Nothing ever came easy for Gary Pinkel at Missouri. Before he could end Missouri’s long losing streak against Nebraska, he had to get Eric Crouch’d in 2001 and suffer a disappointing dud of a loss in Lincoln in 2002. Before he could win the Big 12 North in 2007, he had to deal with missed opportunities in 2003 and 2004 (and 2005 and 2006).
And before he could get the Oklahoma monkey off of his back, he had to let that monkey get on his back to begin with. Granted, it established official residence in 2007, when the Tigers lost twice to OU and went 12-0 against everybody else.