 One such coach, Ohio State's Jim Tressel, would later call Creighton "one of [his] favorites", and acted as a reference for Creighton when the latter applied for the Drake job.On December 22, 2007, Creighton was named the head football coach at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, replacing interim head coach Steve Loney.Drake, a member of the non-football Missouri Valley Conference, played football in the Pioneer Football League, a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) conference whose members do not award scholarships for football.