The 100-Yard Journey

by Gary Pinkel

  The next day I talked to Walt Anderson, the Big 12’s coordinator of officials, and he apologized for the penalty. He said it was wrong. Holding never should have been called. We should have been given credit for the touchdown and the win.

  I felt really good hearing that, especially for my players. We had lost three games in a row, but we stayed positive around our players. How could we be disappointed with them? We didn’t play well, but we battled and did everything we could to win the game.

  I didn’t pay any attention to the media coverage that week, but I had to be aware of what my players were hearing and seeing. I knew I was getting some criticism for talking so much about the penalty. But it was important that my players hear me talk positively about the way they rallied at Iowa State. This was the one time I thought it was appropriate to talk about the officiating. They botched the call and took away what should have been a victory.

  We had one regular-season game left, at home against Kansas. We carried a three-game losing streak to our biggest rival into that game. We were bowl eligible, but we needed a win in the worst way.

  Heading into the game we thought everyone was timing our punts, so we installed a fake we thought we could use against Kansas.

  Up three late in the third quarter, we called the fake on fourth down and got Kansas to jump offside. We took the first down and marched to another touchdown. We won 42–17 and after the game I was careful how I chose my words. I thanked all those fans and our administration and alumni that believed in my players all week long. I appreciated the contract extension, especially because they didn’t wait until after the season to decide. It was a statement. It was a lesson for our fans. This wasn’t a time to jump off board. We needed their faith.

  We played Oregon State in the Sun Bowl, and it makes me sick to think about that game. We gave up the lead in the fourth quarter and lost by a point on a last-second touchdown and two-point conversion. Those losses tear your guts out. Aside from the outcome of that game, our team made progress that season. Plus, it was the first time we went to consecutive bowl games. But we still weren’t winning consistently. That would change.

  By 2007, we were clearly getting better. We were starting to have multiple all-conference players. Our depth chart was starting to look like it’s supposed to look. Lord, it had taken a long time, but I wasn’t a quick-fix guy. We were never going to load up on junior college transfers and take short cuts.

  We resumed the Illinois rivalry in St. Louis that year. It seems like every one of those games is a breakout game for someone. In 2007, it was Jeremy Maclin’s turn. He was a special playmaker out of St. Louis, but he hurt his knee the summer before his freshman year and missed the entire 2006 season. Had he played we might have won two more games—and maybe won the North Division. Against Illinois, in his first college game and in his hometown, J-Mac caught a touchdown and returned a punt for a touchdown. Boom, just like that, we had a great young player out of St. Louis and suddenly Chase had a new weapon in the offense.

  J-Mac was a national recruit, just a great kid who was so grounded emotionally and mentally. We were able to get him to flip his commitment from Oklahoma, one of the best moves we made in recruiting. We needed a guy like that in the offense to join the great tight ends we had signed and developed, Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman. We had the running back in Tony Temple, an explosive playmaker from Kansas City. We suddenly had some skill players who perfectly fit this spread offense. The potential was there, but to translate all that talent into double-digit wins, something Missouri had done only once and not since 1960, we needed to think right. Around that time, we introduced the concept of “whistle to snap” to our players. Once the whistle blew to stop the play, what is your mind doing to prepare you for the next snap? We taught them how to think instead of just saying, “Hey guys, get focused.” That had a great effect on those teams. Andrew Gachkar was a prime example. He came in as a freshman safety in 2007. He played some special teams his first year, moved to linebacker, and went from a decent player to an All–Big 12 player. He was never overly confident, but he embraced our “whistle to snap” teaching and became one of the best linebackers in the Big 12 and developed into an NFL player.

  We needed to become a team that played its best every week. In 2006, we were still streaky, but the atmosphere was starting to feel right.

  After beating Illinois, we went to Ole Miss and beat an SEC team with NFL talent. We dominated Nebraska 41–6 to open Big 12 play. Then we went down to Oklahoma and lost a close game. We had a costly fumbled exchange because of a signal breakdown on our sideline. One player got one signal; another player got another signal. We never quite recovered because of that simple coaching mistake. That’s my fault!

  But we recovered that next week and ran off a five-game winning streak, all against conference teams. We had confidence. We were finishing games the right way.

  All along, as we’re going through our best season in decades, we were very well aware that Kansas was winning all its games, too—though we played by far the tougher schedule with power conference teams Illinois and Ole Miss to start the year, plus a road game at Oklahoma. We didn’t talk about it, but we knew what was coming at the end of the regular season.

  We just methodically went through the season, and the more we won, the higher the stakes got each week. Those stakes were incredibly clear by the time we kicked off November 24 in Kansas City against the Jayhawks. Both teams were unranked in the preseason polls, but here we were in the final week of the regular season. Kansas was No. 2, and we were No. 3. A day earlier, No. 1 LSU lost to Arkansas. That meant the biggest matchup in college football on the final week of the regular season would be Missouri-Kansas. Who could have ever imagined? The winner would capture the Big 12 North Division and play Oklahoma for the conference championship. Beat the Sooners and we’d clinch a spot in the BCS national championship game. What an opportunity—for either team.

