Gary Pinkel’s pipeline is manifesting on the high school coaching circuit

Dave Matter looked at a lasting legacy from Gary Pinkel — a generation of young high school coaches throughout the state of Missouri.

Matter recounts this story from Terrance Curry, former Missouri defensive back who is now a state title-winning head coach at Trinity Catholic:

When Curry bumped into Pinkel in Columbia at Mizzou’s spring game last month, the former coach congratulated his former team captain on his recent state championship.

“He said, ‘How did you pull that off?’” Curry recalled. “I told him, ‘I put the Coach Pinkel on them.’ He was a great influence on me as a person and a player.”

By Matter’s count, there are nine former Pinkel players who will be head coaches at high schools in Missouri (and surrounding areas) this fall, including Will Franklin at Vashon.

Matter also has this interesting backstory about how Rob Steeples decided to get into coaching:

While training with the Minnesota Vikings in 2014, Steeples had a run-in with a police officer that ended without incident but later got him thinking about his future after the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, not far from the neighborhood where Steeples grew up. He decided then he wanted to play a positive role in his community.

A day after Vahe Gregorian’s fantastic article on the shared traits of Cuonzo Martin and Barry Odom, Matter gives Missouri fans more reasons to be proud of the individuals the athletic department develops.

Officiating transparency in the SEC? Baby steps, maybe.

The annual SEC meetings in Destin, Fla. — 30A, or the Hamptons of the Florida Panhandle — kicked off on Tuesday, and perhaps the most interesting development that has league-wide implications is something to add more transparency in officiating.

This is more about creating electric content than affecting real change, but, still. I, for one, would be thrilled to see the director of officials have to answer questions about why Damarea Crockett was ruled out of bounds or why Kentucky got an un-timed down to win a game, for instance.

In addition to that step, the league has hired Deloitte to review its officiating.

It’s ridiculous that college officials don’t already have to answer for their performance, when college athletes do — and voluntarily, at that, as there’s no requirement that they actually talk to the media. At least this would be a start.

Yesterday at Rock M

• Quantifying Impact: Looking at Missouri’s past to (potentially) see its future

More Links:

• Mitchell Forde of PowerMizzou,com breaks down Missouri’s Week Two opponent, the West Virginia Mountaineers.
• And, speaking of PowerMizzou.com, Gabe DeArmond’s “Why They Coach” series moves on with Cuonzo Martin.
• Color me shocked! LSU coach Will Wade evades strong-ass questions in his first availability since his tumultuous season in Baton Rouge.
• Oh, no, Kansas missed out on a top-50 player! Even better is the schadenfreud from RJ Hampton going overseas in lieu of picking Kansas (and others).
• Hate to have to say this again, but keep the folks of Lawrence and Linwood, Kan., in your thoughts today after they recover from a huge tornado that especially devastated Linwood on Tuesday evening.