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Mizzou's Chance Luper values growth as a Tiger with father close by

Chance Luper doesn't remember it. Missouri head football coach Eli Drinkwitz does.

Drinkwitz broke into the college coaching ranks in 2010 as a graduate assistant at Auburn, where the running backs coach and recruiting coordinator was Chance's dad, Curtis Luper.

There were Sunday night dinners for Auburn's staff, and the coaches brought their kids to make it a family affair.

Before Chance was running routes as a wide receiver at Missouri, he was at those get-togethers in elementary school. Drinkwitz remembers 9-year-old Chance.

Drinkwitz would see Chance at other times, too. When Curtis would have to go on the road recruiting, one of the mundane tasks performed by then-graduate assistant Drinkwitz was shuttling the full-time assistants to the airport.