  I knew it would be the biggest game in the rivalry’s history and, let’s be real honest, it would never be bigger than No. 2 vs. No. 3 with a chance to be the No. 1 team in the country and be in position to play for a national championship. All I wanted to do was win it because that game would be remembered forever. ESPN College GameDay was on site. Kansas City was electric. The environment outside Arrowhead was like the past Rose Bowls I experienced—just a little colder. When our Washington teams played in the Rose Bowl, our fans would come up alongside our caravan and beat the sides of our busses. The same thing happened that day in Kansas City. Our fans were going crazy while we’re shuffling along at 2 miles per hour through the Arrowhead parking lot. Just a surreal environment. That’s what big games feel like.

  Kansas had such a good team. Their quarterback, Todd Reesing, had put up outstanding numbers all year. The defense had some NFL talent, especially at cornerback.

  I’ve never gone back and watched that game on film. I’ll probably get around to it someday. I’ve never gone back and watched any games—and I can’t really explain why.

  But people still talk about that game. The players, the coaches, the fans especially. On top of it all, it was such a great game, back and forth, so much drama. It felt like a national championship game, where both teams had everything on the line—and against their historic, hated rival. I’ve coached in conference championship games and big January bowl games, but the environment that day in Kansas City was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

  I got to know Kansas coach Mark Mangino during our conference meetings. Good guy, good coach. I never quite understood why he got fired the next year, but I always respected what he did with that program.

  I didn’t know much about the Missouri-Kansas rivalry when I first got to Mizzou. At Washington, we had a great in-state rivalry with Washington State. Bowling Green was our big rival at Toledo. But nothing compared to the animosity, the bitterness, and the history that Missouri and Kansas shared for so many year
s. It didn’t take me long to appreciate what it meant to our fans. That’s why we’ve got to revive the Border War. There’s no reason—none—these two schools can’t work something out and play against each other in football and basketball. There needs to be a meeting on neutral ground in Kansas City where the leaders of both programs agree on dates and location. Let’s rotate between Kansas City and then back on our campuses in Columbia and Lawrence. Let’s play it the first or second game of every season, so it’s always going to be a big game for both teams. In our early years at Mizzou, even when we were scuffling along to build our program, the Kansas game meant everything.

  The two schools had been working to move the game to Arrowhead for a long time. The 2007 game was originally scheduled to be in Lawrence. I thought it was a great idea for a lot of reasons to move that game to the neutral-site field, much like we did for the Illinois game in St. Louis. We lost a home game out of the deal every other year, but the pay from the Chiefs was good and it gave us an NFL stage for our biggest game. People stood the entire game in the rain and cold. You can’t create a better game-day setting.

  We dominated early and led 21–0 in the third quarter, but Kansas stormed back and made it a game in the fourth quarter.

  It wasn’t the cleanest game. We had 14 penalties. Our kids were at an emotional level they had never experienced before. Our defense gave up a lot of yards through the air. Our kids were just so wired that it affected our focus at times. But Chase was extraordinary and our defense sacked Todd Reesing at the end of game to preserve a 36–28 win. He had this big patch of mud stuck in his facemask. That’s the image everyone remembers.

  With the win, we climbed to No. 1 in the national polls, the first time that had happened since 1960. How did it feel? I couldn’t really say. When you’re living in the moment, your focus quickly shifts to what’s on the line in six days. You get the news you’re now No. 1, you process it for about five minutes, then you move on to whatever’s next on your daily checklist. I was very good at that. I never let my mind focus on the past. I didn’t drive around town and let my mind wonder, “Wow, we’re No. 1!”

  Chase was on the cover of Sports Illustrated the next week, and that win all but clinched his invitation to New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation. So many exciting things were going on around our program because of that win and all the wins that put us in position to be No. 1. Do I wish I could have enjoyed the moment more? I don’t know. Maybe some coaches can do that. I just never did. I turned the page. That’s how Coach James handled those situations. He didn’t spend any time celebrating or dwelling on what just happened, not when there were more games to play.

  I’m not the first coach to feel this way, but for me, losing always hurt more than winning felt good. Did I deal with losses better the more I coached? I think so. I didn’t handle defeat well early in my career, or even our first few years at Missouri. I really lost it when we didn’t play our best. But did I learn to enjoy the wins more? Maybe just a little. But another thing I always admired about Coach James was how he handled Sundays after a game, win or lose. You didn’t change the routine. After losses early on, I’d really get upset with players on Sunday nights. I’d be just as upset with me as I was the players. I just wanted them to have this freakin’ desire to be successful, the same drive I had. Teams had to mature to approach big games like that. We had to realize the grit it takes, the mental toughness required to get there.

  That 2007 team figured it out.

  We made it to our first conference championship game to face a familiar opponent. Just seven weeks earlier we had lost at Oklahoma. This time we’d meet in San Antonio. The stakes were clear. We win and we’re playing for the BCS national championship. Our players came in with great confidence and played really well in the first half. We just couldn’t finish. Back at Washington, when Bob Stull was the offensive coordinator and I coached receivers, he used to say every Saturday before the offense got on the bus, “Remember, the team that makes the fewest mistakes is probably going to win.” It was simple but so true, especially when it came to critical mistakes in big games like this one. We threw a late interception and could never regain momentum and Oklahoma pulled away by three touchdowns.

