This One's on Pinkel

Filed in archive College Football on October 13, 2008

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It would be easy to point at Chase Daniel for his lackluster performance in Oklahoma State's 28-23 upset win over Missouri on Saturday night. And he should shoulder some of the blame, as he threw for three interceptions and no touchdowns in a performance that may have wiped out any hope he had of winning the Heisman Trophy.

But games like this have a penchant to come down to coaching, and Missouri's Gary Pinkel was solidly out-coached by college football's most infamous ranter, the Cowboys' Mike Gundy. OSU devised a great gameplan on both sides of the ball, but especially on defense, as they pressured Daniel in the passing game and shut down Mizzou's running game.

Pinkel's most glaring mistake was his odd decision to kick a field goal on fourth down at the Oklahoma State one-yard line. He's playing a team that scores more than 50 points per game, and settles for three points? Even if Mizzou fails on fourth and one, they have OSU backed up, and a three and out would give the Tigers great field position. Kicking there was a message to the team that Pinkel wasn't confident they could get a single yard. That turned out to be one of Missouri's best scoring chances of the night, and it was wasted.

Missouri also erred when they completely gave up running the ball. They handed off three times in the second half, and not once in the fourth quarter. OSU was good against the run, but not even showing it in the second half makes things a lot easier for their defense. Especially on a night that it was clear Daniel did not bring his A game.

It's not completely over for the Tigers. They can still make it to the Big 12 championship game, and should they somehow pull that out, who knows what the end result may be. One loss does not eliminate them from national championship contention, but if they even want to sniff that goal at the end of the year, Pinkel needs to step up his game, starting Saturday at Texas.