Just posted a long twitter thread, but not everyone tweets. Some thoughts here on the now College Football Hall of Famer:
I think most appreciate what Gary did here. I think some who didn't now appreciate it a little bit more every year. I grew up a fan of Missouri football. I wasn't super emotionally invested most of the time because they weren't good enough to get emotionally invested in. It was just kind of a thing you did on Saturdays and I followed Mizzou because that's where my parents had gone and it seemed a lot better than being a kansas fan.
I was working in South Dakota when Pinkel took the job. I heard he had named some redshirt freshman the starting quarterback and figured, "Sweet, this ain't gonna be the guy." I watched some scrawny kid named Brad Smith dissect Illinois in 2002 and thought, hey, maybe he knows what he was doing.
I came back to cover the team in 2003. I asked @mollerc at one of the early practices (still remember it, we were standing around the 15 yard line on the East side of Faurot Field) about Pinkel. He told me, "If this guy can't get it done here, they might as well shut it down."
Over the next 13 years, because of Gary Pinkel, I got to see No. 4 Missouri beat No. 2 Kansas and become the No. 1 football team in America. I got to take my kid to College Game Day on the Quad. I got to cover two Big 12 title games and two SEC title games. I got to see players like Brad Smith and Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin and Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman and William Moore and Sean Weatherspoon and Blaine Gabbert and James Franklin and Henry Josey and Drew Lock.
In short, I got to cover the transformation of a football program that didn't matter to one that did.
Gary lost the wrong game on the wrong day a couple of times, but that doesn't diminish what he did. He brought this football program from nothing to a national brand. Missouri mattered. They played big games. They were on the big stage. People knew about Missouri. That wasn't true before Gary Pinkel, at least not in my conscious lifetime.
He has two ultimate legacies to me:
1) He created generations of Mizzou football fans. My oldest son was six when we moved here and he grew up watching all those guys I mentioned above. He and his friends got to experience all those moments that everyone my age didn't get to (or at least, those moments were basketball moments for us). I've always said whether you view Mizzou as a basketball or a football school is age dependent. For anyone younger than me, it's a football school. That's because of Pinkel.
2) Missouri is in the SEC because of Pinkel. Brady Deaton and Mike Alden and the Curators made the move. But there's zero chance the SEC has any interest in Missouri if the football program hadn't turned into what it did under Pinkel. Zero. They're not taking a doormat. They took Missouri because of Pinkel and then he walked in and beat their asses for two years.
Great honor for GP. Incredibly well deserved. I hope everyone who was a part of his time here appreciates what they got to see. I'm not going to tell you you're never going to see it again because hope is a great thing. But he took it to heights that hadn't been seen in 50 years. And now the goal for every person who takes the job as Missouri football coach is "Do as well as Gary Pinkel." It ain't an easy goal.
I think most appreciate what Gary did here. I think some who didn't now appreciate it a little bit more every year. I grew up a fan of Missouri football. I wasn't super emotionally invested most of the time because they weren't good enough to get emotionally invested in. It was just kind of a thing you did on Saturdays and I followed Mizzou because that's where my parents had gone and it seemed a lot better than being a kansas fan.
I was working in South Dakota when Pinkel took the job. I heard he had named some redshirt freshman the starting quarterback and figured, "Sweet, this ain't gonna be the guy." I watched some scrawny kid named Brad Smith dissect Illinois in 2002 and thought, hey, maybe he knows what he was doing.
I came back to cover the team in 2003. I asked @mollerc at one of the early practices (still remember it, we were standing around the 15 yard line on the East side of Faurot Field) about Pinkel. He told me, "If this guy can't get it done here, they might as well shut it down."
Over the next 13 years, because of Gary Pinkel, I got to see No. 4 Missouri beat No. 2 Kansas and become the No. 1 football team in America. I got to take my kid to College Game Day on the Quad. I got to cover two Big 12 title games and two SEC title games. I got to see players like Brad Smith and Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin and Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman and William Moore and Sean Weatherspoon and Blaine Gabbert and James Franklin and Henry Josey and Drew Lock.
In short, I got to cover the transformation of a football program that didn't matter to one that did.
Gary lost the wrong game on the wrong day a couple of times, but that doesn't diminish what he did. He brought this football program from nothing to a national brand. Missouri mattered. They played big games. They were on the big stage. People knew about Missouri. That wasn't true before Gary Pinkel, at least not in my conscious lifetime.
He has two ultimate legacies to me:
1) He created generations of Mizzou football fans. My oldest son was six when we moved here and he grew up watching all those guys I mentioned above. He and his friends got to experience all those moments that everyone my age didn't get to (or at least, those moments were basketball moments for us). I've always said whether you view Mizzou as a basketball or a football school is age dependent. For anyone younger than me, it's a football school. That's because of Pinkel.
2) Missouri is in the SEC because of Pinkel. Brady Deaton and Mike Alden and the Curators made the move. But there's zero chance the SEC has any interest in Missouri if the football program hadn't turned into what it did under Pinkel. Zero. They're not taking a doormat. They took Missouri because of Pinkel and then he walked in and beat their asses for two years.
Great honor for GP. Incredibly well deserved. I hope everyone who was a part of his time here appreciates what they got to see. I'm not going to tell you you're never going to see it again because hope is a great thing. But he took it to heights that hadn't been seen in 50 years. And now the goal for every person who takes the job as Missouri football coach is "Do as well as Gary Pinkel." It ain't an easy goal.
