Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel leads his players onto the field before a game against BYU on Saturday in Kansas City.
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Now, in the wake of Pinkel’s announcement, Missouri must find someone to replace the consistent head coach in what will be a crowded market-jobs are already coming open at USC, South Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech, Maryland and IL.
Twenty minutes into Monday morning’s retirement news conference and “celebration” – as the athletics department branded it – at Mizzou Arena, Pinkel fought back tears. He was focused exclusively on beating BYU.
“It hasn’t set in”, Pinkel said.
“I’ve gotten a lot of calls and messages from around the country from players and coaches”, said Pinkel, 63, his voice thick with emotion.
Rhoades also touted Pinkel’s track record with respect to academics, including a 97-percent graduation for the football team during the last five years.
Pinkel tells all of his players that they have his phone number for life and they know how to find him. “That is a great lesson for that one, do not ever think that you are out”.
Safety Anthony Sherrils also believed the team would have boycotted even with Pinkel’s health concerns, saying “coach Pinkel supported us no matter what”.
The Cougars came into this pivotal game riding a two-game winning streak with a slight asterisk: Neither of the teams BYU played were Power 5 Conference teams, the likes of which BYU (now 7-3) hadn’t played since that pivotal loss at UCLA.
“I’ve got to do something, work more like a normal job, where I can be significant”, Pinkel said. “Coach Pinkel is going to be missed”.
Pinkel will leave Missouri with six years remaining on the contract he signed in April. The team joined a student activist group that had been trying to get the president’s attention for months over a series of racist events, and a graduate student, Jonathan Butler, who had started a hunger strike as part of the protest. Pinkel stood by his players and the boycott ended less than 48 hours later, when Tim Wolfe stepped down. He will finish his career as the winningest coach in school history and his 190 career wins is now the 19th-most in NCAA FBS history. He plans to resign as head coach at the end of the 2015 season. “He’s like a dad to us, really”. He did not address his prognosis or whether more treatments are planned.
“Someone asked me, ‘Would you rather die on the football field or die on the beach?'” he said. I’m going to miss their interest, being around them, scolding them and hugging them and touching them every day.
Pinkel came to Missouri in 2001 after 10 seasons at Toledo, and quickly built up the long-mediocre program. He won three division titles while the Tigers were in the Big 12. Maybe insolence. And possibly, ignorance because the Missouri Tigers were 4-5 and needed two more wins to become bowl eligible.
Missouri’s players made it clear Saturday after an emotional 20-16 victory against BYU at Arrowhead Stadium how they felt, surrounding Pinkel in a raucous dance circle at the conclusion of a live interview with the SEC Network. They can get the other when they play the Vols in what will be Pinkel’s final home game.
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“Our prayers for him and his family as he moves into the next stage of his life”, Mullen said.
