Gary Pinkel's Record at Missouri

The last time I did a coach analysis, I threw it open for requests. It’s not so much that I was out of ideas, but I wanted to make sure I would be covering the people that folks are interested in.

The first request was for Gary Pinkel, which gave me pause. First of all, he wasn’t who I was expecting to see as the first request. Second, I really don’t know that much about Pinkel or Missouri football.

I spent over 22 years of my life in Florida, with the rest in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the entire time I have been a Florida fan and an SEC guy. Before 2007, I really only knew two things about Missouri football beyond its location and conference—Brad Smith was really good, and a lot of people thought Pinkel was an underachieving coach.

I suspect the two of those were related. After all, Smith was an exceptionally talented player who has set all kinds of records for dual-threat quarterbacks. He’s the all-time quarterback rushing leader, the first ever to 8,000 passing yards and 4,000 rushing yards in a career, and first ever to 2,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in multiple seasons.

Smith began to get preseason hype for the Heisman in 2004, and his Tigers were ranked 17th in the preseason. Unfortunately, Mizzou would limp to a 5-6 record.

It was especially puzzling considering the Tigers defense gave up just 19.5 points per game, the lowest of Pinkel’s tenure up to that point. One would figure that with a defense that stout and Smith at quarterback, the team could have found a way to a winning record.

I think for the national audience, this was the year that really branded Pinkel with the underachiever label. His program actually had expectations, but it failed to live up to them. As a national observer, that’s all I can really speak to.

To get an insider’s opinion on Pinkel though, I asked the Bleacher Report Community Leader for Missouri Football, senior writer Peter Fleischer, for his thoughts on his head coach:

“Pinkel was pretty much hit or miss with Tigers fans. I personally liked him and felt like he got a bad rap for not producing as much at Mizzou as he could have.

The fact of the matter is that at the end of the Larry Smith era, Missouri football wasn't exactly a perennial powerhouse, so it's not like Pinkel ruined the program, a la Quin Snyder. I didn't think that he underachieved with Brad Smith and felt like his teams had a knack for losing the games they should have won.

The most painful loss in my memory of Gary is the 2006 Sun Bowl against Oregon State, where the Tigers blew a huge lead and lost. I felt like Gary was a decent coach but never could really execute the big games. He couldn't get over the hump.

I think he and his staff have finally done that. The spread offense is clicking on all cylinders, and he finally is starting to close the borders of Missouri, keeping in-state talent at home. If he keeps this up, he should be able to build something special at Missouri.”

Big thanks to Peter for the insight.

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