Columbia, Mo. ? A few weeks ago, while discussing his policy on playing true freshmen, Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel said the decision is based strictly on whether the player can help the Tigers win immediately and has nothing to do with getting the player experience for the next year.

“I just hope to be here next year,” he said.

He was joking, I think. He does that now, jokes.

He also hugs his players, cries publicly and wins big games. The stuff we used to think about Gary Pinkel – the stuff he allowed us to think – doesn’t really apply anymore.

Three years ago, Pinkel was known as the guy who screwed up Brad Smith. A year ago, Pinkel’s contract extension – inconveniently timed to coincide with a stunning loss to Iowa State – was greeted with enthusiasm normally reserved for the appearance of a cold sore. As recently as a month ago, an Omaha World-Herald sports columnist cited all the reasons Nebraska had little chance against Missouri before adding that there was one cause for hope: “Gary Pinkel is standing on the other sideline.”

Missouri won, 41-6.

In the fourth quarter, when tight end Martin Rucker scored a touchdown on a fake field goal, an ESPN camera found Pinkel on the sideline. He had a big grin on his face.

Imagine that.

With Missouri ranked third in the nation heading into Saturday’s game with undefeated and second-ranked Kansas, it is time to rethink Pinkel. He’s a better coach than he used to be and a better coach than he’s been given credit for.

The Tigers have excelled this year because they are talented, of course, but also because they don’t commit penalties, win the turnover battle and calmly convert third-down plays better than anyone else in the country. The Tigers have played at such a steady high level that only one victory this season was by less than 13 points.

That’s consistency. That’s coaching.

Lots of talented teams are 7-4. Missouri is 10-1.

“It’s him, man,” senior nose tackle Lorenzo Williams said. “I’m telling you, when he changed, the team changed.”

Before and after

To appreciate the “after,” you have to remember the “before.”

In 2004, Pinkel entered his fourth season at Missouri. To that point, things were progressing according to plan. Pinkel’s coaching identity was all about discipline. If you weren’t five minutes early, you were late. If you forgot to turn off your cell phone before a team meeting, you wished Alexander Graham Bell had never been born.

“The way he was when we first got here was the way he had to be,” Rucker said. “He had to get this program turned around. You can’t come here and be buddy-buddy with everybody and try to win a popularity contest as a head coach. You have to take control.”

Some players liked it, some didn’t, but it seemed to work. In 2003, the Tigers qualified for a bowl for the first time since 1998. With star quarterback Smith returning for his junior season, Missouri was a popular pick to become the new power program in a weak Big 12 North Division.

Instead, the Tigers flopped. They blew double-digit leads in losses to Troy, Oklahoma State and Kansas State and finished 5-6. Smith, who had rushed for 1,406 yards and 18 touchdowns as a sophomore, finished with just 553 yards and four TDs in 2004. Pinkel and offensive coordinator Dave Christensen were accused of trying to turn Smith into a pocket passer.

Pinkel later called that team the most selfish he had ever coached, but he also blamed himself for pushing all the wrong buttons.

“I felt that was my worst year of coaching, personally,” Pinkel said. “I didn’t do a very good job coaching that year. We were a lot better football team than what we did. We had a lot of internal problems, relationship-wise, between coaches and players.”

At that time, Pinkel’s interactions with the media were often tense and occasionally explosive. When asked about strategy, his stock answer was to remind you that he had done it this way for 25 years, that he would continue to do it this way and who were you to question it, anyway?

When the season went bad and he could have used some friends in the media for damage control, he realized he hadn’t made any friends in the media. Perhaps the lowest point was when Smith’s father called a Kansas City sports radio station and said Pinkel had “the personality of a dill pickle.”

The arrows were flying from every direction.

“There was a lot of negativism in this state about Missouri,” Pinkel said. “We’d go to high schools, and it was amazing the things we’d hear. People were upset with things that happened 20 years ago. I knew that was going to be remarkably difficult to change all that. I knew it was going to take a lot of time. I didn’t really know it was that bad.”

Lesson learned

Everything Pinkel knew about coaching was learned from Don James. Pinkel played for James at Kent State and served as an offensive coordinator for James at Washington. When Pinkel got his first head-coaching job before the 1991 season, he simply transferred James’ template to Toledo. It worked, so why change?

Pinkel had no doubt it could work at Missouri, too. He said so frequently, talking abstractly about the plan, the system, the program. Didn’t talk much about the people, didn’t get to know the players on more than a professional level.

“You really didn’t ever go talk to him,” Williams said. “When he walked by, you kind of shied away, hoping there wouldn’t be a collision.”