After a few uncertainty about whether or not the game would happen following Missouri players boycotting football activities in response to race-related tensions at their school, the two teams met Saturday night at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
Advertisement
An already tumultuous week for the University of Missouri-Columbia just got even worse, as head football coach Gary Pinkel announced on Friday that he will be resigning at the end of the 2015 season after being diagnosed with Lymphoma.
Tanner Mangum also threw for 244 yards for the Cougars (7-3), hitting Francis Bernard with a short TD pass with 7:19 left to get within 20-16.
The vocal leader of the group, Jonathan Butler, spoke to a few Missouri football players about his hunger strike and the demands that he and protesters known as Concerned Student 1950 had of the university.
“Because of the week, (this win) will be up there forever”, said Pinkel. I think he’s doing a really nice job with the team he now has and making the best out of a unique situation, including their quarterback situation and a really tough defense.
Pinkel, who miraculously kept his team together and focused during all of this off-field controversy, announced the day before the game on the team bus that he was stepping down at the end of the season due to something he’d hidden from the team: he had been battling cancer.
The Tigers forced a fumble on the next BYU possession, then drove down the field and extended the lead to 20-10, before hanging on for the victory.
The move shocked the campus after racial protests had put it in the national spotlight and Pinkel had backed his players’ threatened boycott of today’s game against Brigham Young. In a game that featured three field goals through the first two quarters, the Tigers found a few offensive consistency in the second half in a game it needed for its bowl hopes.
After getting help from a five yard penalty on the Mizzou defense, Algie Brown ran the ball in for a touchdown on a perfectly called draw play that gave the Cougars their first (and only) lead of the game at 10-6.
“With Gary stepping down at the end of the season, we are losing one of the great leaders in our profession at developing and preparing student-athletes for both football and life”, said Alabama coach Nick Saban, who was a teammate of Pinkel’s at Kent State.
Advertisement
“It was emotional, for sure”, Tigers linebacker Mike Scherer said. “We are extremely appreciative of all that he has done for Mizzou”. We wanted to rally for each other, no matter our color, our race. A spokesman for the Chiefs said security made a mistake not letting the fan in. “It’s just very flattering”. That’s the biggest thing you’re going to miss, the kids. “That’s what you do this for”.
