WATCH: Longhorn Extra with Texas WR coach & passing game coordinator Drew Mehringer

Texas Longhorns wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator Drew Mehringer is a well-traveled man.

Just 29 years old, Mehringer has already coached at Rice, Iowa State, Ohio State, James Madison, Houston and Rutgers before joining the ‘Horns staff this year.

The former Rice quarterback suffered a career-ending injury and immediately joined a coaching staff that included Tom Herman. He then followed Herman to Iowa State and linked back up with him at Houston for the 2015 season. Mehringer holds a political science degree from Rice and a master’s in sports management from Ohio State.

So he’s a pretty interesting guy. Learn more about him in this Longhorn Network feature:

A crucial part of where Mehringer is today stems from the fact he met Herman while a student at Rice. He alludes to this in his first comments of the interview.

“I think the key to anyone’s success is the people that are around them,” Mehringer says. “I’ve been very fortunate to be around really, really good people. Not only from the standpoint of Xs and Os and having a lot of success, but really good people in terms of doing things the right way.”

Mehringer relates coaching to teaching children, though he doesn’t have any himself, and gives props to the coaches he’s worked under.

One of those coaches is Urban Meyer, who Mehringer worked under at a graduate assistant at Ohio State. Meyer “taught coaches how to teach” and what that meant, instilling many life lessons along the way.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Mehringer says Meyer and Herman have quite a bit in common.

“They are very, very similar. I think if they took a personality test they would end up very close on the spectrum,” Mehringer says. “Coach Meyer is a little more reserved than coach Herman, that little minute personality difference, but both are willing to commit to whatever it takes to be successful.”

Mehringer met Herman after getting injured and being told he had to do something to earn his scholarship. Though Herman hadn’t recruited Mehringer he offered him plenty of work as a student assistant back in 2009, building a relationship that lasts to this day. Interestingly enough, ‘Horns OL coach Derek Warehime was a graduate assistant for the Owls at the time.

As far as why he left the sole offensive coordinator job at Rutgers for the WR/passing game gig at Texas, the answer is simple.

“I’m from the state of Texas,” Mehringer says, adding that he couldn’t be in a better place than the state’s flagship campus and football program. Beyond that, it’s the people in the program.

“I wanted to be around really good people, and the people in this building that I work with on a day to day basis are the main reason I’m here.”