APAt some point Sunday evening, rumors began to surface that Gary Pinkel was on his way out as Missouri’s head coach.
Perhaps fueled by Mizzou’s disappointing first season in the SEC, the speculation went that Pinkel would step down in short order, perhaps as early as Monday. While school officials didn’t specifically respond to the rumor mill’s belchings, they did issue a press release early this afternoon announcing that Pinkel would take part in a press conference Tuesday “to wrap-up 2012 season and look ahead to 2013 season.”
That was the first clue that the speculation was bogus. The second? Pinkel’s boss scoffing in the general direction of the conversation that had been bouncing off the vast expanses of Internet messageboards.
“Of course. Absolutely,” athletic director Mike Alden told the Columbia Daily Tribune when asked if Pinkel would return as the Tigers’ coach in 2013, before adding that he won’t force his football coach to make changes to his coaching staff, either.
“My thing is you want to empower your head coaches to do what they do, to run their programs the way that’s consistent with our core values. Gary does a great job with that.”
The Tigers were just 5-7 overall and 2-6 in conference play, a record that looked all the worse when viewed in the prism of Texas A&M, also a Big 12 refugee, and the outstanding season the Aggies enjoyed in their first season in the SEC.
The disappointment aside, it doesn’t appear that Pinkel, who will be entering his 13th season at the school next year, will be going anywhere anytime soon. If the Tigers struggle again in 2013? That might be another matter entirely.
I don’t think Gary Pinkel deserves to be fired at this time. Mizzou was competitive despite their record. He is a good coach and I think they need to see if Coach Pinkel can recruit to SEC standards.
What did they expect? Their first year in the SEC. About the same as their last few years in the BIg 12. Not bad for Pinkel.
I think it is time for both school and coach to go separate ways but Alden is doing the right thing by allowing him to continue with no interference by him if it goes badly next year he can fire him or convince him to retire. I personally belive we don’t have major issues at mizzou our facilities are nice we do have major population in state just got to keep convincing kids to come to mu instead of other schools. That said if your not going to change your oc and dc major overhaul of the systems they are running is needed in the least. If they have another bad yr what ever coach they hire next will have the comfort of knowing the ad won’t be breathing down your neck for mediocrity cause that’s what we have had from pinkel and he has been here for 13 yrs. There is talent NFL level talent (recent drafties gabbert, Alden smith, maklin, hood, witherspoon, and Moore to name a few) at mizzou need the right coach to take us to the Next level. I know people on here last week said be careful running off your coach and ending up like Tenn or wazzou. I say to you guys Tenn will be back when just like mizzou they find the right coach. Mizzou will never end up like wazzou or any other low level bcs schools due to factors such as population of the state (6 million) with 2 top 25 population towns (kc and stl), an advanced journalism school and major donors (suchs as the kroenke family who own Wal-Mart) and last but not least there in the sec where if you want to play in front of NFL scouts they get there players mostly from that conference.
Pinkel is alright in my book. First year in the SEC and I thought we did alright. Sure we lost a few heart breakers but ultimately I thought we were competetive (that’s something Auburn can’t say). If anyone needs to go, it’s out OC David Yost. Dude calls all the WR screens, jet sweeps, and QB draws in a league that you can’t outsmart anybody and that’s athletic at all positions from top to bottom. We tried going East-West in a North-South conference.
Besides Yost, I think we should keep our staff intact.
I think Gary Pinkell is a good coach..he deserves another year to get the program back to winning ways..think of how bad Missouri was when he took over from Larry Smith?
injuries killed them this year…QB James Franklin was in out and of the lineup…RB Henry Josey will be back from his acl injury suffered last year…WR Darius White, a transfer from Texas, will add to the WR depth to go along with Dorial Green-Beckham…they need to run far more vertical routes next season…
if mizzou throws another WR bubble screen, which is their favorite offense play, Im going to scream….at least we wont see another one in 2012….
next years schedule looks challenging…here is the schedule:
Saturday
08/31/13 Murray State Racers
Faurot Field, Columbia, MO TBA —
Saturday
09/07/13 Toledo Rockets
Faurot Field, Columbia, MO TBA —
Saturday
09/14/13 — TBA or Open Date — —
Saturday
09/21/13 at Indiana Hoosiers
Memorial Stadium, Bloomington, IN TBA —
Saturday
09/28/13 — TBA or Open Date — —
Saturday
10/05/13 at Vanderbilt Commodores
Vanderbilt Stadium, Nashville, TN TBA —
Saturday
10/12/13 at Georgia Bulldogs
Sanford Stadium, Athens, GA TBA —
Saturday
10/19/13 Florida Gators
Faurot Field, Columbia, MO TBA —
Saturday
10/26/13 South Carolina Gamecocks
Faurot Field, Columbia, MO TBA —
Saturday
11/02/13 Tennessee Volunteers
Faurot Field, Columbia, MO TBA —
Saturday
11/09/13 at Kentucky Wildcats
Commonwealth Stadium, Lexington, KY TBA —
Saturday
11/16/13 — TBA or Open Date — —
Saturday
11/23/13 at Ole Miss Rebels
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, MS TBA —
Saturday
11/30/13 Texas A&M Aggies
Faurot Field, Columbia, MO
they have a date available for another game during one of their bye weeks…guess who else has an open game available on Sept 28, 2013:
Kansas.
get er done
Kansas doesn’t want any part of the butt kicking mu would give them in football and is scared even more that the only team that matters there basketball team would lose on national tv to us to. So let them hide out in there little smug world. Come on ku we will call you out anytime anyplace quit being scaredie cats oh I mean birdies and take your but kicking like a man.
Most overrated coach at any level. Any sport. U break down his schedules. Take out the cupcakes. This is a .500 coach whose teams get blown out in big games. Makes no half time adjustments and employs morons as assistant coaches. Pretty clear Mizzou enjoys being mediocre.