Colorado University Athletics
Former Buff Shinnick Honored By Gulf South After National Title Season
June 21, 2020 | Football, Alumni C Club, Neill Woelk
PENSACOLA, Fla. — Four years ago, Pete Shinnick led the West Florida Argonauts onto the field for the program's first-ever college football game.
The Argos didn't have a true practice field, their "locker room" consisted of a series of single-wide trailers converted into makeshift lockers and showers, and the coaches' office was another trailer.
But last week, Shinnick — a former University of Colorado offensive lineman under Bill McCartney — was named the Gulf South Conference's Coach of the Decade, despite having coached a program that existed for only four of the decade's 10 seasons.
That's what two national championship appearances and one national title in four years will do for a program.
"When we started, that was definitely not on my mind," Shinnick said with a chuckle over the weekend. "If there's' such a thing as being the furthest thing from my mind, that would have been it. When that award was announced, I was shocked. Bobby Wallace had come back to West Alabama and restarted that program and then finished very strongly at North Alabama. That's actually who I voted for because I felt like his accomplishments were fantastic."
But "fantastic" also fits what the Argos have done under Shinnick's guidance.
In 2017 — just the second year the program fielded a team — UWF made it all the way to the Division II national championship game before coming up short against Texas A&M-Commerce in the title game.
Then, after a 6-5 finish in 2018 that saw the Argos miss the playoffs, they bounced back last season to earn a playoff berth. UWF won five in a row in the postseason, including a 38-35 win over top-ranked Valdosta State in the second round, a 28-14 victory over No. 2 Ferris State in the semifinals and a 48-40 victory over Minnesota State in the championship game.
That gave UWF the distinction of becoming the second-fastest startup program to win a national title, coming on the heels of the 2017 season that saw the Argonauts become the fastest startup program ever to reach the national championship.
It's why the Gulf South's coaches picked Shinnick as their coach of the decade, even though he's been in the conference less than half of that time.
"For me it's a university award, it's an athletic department award, it's a coaching staff award, it's a player award," Shinnick said. "A lot of people worked really hard for this. I'm the guy who's the head coach, but the city of Pensacola has done so much for us — I'm blessed to be a part of it. It's been a fun four years. To get that award is shocking, amazing and very honoring as well."
UWF's success has definitely captured the hearts and minds of Pensacola, as the Argos were once again in the nation's top 25 in attendance.
"It's been terrific," Shinnick said. "The city of Pensacola has supported us in every possible way. We had watch parties all over throughout the playoffs. When we got off the plane from the national championship, there was a great crowd that met us at the airport. I couldn't be more pleased with how the city of Pensacola has embraced us and embraced what we've done."
The university has also pitched in and done its part in every way possible. The mobile home "locker rooms" have been replaced by a new 32,700-square-foot facility that includes a weight room, a football locker room, office space and meeting rooms. There is also a new practice field.
"The support we have received from every corner has been outstanding," Shinnick said. "It's been great."
Shinnick, who has been named the Division II National Coach of the Year twice, is 35-17 at UWF and 138-63 overall after previous head coaching stops at Azusa Pacific and UNC Pembroke.
And, like every other coach in the country this year, he and his staff are doing their best to adjust to the chaos created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Actually, I'm really pleased with the productivity we were able to get done and the amount of time we were able to spend on recruiting as well as playbooks over the last couple of months," Shinnick said. "We had 53 guys get over a 3.0 (grade-point average), so I'm pleased with what we were able to accomplish academically as well. There were actually some pluses in the face of the numerous challenges that came with this pandemic."
In fact, Shinnick said, he thinks the Argos will continue to utilize Zoom meetings even after they reconvene in August.
"What we learned is that we've become a lot more efficient," he said. "I can actually see the first part of fall camp in August where we are still doing position meetings in Zoom, even though we are all together. That way it's less time that we're all together as a group, and we can use our time as a group in different ways. There's so many things we've learned that we can take advantage of that I think will continue to help us through this process."
So what can Shinnick and the Argonauts do for an encore in Year Five?
"Keep doing it, keep it going," he said. "I think we have the best passing quarterback in the country, Austin Reed, who will be a sophomore. We've got a gifted set of receivers and we've got a lot of our defensive starters back. The objective is to keep finding ways to get better and keep finding ways to improve."
Reed, a transfer from Southern Illinois, last year threw for 4,089 yards and 40 touchdowns, while also rushing for six scores. He stepped into the starter's role in Week 2 and compiled a 13-1 record.
Shinnick's team is tentatively scheduled to begin voluntary workouts in early to mid-July, then start fall camp in early August. He believes his team will return with a willingness to go to work immediately.
"While we didn't go through spring ball, our offseason was as good as I've been around up to that point," he said. "We have a lot of mature guys who get it, understand what our culture is and want to continue to see us do great things. What they do know is that everybody wants to be a champion — and now that we are the champions, we're going to get everybody's best. Everybody in America is going to want to beat us and we'd better prepare every day."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
