Tweet
Pinkel and his players adapt into a winning combination
By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star
COLUMBIA — For just a moment, Gary Pinkel let his game face slip.
The creases in that famously high forehead softened. Was that a glimmer of good humor that shot through his eyes as he rolled them with comic exaggeration? Pinkel, the football coach of the Missouri Tigers, actually smiled just five days short of Saturday’s high-noon duel at archrival Kansas.
Pinkel had tried to play it straight when asked whether three straight victories by his football team had muted the howls for his head, generated by last year’s five-game losing streak and another unexpected nonconference loss early this year to New Mexico.
“Honestly, it hasn’t changed for me because I don’t …” Pinkel began.
But Pinkel couldn’t pull it off. It felt too good with Mizzou at 5-2 overall and at 3-1 tied for the Big 12 Conference North lead with Colorado.
“It’s a new me,” Pinkel suggested almost playfully. “I listen to everybody.”
Even those that suggested MU come out in gold pants, which the Tigers wore in Saturday’s 41-24 victory over Nebraska.
“Everybody wanted gold pants,” Pinkel said. “I said, ‘Doggone it, we’re going to have those gold pants.’
“That’s the new me. The new, friendly me.”
Are you laughing? Some of Pinkel’s players were on Monday.
On the outside, perhaps this is a kinder, gentler Gary Pinkel. On the inside of Pinkel’s MU football program, you still need a chainsaw to cut through the writhing core of intensity.
“When you get up to this level, it’s not just all fun and games,” said senior safety and captain Jason Simpson. “This is not your high school coach that wants to be your best friend, too. There’s a line that’s drawn there, and I think everybody’s understanding that.”
That represents a change. That change came about last December.
Members of MU football’s upcoming senior class — the likes of quarterback Brad Smith, Simpson, Sean Coffey, Tony Palmer and Derrick Ming — gathered their courage and asked for a meeting with Pinkel.
The memory of that meeting — amid the current happy state of affairs — made Simpson smile on Monday. Back in December, it made Simpson shudder.
“It’s never exciting to confront your head coach about different stuff, especially about important stuff,” Simpson said. “It was a huge ordeal. We got a lot of things accomplished.”
Pinkel gives credit to those seniors for changing the persona of this Missouri football team.
“It started last December,” Pinkel said. “The ownership is greater with this group than any group we’ve had. We’ve got guys that lead.”
Missouri also has, perhaps always had, a head football coach that had enough guts to loosen the reigns of control at a time when Pinkel — no less a control freak than most head coaches — might have tightened them instead.
Pinkel — at times publicly abrasive a year ago — could hear the cacophony swirling around his football program. But heck, the storm outside couldn’t have been any worse than the one inside Pinkel’s own gut.
“I think our players were mentally tough,” Pinkel said Monday of last season’s team. “We just kind of got in a rut. And you know what? I didn’t do a very good job of getting them out of it.”
Kansas coach Mark Mangino helped stoke the heat under Pinkel’s seat by beating Missouri each of the last two seasons. Pinkel won his first game against Mangino at KU.
Mangino said Monday that he and Pinkel don’t discuss the matter.
“No, never,” said Mangino, whose Jayhawks are 3-4 overall and 0-4 in the Big 12. “Coaches don’t talk about those things.”
Pinkel allowed that was generally true.
“If you have a real, close friend that’s a coach, I mean real close,” Pinkel said, “obviously you talk about those personal things.”
Pinkel’s old mentor at the University of Washington, Don James, obviously qualified. Pinkel said he talked to James on Saturday night after Missouri’s nationally televised victory over Nebraska.
But Mangino? No.
“I see him at Big 12 meetings,” Pinkel said. “He’s a good guy. He’s a great guy.”
At that, Pinkel grinned and gave a mock blanch.
“It’s hard for me to say stuff like that about a Kansas guy,” Pinkel said.
Then Pinkel reached deep down and shared a piece of his coaching soul.
Yes, things are better now. Much of that is because both players and coaches made it that way despite last season’s adversity.
“You grow through that,” Pinkel said.
Simpson said the veteran MU players make sure these days that the younger Tigers understand the tradeoff that was made.
“They made a sacrifice,” Simpson said of the coaches. “They did things for us to make us better. So we in turn have to do the same for them. Coaches can only do so much. They can’t go play the game for you.
“It’s been more fun than any year. More personal, more relationship-oriented. But there’s still that business that ‘We’re going to coach you and you’re going to do the play that we ask, and you’re going to execute it as well as you can.’ ”
Freshman tight end Chase Coffman said: “He’s stayed on us. Not let up. He wants us to be as good as we can be.”
Sophomore receiver Will Franklin contends that right now Missouri is reaping the rewards of the seniors’ courage last December as well as the willingness of Pinkel to consider that there was a better way.
“Last year, that was a tough time,” Franklin said. “Now, I’m standing here before you when we’re at an all-time high. It’s changed. It’s benefited us.”
There are still calls for Pinkel’s head out there, demands for Pinkel to change this assistant or that one.
“I’m always on the hot seat,” said Pinkel’s defensive coordinator, Matt Eberflus, who heard from many a detractor before MU’s maligned defense held Nebraska to minus 2 yards rushing Saturday.
Lose at Kansas this Saturday, and you won’t have to ask whether those are contented growls or angry howls emanating from the Tiger Nation.
At that prospect, Pinkel again slipped into apparent acceptance, with a strong undercurrent of sarcasm.
“You can’t look at that good or bad,” Pinkel said. “I thought it’s been awesome for the last six months. Now I’m disappointed that it might have been different than that.”
