When Missouri State assistant coach Keith Pickens gets the hunger to step out on the practice floor and show a thing or two to the current crop of Bears, he often pays for it.
The check that comes due is paid for in pain, soreness and stiffness.
That seems to be what you’d expect from Pickens, who basically sacrificed his body for the Bears’ program as a player from 2009-2014.
Pickens fought through a ruptured patella tendon and a torn meniscus, plus a patella tendon scrape, all in his left knee, had a stress fracture in his right leg, plus an assortment of nagging sprained ankles and other less-serious ailments.