In final season, Garrett looks to lead Missouri to mountaintop
HOOVER, AL — On the morning of July 6, Cale Garrett’s alarm sounded at 3:30 a.m. The Missouri linebacker didn’t consider hitting the snooze button. He never does. Taking the first of exactly 43,016 steps on the day, Garrett grabbed a couple packages of Ramen noodles (which he would later eat uncooked), a water bottle and a few other supplies. He then set out for a 26-mile, 12-plus hour hike on the Barr Trail to the summit of Pikes Peak and back.
The trip was Garrett’s third time ascending to the 14,115-foot high summit. He’s also completed a three-day, two-night hike to the South Rim to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and back. When he’s not hiking or playing football, he enjoys playing the piano, and he composes his own electronic music.
Suffice it to say Garrett is not your typical football player. Ask nearly anyone who knows him, and one of the first words used to describe him is often some variation of “weird.” His coach at Kearney high school, Greg Jones, described Garrett as “different.” So did Missouri quarterback Kelly Bryant. Head coach Barry Odom he called his middle linebacker “strange.” Cornerback DeMarkus Acy described him as “a wild guy.”
“I would not want to spend my break climbing a wall,” Acy said. “That’s hard work. We already work a lot. So Cale’s a different type of dude, man. He explores a lot of options, and one of my options is not to go with Cale on my breaks.”
While Acy and others may not share Garrett’s interest in the wilderness or piano, each paid him a high compliment: he’s comfortable in his own skin. He accepts his natural weaknesses and works tirelessly to overcome them, transforming himself from a high school prospect considered too slow to play for a Power Five college into the only Missouri defender selected to the watch list for the Bednarik Award, presented to the nation’s top defensive player. Not in spite of his eccentric hobbies and intense personality, but because of them, he enters his senior season the vocal leader of the Missouri defense and, in Odom’s words, “one of the best linebackers ever to play at Mizzou.”
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After one of his trips to Pikes Peak, Garrett had a revelation. That’s one of the reasons he likes being alone in the wilderness, he said. He does his best thinking when he can step away from the bustle of football and let his mind flow freely. He didn’t say as much, but this particular revelation encapsulates both his own football journey and one of the core messages he seeks to preach to his teammates.
There are three ways to get to the summit of Pikes Peak, Garrett explained. You could drive. You could take a train (at least, you used to be able to; he doesn’t think the train is still running). Or, you could be like Garrett and walk. No matter what, the view from the summit is the same. But after making the hike, the top of the mountain feels far more rewarding. Plus, the hike itself, with Garrett’s only living companions being two moose, is half the fun.
“That’s whenever I kind of realized that the process is way more important than the product, way more important than the end result,” Garrett said. “Because if you do everything right throughout the process, usually the outcome will take care of itself, and if the outcome doesn’t turn out the way you want it to, you can live with yourself.”
Growing up, Garrett was determined to earn a spot on Missouri’s football team, but for much of his high school career, the climb appeared to be too steep. Garrett has always enjoyed above-average size. (His mother, Lindi Burns, recalls that when Garrett was a toddler, her uncle, who used to coach football at Pittsburg State University, took one look at Garrett and said “that’s a linebacker.”) He even started for the varsity team all four years at Kearney, the only freshman Jones has started in his 23-year high school career.
But when Garrett worked out for the coaching staffs at Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State and other nearby Power Five schools, he heard the same refrain: He was too slow.
Garrett dreamed of playing in his home state and in the SEC, which he believed would give him the best chance to reach the NFL, so the lack of interest from Missouri especially hurt. Instead, he committed to play at the Naval Academy prior to his senior year of high school. There, he would have a chance to pursue his other childhood dream. When he about was five years old, Garrett approached Burns and told her his two goals in life were to play in the NFL and join the Navy SEALs.
All that changed in late January of 2016. Another linebacker had withdrawn his commitment to Missouri, and Jones got a call from assistant coach Andy Hill. The Tigers wanted to offer Garrett a scholarship.
Jones advised Hill that he better wait a few hours. It would probably be best if Jones approached Burns and Garrett with the news first, he said. Burns admits she was “a bit salty” when she first heard the news that Garrett was essentially a backup plan for Missouri.
“I had watched my child go to all of their camps and the junior days and the games and watched his other buddies who were on the recruiting circuit with him get offers and him not get offers, and as a mother you’re very protective, so I wasn’t having very pleasant things to say,” she said.
