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When Chris Ash was hired as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Drake, in 1997, he had nowhere to live, so unbeknownst to his head coach, he set up shop in the team's field house. It was sparse living -- little more than lockers and offices and equipment. There was no TV, so at the end of a long day, he'd retire to the office of head coach Rob Ash, no relation, and crack open clinic manuals on coaching. He lived there for about a month, and in that time he consumed more than a thousand articles. "That was his entertainment," Rob Ash said. The other assistants didn't have it much better. Linebackers coach Dave Doeren and grad assistant Charlie Partridge roomed together with a local high school coach. Doeren said he made $400 a month, and three-quarters of that went to rent. They ate in the school cafeteria, and to make ends meet, Doeren worked as a short-order cook in a Mexican restaurant, and he, Ash and Partridge all split duties on Drake's maintenance crew, driving the JV bus and painting lines on the fields. "We redid a locker room, ripping out lockers by hand and repainting the whole thing," Chris Ash said. "What we all appreciate about each other is the passion for the game and the work ethic and determination that we put forth to all be where we're at today." Ash was hired as head coach at Rutgers in December, the end of a long road for a trio of Drake graduates who played together and built the foundation of their coaching careers together. Partridge is the head coach at Florida Atlantic, Doeren at NC State. It's perhaps college football's most unlikely coaching tree. Only eight schools can claim three current FBS head coaches as alumni, and only five of those also employed those coaches as assistants to start their careers. But alongside Alabama and Georgia and Iowa, tiny Drake -- a school that didn't even offer undergraduate coaching courses -- certainly seems an unlikely member of an elite fraternity. It's a credit to Rob Ash, who found talent and gave them a chance. And it's a reward for Doeren, Partridge and Chris Ash, who have pushed one another every step of the way as they've climbed the coaching ranks.  When it comes to personality, Ash, Partridge and Doeren aren't always on the same page. Partridge is laid-back and easygoing. Ash is far more fiery, earning the nickname "Angry Ash" as an assistant at Wisconsin, according to former coach Bret Bielema. Doeren straddles the line, with a dry, direct point of view. But where their personalities deviated, their focus on getting ahead was always common ground for the trio. Doeren was the oldest and the first to land an assistant job with Drake. Partridge was a year behind and Ash another year after that. None had eyed coaching jobs in college. In fact, Partridge said, they used to roll their eyes at Rob Ash's speeches about enjoying the journey. As it turned out, however, they enjoyed that journey at Drake so much that, when GA jobs were offered, each was happy for the chance to return. "I was 22 years old, and [Rob Ash] put me in a room, gave me a position group and gave me the opportunity -- even if I didn't know what I was talking about," Partridge said. "That experience, I can't say enough about the fact that he threw us to the fire quick." The three assistants devoured opportunities to learn the job. They ate, slept and breathed football. During spring break, they'd pick a highway and drive, stopping at colleges along the way to talk with coaches and build relationships. They'd crash on the floors of friends' apartments then move along to the next campus. "My car broke down just trying to catch up with those guys," Partridge remembered. There was an underlying competitiveness that drove them. Each one wanted desperately to impress the head coach, to climb the coaching ranks and be the first to land a bigger gig. "We all wanted to be the best at what we did," Chris Ash said. "It's our nature to compete." And so Doeren left for a job at USC. Partridge landed a spot at Iowa State, and Ash soon followed. Their paths diverged over the years, but they were constant companions, sharing experiences and advice each step of the way. Then, as if by fate, they all converged again in 2010 as assistants at Wisconsin. Bielema hired Doeren as his co-defensive coordinator in 2006, then added Partridge in 2008 and Ash -- on Doeren's advice -- in 2010. They'd climbed the ranks a long way from the field house at Drake by then, but that old competitive streak remained. Bielema joked about "breaking up a few schoolgirl fights" when one coach's group failed to perform as well as the others', but they remained close friends, and that final season together ended with a berth in the Rose Bowl. And then, once again, it was over. "The only time I was ever disappointed is when Dave called me, late at night, and told me he was the head coach at Northern Illinois," Partridge said. "I was so happy for him, but I was so disappointed because my friend was leaving Wisconsin. And I said, 'Boy, we might not get a chance for the three of us to be together ever again."  Ash and Partridge eventually left Wisconsin, too. It's the way this coaching game works. Nobody stays in the same place for too long. That all three former teammates have managed to survive the ups and down and keep moving forward is an accomplishment in itself, Rob Ash said. So many coaches' careers get derailed by bad luck or bad timing, even if they're good coaches. Instead, Doeren parlayed his time at Northern Illinois into the head job at NC State, where he's gone to two straight bowl games. Partridge was hired at Florida Atlantic in 2014, tasked with rebuilding the program. And this offseason, Ash's success as an assistant under Urban Meyer at Ohio State earned him the Rutgers job. They've come a long way, and they've done it together. "Coming from a place like Drake, that's not known," Doeren said, "hopefully we'll continue to have the successes we're having and it'll get bigger and bigger." Partridge still remembers the first American Football Coaches Association conference he attended. It was a sea of big-name coaches and assistants at top programs -- "a zoo," Partridge said -- and the Drake crew went virtually unnoticed. They tried to mingle, shuffling from one side of the lobby to the other, barely talking to a soul. Eventually they decided to bail on the festivities, hitting the town together, talking ball and thinking about the future. They got back to the hotel well after midnight, and Partridge stood on the balcony outside his room, looking down through the atrium into the lobby of the hotel. There will still dozens of coaches, talking and laughing and swapping stories. "I remember thinking to myself, 'One of these days, we're going to split up and then come back and with all of our new circles, and we'll be sharing stories and laughing,'" Partridge said, "and we'll be up until late at night talking about our experiences, too." Nearly 20 years later, that's just what's happened. Rob Ash's entire coaching tree meets up each year "for a few cold drinks on the old coach," he said. Doeren and Partridge and Chris Ash are there, along with a host of other coaches that started in a small town and are still climbing their way to the top. "I know how tough this profession is," Rob Ash said. "This just shows you how good they are."
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