Like father, like son
Missouri tight end lives Coffman Way.
By DAVE MATTER of the Tribune's staff
Published Thursday, October 23, 2008
Less than 48 hours after Missouri came stumbling home from Texas, the player least responsible for the Tigers' second consecutive loss did something no one expected. Tight end Chase Coffman stood up and spoke out.
Coffman's record-setting performance attracted a crowd of reporters Monday, but while his teammates mostly answered questions with blank stares, shrugged shoulders and empty clichés, Coffman used the opportunity to express some candid sounds of frustration.
"Yeah, we were definitely flat at the beginning of the game," he said, referring to Missouri's five-touchdown deficit that turned into a 56-31 defeat. "That's something you're always going to be disappointed with." Texas Coach "Mack Brown said it best before the game: 'If you can't get up for a game like this, you might as well just go home.' We just didn't show up in the first half."
As reporters huddled around the 6-foot-6 senior - OK, more like under him - Coffman's voice carried more bite than its usual sleepy tone.
"I think we need to do a better job as leaders of the team getting prepared and getting everybody else prepared," he said, "and letting them know we can't just show up and put up points."
It was the sort of message Paul Coffman has been nudging his son to deliver. In a phone interview yesterday, Paul Coffman, who spent 11 seasons playing tight end in the NFL, recalled a recent conversation his son had with former MU teammate Martin Rucker, a rookie tight end with the Cleveland Browns.
"T. Rucker has told him there are guys on the team in Cleveland who talk back to the coaches or who don't work hard in practice," Paul Coffman said from his home in Peculiar. "And Chase made the comment, 'Gosh, if that happened to me, I'd have to say something.'
"I think he's kind of seeing that he's got a platform, that he can stand up and say to somebody, 'Hey, you need to work harder or get more committed and not worry about where we're ranked or what awards we're going to win. Just play like we've done the last two years trying to build the program and get back to the things we do best.' "
"It's a learning process," Paul Coffman continued. "As big as these guys are, they're still kids. But they're learning how to be leaders. And sometimes, even though you've got talent, it goes back to the old saying, 'Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.' "
Call it the Coffman Way.
It took shape in the 1970s when Paul was a standout tight end on some horrendous Kansas State teams. He joined the program as a walk-on and left as an All-Big Eight player.
"When I was at K-State we were arguably the worst college football program in the United States. Every week we'd get beat 50-0," Paul said. "But you play football because you love the game."
In 1978, Paul caught the eye of a Green Bay assistant during a tryout for K-State teammate Gary Spani and later signed with the club as an undrafted free agent. He didn't catch a pass his rookie season but spent the next decade carving out a Pro Bowl career - without ever forgetting where he came from.
"Ken MacAffee was the No. 1 tight end taken that year," Paul Coffman said, referring to the seventh overall pick out of Notre Dame. "He ended up playing two years."
Early in his NFL career, as the Packers were routinely missing the playoffs, Paul was disgusted when teammates would sit out meaningless December games with minor injuries.
"I was like, 'What are you doing? Your ankle hurts so you're not going to play this week?' " Paul said. "I just couldn't believe that people weren't playing. You play because you love the game, not because you have a chance to go to the playoffs or you're going to make a lot of money or win a championship."
Along the way, Paul's oldest son inherited that same gene, that dogged revulsion for anything less than one's best effort, the Coffman Way. Sounds corny, but it's making an All-American of Missouri's leading career receiver.
Even when Missouri had no shot to rally Saturday night at Texas, there was Coffman snatching passes, bullying through Longhorns, fighting for extra yardage. On Missouri's last possession, when the outcome was all but finalized, Coffman weaved around a screen from the umpire, hurdled safety Nolan Brewster and lunged through a scrum of tacklers for a 31-yard gain, MU's longest play from scrimmage.
"It was amazing," tight ends coach Bruce Walker said. "That gets what we call the 'slow motion laser treatment' in our" meeting "room."
Playing with that sort of effort, when the score becomes irrelevant, Coffman attributes to his dad.
"That's what he's taught me," Coffman said. "If you're not playing to win, and you don't have a very good chance to win, you're still playing for your pride out there."
If any Tiger gets a free pass for the two-game losing streak, it's their hurdling tight end. In losses to Oklahoma State and Texas, Coffman established his career-high for receptions with an offense that's struggled to move the ball unless he and Jeremy Maclin are catching passes. With 12 catches at Texas, Coffman surpassed Rucker as Missouri's career leader, giving him 213 overall and putting him within reach of MU's trinity of receiving records. Coffman already holds the touchdown reception record (24) and needs 339 receiving yards to eclipse Justin Gage's career mark of 2,704.
Along with all the records, as No. 16 Missouri (5-2, 1-2 Big 12) prepares for Saturday's homecoming game against Colorado (4-3, 1-2), Coffman's found his voice, too.
"He's seen that talk can be cheap a lot of times," Paul Coffman said. "He's been reluctant to say anything because he knows there's a possibility" he "can make a mistake, too. But more and more, he's saying, 'Everybody makes mistakes, but at least I'm out there working hard and doing the extra things that need to be done.' "