The bitterness quickly gave way to celebration. The chance to play in the SEC and less than two hours from home was too good for Garrett to pass up. He committed to Missouri that day and traveled to Columbia to enroll in college a semester early shortly thereafter.
Odom jokes now about almost missing on Garrett, calling himself a “dummy." At one point last season, he approached Burns and asked if she was still mad at him for waiting so long. She said no, of course not, but her son hasn't forgotten the late offer. He harbors no bitterness toward Odom, but being viewed as a backup plan provided a chip on his shoulder he has worn ever since. He also hasn’t forgotten how badly he wanted to don a Missouri uniform, and how unlikely it seemed until the final hours of his recruitment, and he has made sure to savor each opportunity to do so.
“I think it’s just part of who I am now,” he said. “I think back to the day and it feels like yesterday. So, I mean, I’m constantly reminded of it. It’s part of me.”
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Three days before climbing to the summit of Pikes Peak, on the first day of his Colorado vacation, Garrett climbed the Manitou Incline, a staircase comprised of 2,744 steps at the base of the mountain. He set out with a goal in mind: to complete the climb before the album playing in his earbuds — “Presence” by the French electronic artist Petit Biscuit — concluded. The album lasted 54 minutes. He made it.
That’s characteristic of Garrett, a relentless goal-setter. He writes his goals on his bathroom mirror so that he sees them at the start of each day, and he works tirelessly to be able to wipe each one off.
The goal that has required the most effort through the years has been improving his speed. As early as eighth grade, Burns remembers her son spending hours on summer days putting himself through speed and agility drills with a ladder and cones on their front lawn instead of hanging out with his friends at the pool. Now, Garrett watches film religiously, which he believes is the primary reason for the football instincts that allow him to make up for his lack of speed. Jones is most impressed that, even after making it to Missouri, and after tying for the SEC lead in solo tackles and being named to the all-conference second-team last season, Garrett still pursues his goals with the same vigor.
“You would think, you know, human nature says, alright, you’ve done this, so now you can back off a little,” Jones said. “But typical Cale, the more he achieves, the harder he works.”
Garrett’s teammates have been impressed by his work ethic, too. Bryant noted that Garrett can almost always be found in the team’s defensive meeting room watching film on his own, even when no one told him to. Acy said Garrett’s preparation off the field and intensity on it allow him to command respect from his teammates. Just as important, both players said Garrett’s hard-core personality is genuine. Whether he’s bent on climbing a mountain or improving his defensive technique, Garrett backs up his talk. That’s important to Garrett — to not be, in his words, a “phony.”
“It takes more energy to fake it, for one, and then for two, people see right through it,” Garrett said. “And if they don’t then they’re not the right type of people that you should be leading. So it’s just a lot easier to be genuine or to be comfortable in your own skin, because after awhile you get too tired to do anything else.”
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Upon reaching the summit of Pikes Peak in early afternoon, Garrett purchased two donuts and a hot chocolate. Of course, the 13-mile climb to that point made the taste delicious. But there was another moment that competed with the summit for the figurative high point of his trip.
The day before he hiked the Barr Trail, Garrett returned to the Manitou Incline with Burns in tow. Burns had completed half the climb two days prior, when her son raced the music album to the top. This time, Garrett wanted her to take all 2,744 steps. He walked by her side, offering encouragement like a football coach to a player.
“He was wonderful encouragement for me,” Burns said. “‘Come on, momma. You can do this. Your brain is the weakest part of your body. You got this. You got this.’”
Garrett said Burns likely hated him during the climb. Burns said she could barely walk the following day. But both said the sense of accomplishment upon reaching the top step made the experience worthwhile.
“When you get to the top, get a picture with her, and then just tell her you’re proud of her,” Garrett said.
For Garrett, this football season is about achieving not just his own goals, but experiencing success alongside his senior classmates. Multiple times Monday, he mentioned the culture fostered by the seniors, and that the group has a chance to “do something special.” Burns said he’s expressed more excitement about this team than each of the past three years. That excitement has inspired him to write new goals on the mirror and seek new ways to get better.
“He’s one of the hardest working kids I know,” Burns said. “I know I can say that because he’s my kid, but really, he truly inspires me.”
Like climbing the Manitou Incline steps with his mother, Garrett’s ultimate goal is to help push Missouri to college football’s mountaintop — or at least as high as the team is allowed to go, pending the result of its appeal of a postseason ban and other sanctions. His skill on the field and leadership off it will certainly play a pivotal role in the team’s success. But regardless of the end result, you can bet he will take time to enjoy the hard work along the way.