Gary Pinkel Says Missouri's 'Winning Tradition' Will Continue

During the past three seasons, Missouri football has risen to unprecedented heights.

Some would even say the Tigers' recent exploits at one point were unimaginable. Preseason and in-season national Top 10 rankings. Back-to-back Big 12 North Division titles. Four straight bowl appearances.

That certainly wasn't your father's Missouri Tigers football program. Thanks to head coach Gary Pinkel and his model of consistency, the Tigers blossomed into a team about which their alumni and fanbase could get excited.

But with a large number of departing starters, including record-breaking quarterback Chase Daniel, the first changes in Pinkel's coaching staff in his nine seasons in Columbia and the resurgence of the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the North, just like that the magic seems to be gone.

No top 10 preseason rankings, no serious outside expectations for a third North title and no hype, period.

It stands to reason the Tigers would have to re-evaluate their goals for this season with hopes of making a push for prominence next season or the year after. But outsider expectations are not defining how Pinkel and his players are approaching what is supposed to be a rebuilding campaign.

"If you accept that, you're not a real competitor," nose tackle Jaron Baston said to Missouri reporters this summer. "As soon as we started hearing, 'Oh, you're ranked fifth in the North,' you heard it out here on this field and you heard it before we started working out and running. If you came out and watched, guys were attacking everything and angry."

"We've had the same goal since we've been here," said Pinkel, who lost 14 starters from last season's 10-4 Alamo Bowl championship squad. "I think we've reestablished the winning tradition at Missouri.

"We had a great tradition a year before I got here, but I think we've reestablished it. We haven't won a Big 12 championship. There's a lot of things we have not done. But with that comes responsibility."

Because of that responsibility, Pinkel doesn't seem willing to back off the standard that has been set the past few seasons with high-end players like tight end Chase Coffman, All-American receiver Jeremy Maclin and Daniel leading the way. It's as if he feels he owes the Missouri fan base that much.

"It starts with me and it starts with our coaches," said Pinkel, whose team won 22 games during the last two seasons in what was the program's most successful two-year run in school history. "And it flows down through to our players.

"I don't think any of our fans really care about how young we are or how inexperienced we are or who we lost. They expect to see a good football team and that's my job to try to get that done."

He will have do so this season with more new moving parts than at probably any point since leaving Toledo for Missouri. Not only are significant players gone, but so are key coaches. Offensive coordinator Dave Christensen left the Tigers to take over as head coach at Wyoming and defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus left to take an assistant coaching job with the Cleveland Browns.

Instead doing a national search for the next up-and-coming coordinators, Pinkel looked within his staff and promoted quarterbacks coach David Yost and linebackers coach Dave Steckel into coordinator roles on their respective sides of the ball. What those moves amount to for the Tigers are no overt changes to scheme and philosophies.

"The coordinators, that's all part of our system," Pinkel said. "You move people up. I didn't hire two guys from outside, saying let's change the offense and let's change the defense. These guys just moved up."

Now only if the changes at some of the key positions will be just as smooth. Sophomore quarterback Blaine Gabbert, a former five-star quarterback recruit who was originally committed to Nebraska, will face the most scrutiny as he attempts to replace the three-year magic of Daniel in the Tigers spread offense.

Pinkel says the expectations he'll have for Gabbert won't be the same as the ones he had for Daniel in his senior season. There is a maturation process and fortunately for Gabbert, he will have versatile 1,000-yard rusher Derrick Washington to lean on as he becomes more familiar with the offense and builds a relationship with his receivers.



Gabbert won the job during spring ball and has continued to make strides during fall camp.

"Anytime you have a transition at quarterback, everybody sits back and goes, 'Wow! What's going to happen?" Pinkel said. "When you lose a high level guy like [Daniel], hopefully you can replace him with a high level guy."

The thing is you can say that about so many positions this season. All-Big 12 linebacker Sean Weatherspoon (149 tackles, 10.6 stops per game), viewed in some circles as the most complete linebacker in college ball this season, and Washington (1,036 yards, 17 touchdowns, 5.9 yards per carry) are without question the Tigers most proven players. The rest of the cast are primarily unproven players who will have a chance to make a name in a hurry. That seems just fine with Pinkel.

"I just do what I do," he said. "Three years ago we were real young. All the guys now were real young back in 2006. That's part of what we do. It's also a challenge and it's also exciting."