Driven by Honor, Fueled by Pride
His father was a legendary professional football wide receiver, and now Cristian Driver has the opportunity to make his own name at the same position.
The 2022 Liberty Christian School graduate is in his first year on the University of Minnesota team after two seasons at Penn State University. In his first five games of 2024, he has five catches for 39 yards, including his first collegiate touchdown against the University of Rhode Island on Sept. 7. He also rushed once for five yards in the season opener against the University of North Carolina.
“It was a great feeling,” he said of that first touchdown. “It was great to celebrate with my team and the coaches as well.”
Among those watching was Donald Driver, a Super Bowl champion who played all 14 years of his career with the Green Bay Packers. Donald splits his time between their Flower Mound home where he’s a partner in the Driven Elite sports performance, fitness, and health centers and Milwaukee where he co-owns multiple stores in the Cousins Submarine chain.
Cristian played 10 games in his two seasons at Penn State, four of which came as a special teams player in 2022 before redshirting and six after switching from defensive back to wide receiver in 2023. He made two tackles and caught one pass for eight yards before entering the National Collegiate Athletic Association transfer portal.
The 21-year-old said he chose to leave Penn State to find more opportunities to play.
“I was having to wait there to get onto the field, and I felt I was ready now,” he said. “I feel it can only go up from here.
“As soon as I got in the transfer portal, there were a few schools that hit me up at that time. The attention of (Minnesota) Coach (P.J.) Fleck and my receivers coach (Matt) Simon talking and communicating with them and giving me that opportunity was eye-opening to me. And being closer to home was another thing I took into consideration, and I just felt this was the best place.”
Coming out of Liberty Christian, he selected Penn State from among other 40 schools, including Wisconsin, Oregon, and Texas A&M. He did so because of his relationship with Penn State Head Coach James Franklin and his staff.
“I’ve known Coach Franklin since I was a kid,” he said. “He ended up coaching my father for a year (2005) in the NFL as the receivers coach for the Packers. He’s always been great to my family. It just felt like the best decision possible for me.”
The younger Driver was a four-time Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools all-state selection as a defensive back at Liberty including three years on the first team. He also played wide receiver. As a senior, he made 56 tackles and broke up 6 passes. In his junior year, he had 81 tackles and knocked away 5 passes. He returned one of his two interceptions for a touchdown and racked up 76 tackles and 6 breakups as a sophomore and picked off 2 passes and recorded 67 tackles as a freshman.
His fondest memories of his time with the Warriors are his freshman year with assistant coaches Carlos Ruiz and Ross Robey.
“I was always able to talk with them and communicate with them as if they were family,” he said. “They always treated me like family. They were all great memories.”
Driver played his senior year for Head Coach Jason Witten, the former Dallas Cowboy tight end.
“He taught me a whole bunch about the game,” he said.
Christian Driver was only 9 years old when his father retired in 2012 so his recollections of Donald’s playing days come primarily from watching old films. Still, he learned a lot from his dad both on and off the field.
“Being older and looking back and watching film on how he carried himself,” Cristian said. “Off the field, he taught me how to be a great teacher, husband, and father. On the field, different coverages, how to run different routes, catching the ball. He had great hands and wanted to catch everything and have no drops.”
It’s something Cristian Driver now seeks to repeat.
