College Football | Mellowing way to No. 1

No doubt, there's been enough Mizzou-mania swirling around Gary Pinkel this week. So one less phone call to him wasn't a bad thing.

"I talked to him the week they played Oklahoma earlier," said Don James. "So I decided I wasn't going to call him this week."

That's a coach's way of saying: Superstition or not, if there's a whiff of a chance ghostly forces could play a part in the big game, by all means embrace them.

Saturday night, Pinkel's Missouri team, freshly ranked No. 1 in the country, faces Oklahoma for a shot at playing in the national-title game. Whether the Tigers get there or not, it's a fairly staggering achievement just getting to the threshold.

The simultaneous ascensions of Missouri and Pinkel have, to this day, a lot of purple-and-gold overtones.

Pinkel, 55, was one of James' most trusted lieutenants during the legendary coach's run at Washington, finishing more than a decade of work as James' offensive coordinator.

As much as anybody who toiled under James, Pinkel was cut from the same cloth: Buttoned-down, tight-lipped, no-nonsense.

Pinkel went off to Toledo in 1991 and then in 1999 found himself in Barbara Hedges' crosshairs to succeed Jim Lambright at Washington. Pinkel was a finalist along with Chris Tormey, then Idaho's coach, and a certain mystery candidate.

Shazam.

Hedges unveiled Rick Neuheisel of Colorado, igniting a four-year regime flushed by a Rose Bowl victory and incessant controversy.

Pinkel, meanwhile, moved on to downtrodden Missouri in 2001, where he continued to be the businesslike Gary Pinkel.

By his third year, the Tigers went 8-4 with a bowl game. In 2004, though, fortunes went south at 5-6.

A Denver Post columnist asked, "Was there a worse coaching job in the country than by Missouri's Gary Pinkel?"

And he found himself where coaches dread: The hot seat. Here's where the progression begins to parallel that of Tyrone Willingham, lately buffeted and bruised by criticism.

Somehow, forces changed Pinkel. After that 2004 season, nose tackle Lorenzo Williams remembered during a teleconference this week, "He came to us as a team. He said, 'We've had our ups and downs together, but we really haven't developed the relationship we all wanted. From here on out, we're going to try to develop a players-coach relationship. We're all in this together.'

"He said it and he meant it, and he got it done. He's definitely become more of a personable coach, somebody you really like to be around, that you like to be playing for."

In 2005 came the death of young linebacker Aaron O'Neal during a summer workout at Missouri. Pinkel has admitted that's one of the factors that shaped his new persona.

Missouri has won 25 games in three seasons since then.

James, who admits he sometimes felt the same tug to be more approachable, said of his protégé, "He felt that a year or two ago, he didn't handle things the way he should have with the press. I think we all go through that. We're so fearful we're going to get fired, you're mad every time something goes wrong. And something goes wrong almost every day.

"He's mellowed."

Willingham adherents would point to Missouri's stay-the-course tack when Pinkel was listing a few years ago. But they, and Willingham, might also heed the need to change.

Yes, this is big business. Yes, coaches get fired and families get uprooted. But at its core, it's a game.

If it's not too late, a couple of suggestions for Willingham:

• Dispense with the practice of holding out fifth years for players until they're seniors. It damages recruiting, and the academic-class designation, rather than the athletic one, is simply confusing.

• Open practices to media. If you want to have a day given to unusual strategy or trick plays, close it. This is football practice, it's not shielding state secrets from Iran.

Favoritism

It figures, in a season as loopy as this one, Missouri is No. 1 in the country, but it's a three-point underdog against Oklahoma.

No doubt that has something to do with the fact Missouri has beaten Oklahoma just once since 1983, and the Tigers lost to the Sooners 41-31 in their meeting in October.

"For me, personally, it's just a lack of respect," said Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel. "We're No. 1 in the nation. You'd think any No. 1 team in the nation should be favored in every game they play."

As usual, though, both sides try to co-opt the role of the scorned.

Missouri, lamenting fourth-quarter turnovers in that first game, has hinted it gave the game away — neglecting the fact Oklahoma mistakes led to the Tigers' lead in the first place.

"It's all about perspective," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops told the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram. "It's always convenient to look at your miscues and not at the other team's."

And how about this strange twist?

At No. 3 in the BCS standings, Ohio State awaits an upset by Oklahoma that figures to vault the Buckeyes into the title game. So it's trained on a Big 12 title game coached by two Ohio natives. Pinkel was born in Akron, Stoops in Youngstown.

And What's More . . .

• From the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News: "On the silver anniversary of 'The Play,' the Big Game has become virtually irrelevant." The newspaper points out that the last major upset in the game was in 1990, and it's been dominated the past five years by California and for the previous seven by Stanford.

• Nobody had a more perplexing season than Kansas State, which thrashed Texas, gave up 73 points to woeful Nebraska, had a 3,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver, plus the best punter in the Big 12 — and finished 5-7.

• And here's UCLA, with its 48.6 percentage of passes completed — 16 percent below the league-best of Arizona State — one victory away from the Rose Bowl.

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com