Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel announced Friday that he will resign his position after the conclusion of the 2015-16 football season.
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At the end of April, early May of this year, Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel learned he had Follicular lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Pinkel said he thought he stunted his team’s mental progress following the Tigers’ involvement with the student-led, on-campus protests of racial issues at Mizzou by prematurely dropping a bombshell on his players with news of his eventual resignation. “Missouri will play BYU in Kansas City on Saturday night in a game that had already taken on huge significance given his players” boycott that helped force the resignation of University president Tim Wolfe.
Pinkel’s 191 career wins rank second among active Football Bowl Subdivision coaches behind Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, who is also retiring after the season, and 19th on the all-time FBS wins list. It took him several moments to collect himself, but he said he would miss that interaction.
Prior to Pinkel’s arrival at Mizzou, the football program only had one 10-win season in previous 110 years.
“You definitely could tell he had something to tell us, but we didn’t know, and he was crying”, Moore said.
Peck said: “I would just say overall it’s just a feeling of disappointment. But guess what, coach, you don’t get to decide this one”, Rhoades said.
The 63-year-old Pinkel said his decision had nothing to do with the turmoil at Missouri, or with the team’s struggles this season. Win one for coach. “There’s a lot of people who have cancer that’s a whole lot worse than the cancer I’ve got”.
Pinkel made his way to the lobby, where Chiefs wide receiver and former Missouri All-American Jeremy Maclin was waiting.
After the meeting, a photo appeared on Pinkel’s personal Twitter account showing Mizzou coaches and players with their arms locked, along with the hashtag of the student protest group Concerned Student 1950.
Missouri Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel walks on to the field before a college football game against … He’s had a few historical games here, so I just feel like we wanted it that much more for him. “I love this university”. “Coach was a father figure to me….I know he will fight!!”
“He came up to me and looked really sad and said, ‘Coach, are you OK?'” Pinkel recalled.
Pinkel said he wanted to make it very clear that his is not doing poorly, and that his disease is manageable but it’s one that will never go away. When asked about it after Saturday’s 20-16 win over BYU, Pinkel paused and his voice dipped as he pondered life without Faurot Field.
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“That is probably what I am going to miss the most, just being around the players”, an emotional Pinkel said. “When I talked to them, it was remarkably emotional for me”. “I love Mizzou, I love this place. I’m going to miss them, scolding them when I had to scold them, hugging and touching them every day”. “That’s what you do the rest of your life, you manage it and deal with it. I’ve read 100,000 things on it since (May)”.