By MIKE DeARMOND
The Kansas City Star
COLUMBIA — For just a moment, Gary Pinkel let his game face slip.
The creases in that famously high forehead softened. Was that a glimmer of good humor that shot through his eyes as he rolled them with comic exaggeration? Pinkel, the football coach of the Missouri Tigers, actually smiled just five days short of Saturday’s high-noon duel at archrival Kansas.
Pinkel had tried to play it straight when asked whether three straight victories by his football team had muted the howls for his head, generated by last year’s five-game losing streak and another unexpected nonconference loss early this year to New Mexico.
“Honestly, it hasn’t changed for me because I don’t …” Pinkel began.
But Pinkel couldn’t pull it off. It felt too good with Mizzou at 5-2 overall and at 3-1 tied for the Big 12 Conference North lead with Colorado.
“It’s a new me,” Pinkel suggested almost playfully. “I listen to everybody.”
Even those that suggested MU come out in gold pants, which the Tigers wore in Saturday’s 41-24 victory over Nebraska.
“Everybody wanted gold pants,” Pinkel said. “I said, ‘Doggone it, we’re going to have those gold pants.’
“That’s the new me. The new, friendly me.”
Are you laughing? Some of Pinkel’s players were on Monday.
On the outside, perhaps this is a kinder, gentler Gary Pinkel. On the inside of Pinkel’s MU football program, you still need a chainsaw to cut through the writhing core of intensity.
“When you get up to this level, it’s not just all fun and games,” said senior safety and captain Jason Simpson. “This is not your high school coach that wants to be your best friend, too. There’s a line that’s drawn there, and I think everybody’s understanding that.”
That represents a change. That change came about last December.
Members of MU football’s upcoming senior class — the likes of quarterback Brad Smith, Simpson, Sean Coffey, Tony Palmer and Derrick Ming — gathered their courage and asked for a meeting with Pinkel.
The memory of that meeting — amid the current happy state of affairs — made Simpson smile on Monday. Back in December, it made Simpson shudder.
“It’s never exciting to confront your head coach about different stuff, especially about important stuff,” Simpson said. “It was a huge ordeal. We got a lot of things accomplished.”
Pinkel gives credit to those seniors for changing the persona of this Missouri football team.
“It started last December,” Pinkel said. “The ownership is greater with this group than any group we’ve had. We’ve got guys that lead.”
Missouri also has, perhaps always had, a head football coach that had enough guts to loosen the reigns of control at a time when Pinkel — no less a control freak than most head coaches — might have tightened them instead.
Pinkel — at times publicly abrasive a year ago — could hear the cacophony swirling around his football program. But heck, the storm outside couldn’t have been any worse than the one inside Pinkel’s own gut.
“I think our players were mentally tough,” Pinkel said Monday of last season’s team. “We just kind of got in a rut. And you know what? I didn’t do a very good job of getting them out of it.”
Kansas coach Mark Mangino helped stoke the heat under Pinkel’s seat by beating Missouri each of the last two seasons. Pinkel won his first game against Mangino at KU.
Mangino said Monday that he and Pinkel don’t discuss the matter.
“No, never,” said Mangino, whose Jayhawks are 3-4 overall and 0-4 in the Big 12. “Coaches don’t talk about those things.”
Pinkel allowed that was generally true.
“If you have a real, close friend that’s a coach, I mean real close,” Pinkel said, “obviously you talk about those personal things.”
Pinkel’s old mentor at the University of Washington, Don James, obviously qualified. Pinkel said he talked to James on Saturday night after Missouri’s nationally televised victory over Nebraska.
But Mangino? No.
“I see him at Big 12 meetings,” Pinkel said. “He’s a good guy. He’s a great guy.”
At that, Pinkel grinned and gave a mock blanch.
“It’s hard for me to say stuff like that about a Kansas guy,” Pinkel said.
Then Pinkel reached deep down and shared a piece of his coaching soul.
Yes, things are better now. Much of that is because both players and coaches made it that way despite last season’s adversity.
“You grow through that,” Pinkel said.
Simpson said the veteran MU players make sure these days that the younger Tigers understand the tradeoff that was made.
“They made a sacrifice,” Simpson said of the coaches. “They did things for us to make us better. So we in turn have to do the same for them. Coaches can only do so much. They can’t go play the game for you.
“It’s been more fun than any year. More personal, more relationship-oriented. But there’s still that business that ‘We’re going to coach you and you’re going to do the play that we ask, and you’re going to execute it as well as you can.’ ”
Freshman tight end Chase Coffman said: “He’s stayed on us. Not let up. He wants us to be as good as we can be.”
Sophomore receiver Will Franklin contends that right now Missouri is reaping the rewards of the seniors’ courage last December as well as the willingness of Pinkel to consider that there was a better way.
“Last year, that was a tough time,” Franklin said. “Now, I’m standing here before you when we’re at an all-time high. It’s changed. It’s benefited us.”
There are still calls for Pinkel’s head out there, demands for Pinkel to change this assistant or that one.
“I’m always on the hot seat,” said Pinkel’s defensive coordinator, Matt Eberflus, who heard from many a detractor before MU’s maligned defense held Nebraska to minus 2 yards rushing Saturday.
Lose at Kansas this Saturday, and you won’t have to ask whether those are contented growls or angry howls emanating from the Tiger Nation.
At that prospect, Pinkel again slipped into apparent acceptance, with a strong undercurrent of sarcasm.
“You can’t look at that good or bad,” Pinkel said. “I thought it’s been awesome for the last six months. Now I’m disappointed that it might have been different than that.”
Comment