Just a little patience
At the No. 1-ranked Tigers’ weekly press conference this past Monday, radio commentator John Kadlec was wearing his Mizzou jacket with a makeshift “#1” on the back created with athletic tape. He didn’t have the patience to wait for the official version.
Kadlec — who as a player, coach and commentator has been a part of Mizzou football on and off since 1947 — knows that building a program requires more patience than that. As a big fan of seventh-year Coach Gary Pinkel (pictured), he’s glad the University had patience through losing seasons and negative pressure.
“When he came here, he knew what he wanted to do” Kadlec says of Pinkel. “I tell you what, it’s a real mark of a man to stick to his philosophy and stick to what he believes in, and to eventually have success.”
Pinkel has shown patience, too, and loyalty to his coaches. When people were down on offensive coordinator Dave Christensen after the 2004 season, Pinkel stuck with him. Now Christensen runs the 5th-best team nationally in total offense. Patience pays off.
Pinkel also was shown patience in return by administrators such as Athletics Director Mike Alden and Chancellor Brady Deaton, he says: “I think you have to have a real strong administration to be able to stand up to all those outside pressures and say, ‘This is the guy I believe in.’ ” Patience pays off again; the team has gone from 5-6 in 2004 to 11-1 in 2007.
It also helps that this year’s senior class actually started to grow impatient.
Tight end Martin Rucker sums it up: “Going through those seasons of upsets and highs and lows, I think we just kind of laid the groundwork for this season, and we didn’t want to go back down those roads. We just finally said we’d had enough.”
Photo by Rob Hill
Leave a comment
Note: Comments are moderated. If published, comments may be edited for length, style and clarity.