The pane of reflective glass hangs on the wall above the sink. Like most of us, Missouris 6-foot-3 middle linebacker brushes his teeth in front of his bathroom mirror and checks his reflection as he gets dressed each morning. But the mirrors purpose goes beyond self-care or self-admiration the ink stains left on its silver surface point to something deeper.

On this particular bathroom mirror, with the help of his Dry Erase markers, Cale Garrett scribbles his goals and aspirations.

Like any good planner, hes organized. Cale arranges the mirror into segments; one is devoted to life ambitions both present and future, another to personal objectives. Theres a space dedicated to traveling, too, and a corner reserved for his hobbies. Playing the piano is one.

In the very middle, though, Cale lays out his most important goals. These are written in big, bold lettering and relate to football. As of Week 8, the primary aim for the man leading Missouri with 55 tackles this fall, spelled out in the center of the bathroom mirror, reads as such: Be a better tackler.

The practice is rooted in equal parts visualization and self-actualization. Put your hopes and dreams up on the mirror, stare at them each day, then go out and make them happen. Lindi Burns first began using the process in her work selling cleaning supplies to remain on top of her sales goals and commission numbers.

She passed the method down to each of her children, Cale the last of them. He committed to it with the most vigor. Reach a goal, wipe it off, add a new one.

Lindi recalls a time when the ambitions her son wrote on his mirror were more concrete and farther out of reach than the ones he has today a time long before he became the 230-pound burgeoning bundle of intensity and the heart of Missouris defense he is now, when scholarship offers werent pouring in, because really they never did, and the idea that he might play football someday at a Power Five school was a pipe dream.

But dreams, and outsized ones at that, were plentiful for Cale. And so he did then what he does now: He scrawled his goals all over the bathroom mirror and tirelessly chased them down.

The ink on the mirror helped Cale go from unheralded recruit to immediate contributor for Missouri, and then to a centerpiece of its defense.

Now theyre pushing him even farther, past a goal and a place he almost never reached.

Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016

Lindi had all the decorations she needed.

National Signing Day Feb. 3 was just four days away, which meant that on Wednesday, Cale would officially commit to play at the Naval Academy in front of a few hundred people expected to attend the signing event. So by Saturday morning, Lindi had purchased all the navy-and-gold festoons she could find at Party City.

Then came the phone call that sent Lindi and her son into a five-day spiral that changed their lives forever.

Suddenly, Missouri had fewer signees that it’d expected; a spot opened up for Cale. Early that Saturday morning, Tigers assistant coach Andy Hill called Greg Jones, Cale’s head coach at Kearney High School.

At 9 a.m., Jones sat across from Cale and Lindi in their living room and passed along the offer they had always dreamed would come. Jones expected the news to be met with excitement.

But the immediate reaction from mother and son alike was anger. Yes, this was the one theyd hoped for longer than either could remember. In the previous two years, they had done everything in their power to will it into existence. But with January fading into February, they’d come to accept that an offer from Missouri, or any Power Five program for that matter, just wasnt going to happen. Cale was going to Navy. They felt comfortable with it.

During Cales junior and senior years, mother and son spent countless hours in the car together, traveling from one Midwest recruiting camp to the next. One campus visit after another. Trips to Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Western Illinois and others. Each offered a brief sense of false confidence. Only one yielded anything at all. Western Illinois, of the Missouri Valley Conference, offered.

At the preparatory camps, Cale put on impressive performances. He wasnt going to let his talent and drive go unnoticed, and it almost never did. But when he came off the field, the feedback was always the same:

Thanks for coming out, youre close, theyd tell him. Just keep on working

Scouts told Cale hed never play in the SEC; he didnt have the speed to compete at the highest level.

That was the hang-up everywhere we went, Lindi says.

The recruiting process left them deflated. There were letters from Bowling Green and Northern Iowa offering scholarships, but neither provided the big-time college football Cale always pictured himself playing. When Navy sent an offer his way, he saw it as a lifeline, and he and Lindi made an official visit to the campus on the coast of Marylands Chesapeake Bay.

They fell in love with the place immediately. The school was gorgeous. The crab a Maryland staple was delicious. Upon meeting Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo, things clicked. He saw the potential in Cale that no one else seemed to recognize. Niumatalolo viewed him not just as a football player, but as a leader who could distinguish himself at the Naval Academy.

His kind words brought Lindi to what she calls happy tears.

It was a wonderful feeling, Lindi says.

The scenic campus in Annapolis felt like home. Thats why the 11th-hour offer from Missouri stirred such strong emotions. Why had it taken so long for the Tigers to come through?

Soon, though, tempers cooled, and the realization of the opportunity that had just been placed in front of them quickly came into sight. Missouri was offering a chance to play SEC football just 143 miles from their doorstep. It was the offer he had always chased. It was the goal he inscribed on his mirror. It was too good to pass up.

And so they showered, dressed and hopped in the car for the two-hour drive to Columbia. Cale verbally committed to Missouri that day.

When they returned home to Kearney, Lindi went to Party City. The navy-and-gold adornments she had purchased would no longer work; she exchanged them all for others, these ones were black and gold.

Everything changed that Saturday in late January. Five days later, Cale was on campus for good.

The slow guy in the middle

Toss a Super Ball around an empty room, and youll get a feel for how Cale Garrett moves on the football field.

Like one of those synthetic polymer bouncy balls, he caroms from one boundary to the next with reckless abandon, eventually reaching every inch of the space he inhabits. When he makes contact, its with a brute force that sends most flying in the opposite direction.

cale garrett Missouri linebacker Cale Garrett (47) hits South Carolina quarterback Michael Scarnecchia (12) during the first half an Oct. 6 game in Columbia, S.C.

