Who is Drew Cronic? What to know about Navy football's OC ahead of Armed Forces Bowl

Who is Drew Cronic? What to know about Navy football’s OC ahead of Armed Forces Bowl

Posted by Admin December 27, 2024 Football

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When Navy football coach Brian Newberry announced a change at offensive coordinator after the 2023 college football season, the Midshipmen‘s coach was looking for a new voice and spark for his offense.

He seems to have found one in first-year offensive coordinator Drew Cronic.

Cronic — a college football journeyman, who has served in various roles throughout all levels of college football — had the Midshipmen’s offense firing on all cylinders in Navy’s 31-13 win in the Army-Navy Game. He’s become one of the more talked-up assistant coach names within the sport as fans and media look to fill vacant positions — present and future (which, in hindsight, shows Newberry’s hire was a strong one).

On Friday, Cronic will try to guide the Navy offense led by quarterback Blake Horvath to another feat that hasn’t been met in recent years: a bowl game win. The Midshipmen (9-3) are set to take on Oklahoma (6-6) at noon ET Friday in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas — their first bowl game since the 2019 season.

Here’s what you need to know about Cronic:

Who is Drew Cronic?

Cronic is the first-year offensive coordinator at Navy and one of the top offensive and innovative minds in college football.

He joined Newberry’s staff last offseason after four seasons serving as the head coach at FCS-level Mercer. He played collegiately at Georgia, where he spent time at wide receiver and on special teams. He was part of the Bulldogs’ 1995 Peach Bowl and 1997 Outback Bowl teams.

After one season as a graduate assistant at West Georgia, Cronic started his coaching career in full in 1999 as an assistant coach at James Madison, where he helped the Dukes to an Atlantic 10 championship and FCS playoff berth in his first season as a receivers coach. He then spent the first of two stints at Furman from 2002-2010.

After three seasons as an assistant at Reinhardt, Cronic was named the school’s head coach going into the 2015 season. A nine-win first season for the Eagles under Cronic was followed up with a program-record 13-1 season, Mid-South Conference championship and an appearance in the NAIA national quarterfinals. He’d return to Furman as OC for the 2017 season before taking the head coaching job at Lenoir-Rhyne in 2018.

In 2020, Cronic jumped to Mercer as head coach.

In his eight combined seasons as a head coach, Cronic holds a .765 winning percentage (75-23 record).

Cronic’s first season in Annapolis has been a successful one, highlighted by Horvath’s big day against Army. Cronic was a nominee for the Broyles Award, given to the top assistant coach in college football.

When was Drew Cronic hired at Navy?

Cronic was hired at Navy on Jan. 10 as the Midshipmen’s offensive coordinator and successor to Grant Chesnut.

“I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Drew and his family to Navy,” Newberry said in a statement at the time. “Coach Cronic is an outstanding person and one of the most well respected, creative and innovative coaches in the business. He’s had great success as an offensive coordinator and as a head coach everywhere he’s been…”

Why did Drew Cronic leave Mercer?

Cronic resigned as Mercer’s head coach on Jan. 9 to take the vacant offensive coordinator position at Navy — his first FBS coaching opportunity.

In his four seasons at Mercer, Cronic led the Bears to 28 victories. His best season at Mercer came in 2023 when the Bears went 9-4 overall and earned their first berth to the FCS playoffs. The Bears, who defeated Gardner-Webb in the first round, finished No. 20 in the AFCA Coaches Poll in 2023 while setting the program record for most wins in a season.

“First of all, I think the world of Coach Newberry. When you go work for somebody else, especially after you’ve been a head coach for a while, there needs to be a great deal of respect there and a great deal of admiration for how he does things,” Cronic told Navy Sports’ Luke Slabaugh in an interview.

“Think he and I are very similar. He’s a family guy, cares about the players, cares about his coaches and it’s more than football for him, which is exactly how I want things to do. Came up here and visited with him and it just fit. This is such a great tradition here.”

He said the opportunity of working with the players that Navy brings in each year — high school players — drew him to the job. The transfer portal for the three military academies — Army, Navy and Air Force — is different than the rest of college sports.

“When you are a service academy, you’re signing high school players and you’re developing young men. You’re not dealing with the transfer portal, you’re not dealing with some of the other nonsense that’s going on in college football right now. That was very intriguing about this opportunity.”

Drew Cronic coaching career

Here’s a look at Cronic’s coaching career:

Head coach unless otherwise specified. Assistant role listed in parentheses

1999-01: James Madison (Assistant coach, WRs)
2002-10: Furman (WRs/TEs and recruiting coordinator)
2011-14: Reinhardt (Assistant head coach, offensive coordinator/QBs and recruiting coordinator)
2015-16: Reinhardt
2017: Furman (offensive coordinator)
2018-19: Lenoir-Rhyne
2020-2024: Mercer
2024-present: Navy (offensive coordinator)