We may look foolish giving Gary Pinkel this honor with so much of Mizzou's 2014 football season yet to be played. But Gary Pinkel still merits his due from last year. That's the season that most pigskin pundits predicted University of Missouri to finish in the bottom of the Southeastern Conference, and why not? The team was coming off a dismal 2012 SEC debut and a 5-7 record. But 2013 proved that Pinkel and his team still had fire, with Mizzou advancing to the SEC championship game and winning the Cotton Bowl on its way to a No. 8 finish in the BCS and a 12-2 record. What made it all the sweeter is that Mizzou and Pinkel racked up all those wins while keeping secret the news that would rock the sports world a few weeks after the season — when the Tigers star defensive end, Michael Sam, revealed his sexuality and announced that he'd be the first openly gay player to enter the NFL draft. Sam had told his Mizzou teammates and coaches he was gay months earlier, and they rallied around him. Pinkel sat down with Sam and asked him what he wanted to do — come out now or leave it a team secret? Sam responded: "I do not want to have any distractions for our football team. We've got to concentrate on football, and I'll [come out] at another time." And so they did.
Craig Berube
| Oct 2, 2019
Jim Crews
| Sep 26, 2013
Ken Hitchcock
| Sep 27, 2012
Tony La Russa
| Sep 22, 2011
Mark Edwards
| Sep 29, 2010
Mike Anderson
| Sep 30, 2009
Rick Majerus
| Sep 24, 2008
Dave Duncan
| Sep 26, 2007
Jose Oquendo
| Sep 27, 2006
Jack Clark
| Sep 29, 2005
Joel Quenneville
| Sep 29, 2004
Joel Quenneville
| Sep 29, 2004
Brad Soderberg
St. Louis University
| Sep 24, 2003
Brad Soderberg
St. Louis University
| Sep 24, 2003
Dick Vermeil
| Sep 27, 2000
Dick Vermeil
| Sep 27, 2000