Drake University has a long tradition of making what current head football coach Rick Fox likes to call 'Impact Men,' men who have a burning desire to do something great with their lives.
 

Arguably three of Drake's most recognizable 'Impact Men' are Chris Ash, who played for the Bulldogs from 1992-95 and was named the head football coach at Rutgers earlier this month, Dave Doeren, who played from 1990-93, earning Academic All-America honors in 1993 and is in his third season leading the N.C. State football program and Charlie Partridge, who played from 1991-94 and is in is second season as head coach at Florida Atlantic. Only Iowa and Alabama have produced more current FBS head coaches than Drake.
 
Ash, Doeren and Partridge attribute their coaching success to the people and the time they spent at Drake.
 

"Drake is one of the premier institutions in terms of developing people to be life long learners, because to continue to climb in our world you have to be willing to be a life long learner," Partridge said. "I became a better student there. I constantly remember hearing as a student at Drake University to be a life long learner."
 
"The work ethic, the discipline, the time management, the focus on academics, making good decisions and being a good person, because of the people I was around, really helped my foundation, some of my beliefs and how I do business," Ash said about his time at Drake. "What led me to where I am today is my exposure to the football program there."

Rob Ash, who is the program's all-time winningest coach, recording 125 wins over 18 seasons, coached and mentored the three of them and was one of the biggest common factor for Ash, Doeren and Partridge as Rob Ash gave all three of them their first college coaching job.
 
"The way he gave us a chance he really allowed us and empowered us the opportunity to coach young people," Doeren said.
 
"The things he (Rob Ash) allowed us to do, the places he allowed us to go visit, the other coaches he allowed us to talk to, really exposed me to a lot of different things that I would not have been exposed to somewhere else. I really owe a lot to Rob and the program at Drake," Chris Ash said.

 

Doeren coached the Bulldogs' linebackers for two seasons (1995-96) before being named defensive coordinator in 1997, and left Des Moines to become a member of the Southern California staff in 1998. Partridge was on Ash's staff for two years (1996-97), while Chris Ash spent the 1996 since as a student assistant prior to being a graduate assistant in 1997 and the Bulldogs' defensive coordinator in 1998 and 1999. Partridge and Ash both took opportunities at Iowa State after their coaching stints at Drake.
 
"I knew they were going to be very very successful," Rob Ash said. "I respected what these guys have done in their careers. There are a lot of other guys that have come up through the ranks that are still climbing up the ladder. I am hopeful that down the road there will be others that are a part of that Drake group that are going to achieve at the highest level."
 
The three of them are grateful for the opportunities that Rob Ash and Drake gave them as they moved on to bigger and better things.

 
"For a university to take care of their own that's one thing but to prove it is another and I think that proves that Drake does that," Doeren said.
 
"We are proud Bulldogs, we really are," Partridge said.