We sometimes forget that these coaches are fathers and have families. Eli has four young daughters. Lindsay is holding down the fort. Christensen had three young daughters when he arrived at Mizzou. Susie was holding down the fort. I talked to Christensen by phone when he was the coach at Wyoming. Great insight and especially generous with his time. Here are three of my favorite DC anecdotes from the book:
In the wake of the first-game loss to Bowling Green. Remember that one?
Dave Christensen, Missouri’s offensive coordinator and line coach, was the assistant who drew the short straw of handling the post-game show on the Tigers’ radio network. When he decided to move his wife and three young children to Columbia, Christensen didn’t know much about the program, other than it competed in the Big 12. He couldn’t remember if he had even set foot in the state. Now he was seeing how seriously fans of a BCS school took their football, even at a moribund program like Missouri’s. Front and center at a Buffalo Wild Wings, Christensen was blistered by those in the audience as well as angry callers. There was a theme to the diatribes: This is what happens when you hire Toledo and Pinkel.
As he staggered out of the restaurant after being administered his second beat-down of the night, Christensen looked at his wife, Susie, and said, “I don’t know if I’ve got this in me.”
Christensen may have been looking for a sympathetic figure, but he wasn’t going to find one in his significant other. “Dave,” Susie said, “you better have it in you, because you moved your entire family out here to do this.”
After Mizzou inexplicably didn't go bowling in 2004, as Christensen was contemplating a change in the offense, which of course led to the implementation of the spread.
Christensen remembers a December afternoon spent at home in the basement watching bowl games with his wife. As he drained the batteries in the remote, he was drawn to the games involving up-tempo offenses that were spreading the defenses from sideline to sideline and creating mismatches all over the field. That’s when it hit him.
“I looked at Susie and said, ‘We’ve got to change our offense,’ ” Christensen recalls. “‘We’ve got to go to a spread, fast-paced scheme because we can’t get the guys to compete with the best players. If we could get enough players to use space to our advantage, we could do some things. But I don’t know if I want to tell Gary that. Or if he’s going to want to hear it.’ ”
Again, Susie Christensen was quick with the comeback. “Well, if you don’t do something, you’re going to get fired,” she said. “What do you have to lose?”
And finally, the ride home with the family after the win at Arrowhead, knowing Mizzou was about to be ranked No. 1 in the country.
Christensen made the two-hour ride home with his wife and three children. The kids were old enough to attend the game and understand the summit their father had climbed. Buffalo Wild Wings? “I’m sure we had the conversation on where we were after that first game at Missouri and where we were now,” he says. And what was Susie Christensen’s state of mind?
“She was pretty fired up,” says Dave.
In the wake of the first-game loss to Bowling Green. Remember that one?
Dave Christensen, Missouri’s offensive coordinator and line coach, was the assistant who drew the short straw of handling the post-game show on the Tigers’ radio network. When he decided to move his wife and three young children to Columbia, Christensen didn’t know much about the program, other than it competed in the Big 12. He couldn’t remember if he had even set foot in the state. Now he was seeing how seriously fans of a BCS school took their football, even at a moribund program like Missouri’s. Front and center at a Buffalo Wild Wings, Christensen was blistered by those in the audience as well as angry callers. There was a theme to the diatribes: This is what happens when you hire Toledo and Pinkel.
As he staggered out of the restaurant after being administered his second beat-down of the night, Christensen looked at his wife, Susie, and said, “I don’t know if I’ve got this in me.”
Christensen may have been looking for a sympathetic figure, but he wasn’t going to find one in his significant other. “Dave,” Susie said, “you better have it in you, because you moved your entire family out here to do this.”
After Mizzou inexplicably didn't go bowling in 2004, as Christensen was contemplating a change in the offense, which of course led to the implementation of the spread.
Christensen remembers a December afternoon spent at home in the basement watching bowl games with his wife. As he drained the batteries in the remote, he was drawn to the games involving up-tempo offenses that were spreading the defenses from sideline to sideline and creating mismatches all over the field. That’s when it hit him.
“I looked at Susie and said, ‘We’ve got to change our offense,’ ” Christensen recalls. “‘We’ve got to go to a spread, fast-paced scheme because we can’t get the guys to compete with the best players. If we could get enough players to use space to our advantage, we could do some things. But I don’t know if I want to tell Gary that. Or if he’s going to want to hear it.’ ”
Again, Susie Christensen was quick with the comeback. “Well, if you don’t do something, you’re going to get fired,” she said. “What do you have to lose?”
And finally, the ride home with the family after the win at Arrowhead, knowing Mizzou was about to be ranked No. 1 in the country.
Christensen made the two-hour ride home with his wife and three children. The kids were old enough to attend the game and understand the summit their father had climbed. Buffalo Wild Wings? “I’m sure we had the conversation on where we were after that first game at Missouri and where we were now,” he says. And what was Susie Christensen’s state of mind?
“She was pretty fired up,” says Dave.
