I feel like I’m 25. I feel like my arm is stronger than ever. Really good routine in the offseason, really good routine in the season. And everything matters from diet to body work to workouts, all that stuff, and I feel like I have a really good routine for it.
How do you think your style of play at Mizzou would have worked in today’s college game?
I don’t know. I was standing 7 yards back and gunning. We were slinging it. We were empty all the time. I don’t think the college game has changed that much. I think we had a really creative offensive staff that helped us with game plans, and we were able to handle a lot. I think that’s what made us successful.
How much did All-American receiver Jeremy Maclin make that offense tick?
He was a threat to go the distance every time he touched the ball. That’s sort of what you want. His speed was just amazing. He got involved in the return game quite a bit — punt return and kick return — and just knowing, having him out there — and I was surrounded by a lot of great weapons — it made my job easy.
What are the pros and cons of getting into coaching after your playing career ends?
I think you start with family. That’s of the utmost importance to me. As you’re around the league and as you’re around everyone else that has done coaching and talk to them, just the amount of time and effort that it takes and just being away from the family, that to me is super important. I feel like college coaches have it even worse because they’re nonstop recruiting. That plays into it with me. I don’t necessarily think it’ll be the first thing I look at getting into after I retire.
And how are your kids holding up during this stretch?
They’re great. I have a 2 ½-year-old, Preston, and a 2 ½-month-old, Parker, a girl. She is amazing. She’s easy. Newborn babies are a little easier than maybe a toddler running around, but Preston is taking it great. He doesn’t know what’s going on, and so he just wants to play with Dada and Mommy every day. It’s a fun time. I look at it as a silver lining: You get a lot more time with your family.
(Photo of Daniel in 2006: Matthew Sharpe / WireImage)