Since the 2007 season, Missouri has accumulated a 74-30 record and four division championships.

Some stars have made their way through Columbia, Mo., during that time and donned the black and gold Tigers uniform. Guys like Jeremy Maclin, Aldon Smith, Sheldon Richardson, and many others have all had a direct impact on the program’s success.

But one constant remains throughout Missouri’s rise in the Big 12 and now in the SEC — head coach Gary Pinkel.

Rising from the ashes

To fully understand the magnitude of the coaching job Pinkel has done at Missouri, one must look at the football program prior to his arrival.

And it wasn’t much of a program.

Between 1984 and 2000, Missouri had only two winning seasons and won just two bowl games. The Tigers were victorious in only 33 percent of their games.

Enter in Pinkel.

Since 2001, the Tigers have nearly doubled their winning percentage to 62 percent, achieved nine winning seasons and nine bowl wins. More than winning in college football, Pinkel’s famed “Mizzou Made” player development carried over into the next level with seven first-round NFL draft picks since 2009.

Pinkel’s success in the Big 12 warranted the SEC’s attention when the conference discussed expansion and the Tigers were accepted into college football’s premier conference.

The success didn’t stop there, however. Following a disappointing 5-7 inaugural season in the SEC, the 14-year head coach and his teams have taken the SEC by storm in their first three years in the conference, posting a 13-2 conference record since the start of the 2013 season — a record only matched by Alabama.

Now, the Tigers are one game away from their second consecutive trip to the SEC Championship, thanks in large part to arguably the best coaching job of Pinkel’s career.

This wasn’t supposed to happen

Despite winning the SEC East in 2013, Missouri was an afterthought in the division for 2014. This was supposed to be South Carolina, Georgia or Florida’s year.

If the 31-27 loss to Indiana wasn’t the knockout blow, then it was the 34-0 shutout at home to the UGA. Finally the team that didn’t have the name recognition on the back of the jerseys like Alabama, Auburn or any of the other SEC heavyweights was where it belonged — not atop the SEC East.

But here they are.

In the final week of the season, Missouri still controls its own destiny in the SEC East, and frankly, the credit falls directly on the shoulders of Pinkel and his players, not other teams’ failures.

Yes, the Tigers needed a loss by UGA at some point to regain their first-place position, but Friday’s game against Arkansas will mark the third-straight game in which Missouri is in a “win-or-go-home” scenario.

A pressure-packed situation that not all teams can handle, but this Pinkel-led team has risen to the task as road underdogs in its first two games of this stretch and now have just one game remaining.

It hasn’t been very pretty at times this season. In fact, that’s been the case more times than not.

However, I think that’s where the beauty lies in what Pinkel has accomplished this season. The Tigers are far from a perfect team. Inconsistency runs rampant on offense and Missouri is undisciplined on the field, committing 87 penalties in 11 games, the most in the SEC by 11 penalties.

And despite the obvious deficiencies, the Tigers are still at the top tied with Alabama and Mississippi State for the best conference record.

“When things get tough,” Pinkel said earlier in November, “I get more focused and more energized than I do feeling sorry for myself or feeling bad. … I don’t think you really know all the time, but I thought we could have a really good football team.”

The Tigers are in a position virtually the entire SEC is envious of — controlling your own destiny with one game to go.

Friday is the make or break point for Missouri’s SEC Championship hopes, and regardless of the outcome, 2014 was a success thanks to Pinkel’s ability to keep his team focused in one of the better coaching jobs of the season.

But at this point, we shouldn’t be surprised.