  We were obviously crushed by the result, but we knew we’d still land in a good bowl game. The Orange Bowl had a chance to take a team from the Big 12, and we were clearly deserving of a BCS bowl. Instead, the Orange Bowl settled on Kansas. Our fans and players were obviously upset. I was disappointed, too. We had just beaten Kansas a week earlier in an epic victory. There was no sense in pouting over the Orange Bowl. We had absolutely no control over their decision. They took a team we had just beaten at a neutral site. We were the division champions. We should have been in the Orange Bowl, but I knew politics were involved. This wasn’t purely a football decision. Whether it was the bowl committee or Kansas or the league office, something didn’t add up. We were newcomers to the bowl process, especially at the BCS level. So was Kansas. Maybe their administration had some relationships that worked to their benefit. I never understood the details. All we knew was the Orange Bowl took Kansas instead. Fine. Let’s move on. Who’s next?

  Arkansas.

  We went to the Cotton Bowl to play a team from the SEC. I had to make sure our players were still excited about that outcome. When I talked to them after the bowl selection process played out, I chose to be positive. We had to tell our team about the generations of Cotton Bowl history. We had to embrace the opportunity.

  Before that, I joined Chase Daniel in New York for the Heisman Trophy presentation along with a couple of our coaches and Chase’s family. I felt so fortunate to be in the room that night. Some great coaches never get to take part in that historic environment. You see it on TV your whole life, never realizing the room is so small and they’ve got assigned seating for everyone. I was so proud to be there with Chase. He finished fourth and had a great attitude about the whole process. He was honored to be in the mix. That moment gave Missouri more national respect, having one of our players on that platform.

  As for the Cotton Bowl, some people might have wondered if our team would be motivated for that game after missing out on a BCS bowl. But we were motivated—and dominant. It was a great finish to the season. Tony Temple and our offensive line controlled the game in a 38–7 victory. After starting the year unranked, we finished fourth in the national polls, a great statement for how far our program had come.

  • • •

  I didn’t coach very well in 2008. We began the year ranked No. 6 in the preseason, another great sign of respect for all the success we had in 2007 and all the returning talent on our team. Can you back it up and do it again? It wasn’t the kids’ fault at all. What would I have done differently? I’m not really sure. We lost four games in 2008, but we were better than a 10–4 team. We had so much talent. We had Chase Daniel back. We had J-Mac back. We had Chase Coffman back. We had Sean Weatherspoon and William Moore on defense and a lot of talented kids. We could have won 12 games again, maybe more.

  We had a huge win at Nebraska to start 5–0 and climbed all the way to No. 3. Our guys were in a zone they had never been close to approaching at this level. We had won 17 of our last 19 games. The only losses during that stretch were two competitive games against an elite Oklahoma program. Looking back, when we got back from Nebraska, I should have said more to the team that Sunday night or that Monday. When you start winning like that, you’ll have guys who all of a sudden back off just enough, just one notch. But one notch is significant. It was my responsibility to keep that from happening.

  We came home to host Oklahoma State and threw three interceptions. Overall, we’d done well against that program, going 3–1 since we came to Mizzou. Our players might disagree with this, but there’s a big difference between the hunter and the hunted. The roles had reversed at Mizzou. Teams in the Big 12 started to realize that to beat us they had to take their play to anoth
er level. Some teams were able to do that, and that’s what Oklahoma State did that night. We still thought we were the better team, but we didn’t do enough to win the game. We went to Austin the following week and lost to No. 1 Texas, a really good Longhorns team with a Heisman finalist in Colt McCoy.

  All of a sudden after winning 17-of-19 games, we were on a losing streak, the first time we lost consecutive games since November 2006. I had to take a different approach. We had to focus on nothing but our next game, a 5:30 visit from Colorado. We couldn’t be consumed with the rankings or the standings. Colorado had just come off a win over Kansas State. I came into our press conference that Monday and had one thing on my mind: “5:30 on Saturday.” I repeated it over and over again. You can’t use that tactic every week, but our kids grabbed hold of that sucker. They started repeating me all week to the media and on the practice field: “5:30 on Saturday, 5:30 on Saturday.” It’s all that mattered in our world. Our guys responded and took control of that game from the start, which ended as a 58–0 win. Now we’re sitting there 6–2 and in control of the North Division. We got on a run. Baylor, win. Kansas State, win. Iowa State, win. We clinched the North in Ames, Iowa, which meant we’d have back-to-back games at Arrowhead Stadium, the regular-season finale against Kansas and the Big 12 championship game.

  We had a couple losses but still felt confident against Kansas—maybe too confident. I was really disappointed in how we played. We trailed by 16 and came back to take a late lead, but our defense couldn’t get a stop. Kansas won 40–37. We had already clinched the Big 12 North, so we’d be coming back to Arrowhead a week later to face No. 1 Oklahoma. That did not go well. It was a rough day for the Tigers and another loss.

  We still weren’t used to winning at this level in big games like that. It showed up at times that season. I thought I could have done more to have our team ready.