And just like the round, vulcanized toy balls, he never stops going.

At Kearney High School, he was the starting middle linebacker all four years. Even as a freshman, already standing at a towering 6-foot-3, Cale appeared to be a man among boys all the way until he removed his helmet and revealed the youthful face he still has today.

From the first day until the final play of his senior season, the 2015 Missouri Class 4 Defensive Player of the Year was a ball of energy and a bastion of intensity. In his senior season, the coaching staff at Kearney got creative, and decided to see what that lethal combination might look like on the offensive side of the ball. Cale barreled through helpless defenders as a running back that fall to the tune of eight touchdowns on 238 yards, and he added another score through the air.

His level of ferocity didnt change in practice, especially on defense. At one point, the Bulldogs ran out of willing scout team running backs. Players on Cales own team were too afraid of what the big presence in middle might do to them. Even when he tried to let up, Cale still often laid out anyone, friend or foe, who entered his territory.

Cale Garrett and slowing down? Josh Gray, a coach at Kearney, says. Those two things just dont go together.

Yet speed is very nearly what kept Cale from his shot at playing SEC football; and when he arrived at Missouri in 2016, he sought out ways to make up for his slow pace so it could never get in his way again.

In high school, Cales love for the game showed in his tenacity on the field and his eagerness to learn about its intricacies. He wanted to know not just the how, but the why. In Columbia, he took it to the next level. For as full-throttle as he goes on the field, Cale now works as tirelessly off of it.

Most days inside the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex, when practice is over and the weight training sessions are completed, Cale can be found in one of its many meeting rooms pouring over film. As plays unfold on the screen, he watches with a particular attention to detail. He reads them as if hes out there himself, always trying to stay one step ahead.

Vernon Hargreaves, Missouris inside linebackers coach, has seen plenty of players who could run fast but didnt play like it, ones who had all the physical attributes but lacked the awareness and play recognition to react when they needed to. Their speed wasnt enough to make up for it.

In his middle linebacker, Hargreaves sees the opposite. Cale has a knack for retaining information, and the time hes spent studying the game allows him to diagnose opposing offenses in ways others can’t. Its how he plays faster than he truly is.

He probably knows the defense better than I do, Hargeaves says.

Cale cant change his 40-yard dash time, but he doesnt have to. He bridges the gap by knowing where to be and always ending up in that spot.

What was once a hurdle, Cale turned into weapon. His lack of speed made him Missouris most productive defender.

Missouri linebacker Cale Garrett tackles Tennessee running back John Kelly Missouri linebacker Cale Garrett tackles Tennessee running back John Kelly during a game on Faurot Field.

Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016

When pen hit paper on Wednesday afternoon, and Cale was officially a Missouri Tiger, Lindi felt a sense of relief.

The days that followed the late offer were busy and stressful. Plans were changed, and adjustments were made. There was the call to Navy, too. That one was tough.

I knew I could have had it really good over there, Cale says.

It was a whirlwind week, but when all the forms were signed and everything was set in stone, mother and son took a step back and exhaled. Yet the bliss lasted only a matter of minutes. Not long after Cale gave his signature, Hill was on the phone with Lindi.

Missouri wanted him to enroll early and participate in spring camp; they could have Cale in classes by next week. They needed him on campus the next day.

So Cale and Lindi pulled off in an afternoon what many families take a whole summer to do: They packed for college. After several hasty trips to Wal-Mart and another drive down to Columbia, Cale was moved in. It was a bit too fast for Lindi.

I remember getting home, looking around and thinking, Woah, that just happened, she says.

For Cale, it was even more overwhelming.

Days earlier, his mind was on Navy, but the Midshipmen werent expecting him until July. Now he was playing alongside the likes of Charles Harris and Michael Scherer and trying to tackle runners like Ish Witter. Cale felt lost.

He was no longer the big dog at Kearney, comfortable with his role on the team. The first few weeks at Missouri, he was a nobody. People more often assumed he was swimmer than a linebacker. This was a complete restart.

In a sense, the unusual beginning fit right in for Cale. Why would it be easy or straightforward? It never had been for him.

But Cale recovered.

He impressed the coaching staff during spring camp and appeared in all 12 games as a freshman that fall, finishing seventh in total tackles. A year later, he became a starter and led the team with 105. Now a junior, hes a team captain, and although those early days at Missouri seem ages ago, Cale still draws from them.

I still have flashbacks to being that guy with something to prove. That drives me.

Linebacker Cale Garrett catches the ball Linebacker Cale Garrett catches the ball during a practice at the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex.

Chasing the dreams on the mirror

When Cale was young, hed scour YouTube for videos of inspirational figures. He was a hard worker, and the clips he found featured similar people. Hed spend hours watching, always trying to draw things from them.

There was always something about Muhammad Ali. Cale loved how the famed boxer exuded confidence without being arrogant. Alis poetic speeches motivated him. His quotes gave him life; Cale now has one tattooed on his arm.

Being that good and believing in yourself when nobody else does, Cale says, I think is really awesome.

On his mirror now, in the section reserved for football-related goals, Cale has a new aspiration: Be a vocal leader.” In the past, he’s led by example. But now the veteran wants to be more outspoken, and he’s turning to the man and the words that inspired him for guidance.

Like every other goal jotted on his mirror in Dry Erase, Cale is staring at this one each morning, trying to incorporate it into his daily life. When he feels like hes fulfilled it and boy you know he will hell wipe this one off like all the others before it.

For a moment, the ink stains will be all that remain. Then Cale will find another ambition to add.

And just like the others the dream of playing football at Missouri, the goal of starring for an SEC defense hell chase it down until he can break out the washcloth and wipe the mirror down again.

Supervising editors are Eric Lee and Michael Knisley.