COLLEGES

Pinkel won’t let the glare blind Tigers

Told there were Tigers in the next room spouting off about winning the national championship, Pinkel flew into mock rage in something of a Jim Mora (“Playoffs?”) octave.

“We haven’t even won a Big 12 championship around here, what are we talking about national championships for? Are you kidding me?

“That’s ridiculous. We won one Big 12 North championship. I handle that internally. By the way, give me their names.”

But it led to a more serious query. Is Missouri mature enough to handle all the praise and pronouncements thrown its way?

They came gushing in on Monday at Big 12 media days, where the Tigers were the darlings. Chase Daniel buzzed in from a California camp for the day to take questions, and no player during the three-day event will draw a larger audience.

Jeremy Maclin, Chase Coffman and William Moore all held court with no break from questions. This session with the ink-stained (and online) set came after they played musical chairs for an overcrowded radio row and before heading into banks of television cameras.

By late afternoon, Maclin was spotted reclining on a couch. He probably could have used a throat lozenge.

Attention can be hazardous if not handled properly. Nobody knows that better than Pinkel, who can always play his 2004 card to cite the peril of misguided enthusiasm.

Expectations ran high coming off a bowl, but Mizzou went into the tank in the second half. That was the Troy season, the Brad Smith pass-first season, the Pinkel self-evaluation season.

There’s been nothing like that since. Missouri not only has become a bowl regular, it has climbed to the top of the North Division and is widely considered a national title contender by outsiders.

Unanimous division favorite and part of everybody’s preseason top 10 is heady stuff for a program that until last year hadn’t finished first in anything since 1969.

Which explains why Pinkel sets up the roadblocks for those making BCS championship reservations.

“We’ve made progress,” Pinkel said. “But we certainly haven’t arrived.”

Hey, the Tigers have questions like everybody else. Running back isn’t established. The offensive line breaks in two new starters, and pass rush is a concern. It’s just that none of this seems to be derailing stuff.

After listening to Pinkel for a while, it was time to see if the players were as confident as reported. I heard something different.

Moore, the safety whose game rose to an All-America level after his friend Pig Brown went down last season, said it’s difficult not to dream about the crystal ball trophy.

“I’m a football player, and you think about a national championship because that’s what every person in this building is going for,” Moore said. “But I don’t talk about it.”

Daniel said to call Oklahoma the favorite. After all, the Tigers’ two losses in last season’s 12-2 mark belonged to the Sooners.

“I’m glad we don’t play them this year,” Daniel said. “We need to get better than Oklahoma.”

If any of the Tigers mouthed off, I didn’t hear it, but they spoke for about three hours, so who knows what might have slipped out.

But Pinkel left satisfied, as he did this week a year ago. The Tigers were picked to win the North in 2007 and arrived at the media event guarded about the program’s status.

“I remember a year ago sitting here and saying we could win at a higher level, that we had the players to do it,” Pinkel said. “Now we want to go to even a higher level.

“I think we’re driven, and have a chance to win at a high level for a second year.”

Not exactly going out on a limb, but that’s another sign of a program’s maturity.

To reach Blair Kerkhoff, college sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4730 or send e-mail to bkerkhoff@kcstar.com