one of scherzer's coaches at missouri, tony vitello, was tasked with helping to recruit him, and eventually helped him to pitch with more balance and control and to stop leaping at hitters, which frequently caused him to miss up and in to right-handed batters. ever energetic, in his early baseball career scherzer exerted so much effort in his windup that his "head whip" constantly caused his cap to fall off. he did not pitch the final 50 days of his freshman season, instead working out and doing long toss, while gaining velocity in the process. vitello and head coach tim jamieson trained him in a drill to balance on his back leg with more coordination and not to fall over his front foot. scherzer modified it and worked constantly over the following winter, and returned his sophomore year to produce a 1.86 earned run average (era) and 131 strikeouts in 106 innings pitched over 16 games. in 2005, he won the big 12 pitcher of the year award.