My family and I sat down to dinner last Friday a couple of hours after Mizzou had beaten the Arkansas Razorbacks 21-14 to win the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division and its spot in the SEC title game.
Though it was the day after Thanksgiving, my mom asked everyone at the table to say something or someone they were thankful for, which is something only Susan Cahill would do the day after Thanksgiving.
We went around the table and each person ping-ponged between the standard “family” and “friends.” When it was finally my turn, I confidently said, “Gary Pinkel.”
My mom scolded me. My sister gave an “oh, c’mon” look. My sister’s friends squirmed as most friends do when witnessing another family argue. And my father, Wayne-o, made eye contact with me and said, “Absolutely.”
Missouri currently has a record of 10-2 and is headed for its second straight SEC title game in Atlanta. The regular season schedule was weak (relative to those of other SEC teams) and the losses were bad, but someone had to win the East.
As marvelously as the Tigers defense has played, the credit goes to Pinkel, the oft-questioned, never-satisfied head coach. When your team is picked to finish fourth in your _division_, who else should get the credit?
I may have written and said otherwise, but after the Tigers lost to Georgia, I wrote them off and began turning my attention to the upcoming basketball season (not Mizzou’s basketball season, mind you, just basketball in general). But Pinkel has since rallied the Tigers to six straight victories following the debacle against the Bulldogs. The last three were especially remarkable, given that two of them were on the road to quality opponents and the last one was at home against possibly the hottest team in the country.
They haven’t been pretty wins or dominant wins, but they have been wins. People can question where we’d be if we would have beaten Indiana all they want, but in the end, it is it what is. My point there is that instead of saying, “What if we had beaten Indiana?” we should be saying, “What if we had lost to South Carolina or Arkansas and not won the division?”
Pinkel will be the first to take blame for not having his guys ready to play the Hoosiers and the last guy to take credit for the Arkansas victory. (Though in fairness, credit for the Arkansas win probably should go to senior defensive lineman Markus Golden, who sat out against Indiana.)
Pinkel has turned Mizzou into a top-20 program, as unbelievable as that sounds. He is the winningest coach in program history and has established a tradition of excellence and winning that this university has never seen before. Regardless of how the SEC title game turns out — even with a win, the Playoff is a longshot—I hope all of Tiger nation can appreciate the team and season that Pinkel has given us. Twenty years from now, we may be giving him a statue, and I won’t be the only one at the dinner table thankful to have him.