gary pinkel

[ozark trout fisher]

 As a lifelong Mizzou fan living in CoMo, the events of the past week have left me pretty drained. A lot of good things happened, a lot of terrible things happened, and my head will be spinning for awhile. Check back with me in a few weeks and I will have started to make sense of it. Maybe.
 

Here's a list of just a few of the things we've been through:

1. Our chancellor and president resigned within 24 hours of each other.

2. Multiple threats (thank God, none of which turned into violent acts) all but shut down the university for a day, and had everyone who was around was way too tense.

3. It looked like we were not going to play a major, nationally televised football game.

4. Our all-time great coach resigned due to cancer.

5. We went out and won said football game despite being significant underdogs, salvaging hope of one last postseason appearance for Pinkel.

6. Somewhere in there basketball played (and won) its first two games of the season. Usually that's the highlight. As it stands, I'm not sure anyone noticed.

I'm exhausted right now, far too much so to even state a coherent opinion on campus events, let alone engage in an argument.  I've heard enough yelling the past few days to last a lifetime. But I still love this place.

 

 

[Al Agnew]

3 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

I agree, his health is way more important than football, which is why he probably should have resigned before the season started since he's known about the cancer since May.  He should have just announced it after the last game of the season. 

 

On a side note, I'm not sure why the team didn't play the rest of the season like they did against a pretty good BYU team.

If he had waited until after the season, it would have put Mizzou at a bit of a disadvantage in hiring the next coach.  By announcing it now, it puts the college in a good position to start putting out feelers to prospective coaches before the schools that fire their coach at the end of the season can.

[ozark trout fisher]

Yep. For whatever reason a whole lot of coaches at good programs have been fired/resigned/retired by this point in the season, at schools that will be competing with Mizzou for its next head coaching candidate. These keeps those schools from getting too much of a jump.

But more than that, this is cancer we're talking about, not someone retiring because they're tired or ready to move on. "Selfishness" regarding the remainder of the season is extraordinarily insignificant.

[joeD]

Loved and respected coach has cancer and decides to quit after season. Yet, his timing and motives immediately come into question. God bless America.

[ozark trout fisher]

1 hour ago, joeD said:

Loved and respected coach has cancer and decides to quit after season. Yet, his timing and motives immediately come into question. God bless America.

YEP.

Lymphoma is darn serious. And Pinkels hand was apparently forced by his diagnosis being leaked to the press. A little empathy would seem to be in order.

[BATCAB27]

Tom Herman, coach at U of Houston is a name I keep hearing being thrown around.

[Al Agnew]

Houston is going all out to keep Herman...trying to figure out how to renegotiate his contract for a lot more money.  He may not move, and if he does it will take a lot of money to attract him.  Lots of people seem to think that if he leaves it will be to South Carolina.  At least one prediction is Baber, the Bowling Green coach, to Mizzou, but that doesn't sound like a great idea to me.  He's done well this year, but he's 54 and has a lot of experience, not much of it on really successful teams.

Some of the talking heads are giving Mizzou a slight edge over South Carolina as a coaching destination, even though the same ones are saying Herman goes to USCe.

[BATCAB27]

I don't think he stays at houston.  He's only been there a year, they don't draw a crowd and the money will be just as good elsewhere.  MU's obvious advantage is that AD Rhoades just hired him at houston before his move to mizzou.  Fuente from Memphis will also be going somewhere.  However, don't underestimate the pressure being felt from concernedstudent1950

[Quillback]

I'd look at the Toledo coach, Matt Campbell.  He's young, 35 I think, no big school experience, but on the plus side, he is considered to be a great recruiter and has an innovative football mind.

[ozark trout fisher]

Barry Odom seems like the default choice right now.  Mack Rhoades is going to want to kick the tires on some big names in his first coaching search at MU, but there's still a strong likelihood that this is where we end up. And certainly Odom seems like a good choice. This Missouri defense should have taken a big step back given the losses to the NFL/graduation, but if anything it's gotten better. Sure, some of that is on DL coach Kuligowski, but it hardly matters, because he probably stays if Odom gets the promotion. Odom can also probably keep Mizzou's recruiting class together, assuming he retains the rest of the current staff (probably promoting Kuligowski to DC), and prevent transfers from occurring. That's a big deal, because as bad as this season has been, there is plenty coming back next season to have the potential to return to the top 2-3 of the SEC east. With that said, if Odom is retained, I do think you have to consider whether a change at OC is in order. I don't like to advocate firing coaches, but I'm not sure Henson has warranted another season running the offense.

Obviously you'd expect Tom Herman and Justin Fuente to get calls. And if you can hire either of them, you probably do it. I also think it would be wise to wait until the end of the season to see if any big-time names are available. Coaches like Mark Richt and Les Miles have won tons of games and SEC titles, and due to the....let's be nice and say unstable...fanbases in Athens and Baton Rouge, there is a scenario where BOTH are looking for a new home, and possibly wanting to stay in the SEC. 

Unrelated: if Mizzou's season hasn't been weird enough, there are rumblings that this team could be headed to a bowl game...even if they lose out an finish 5-7. In their infinite wisdom, the NCAA now has 80 bowl slots to fill with 128 total FBS teams to fill them. That's bad math. 80 teams have never become eligible in a season, and it's unlikely to happen in 2015. Teams like Nebraska and Missouri who are likely to finish 5-7, but could still be expected to sell some tickets at bowl games, may not have to worry about winning another game. Of course the idea of making Pinkel lead a 5-7 team to an empty Independence Bowl Stadium in his last game as Mizzou coach is not appealing. So here's to either getting a 6th win and making it to the postseason the right way or ending this thing in Fayetteville next weekend in front of a full stadium in a game that actually matters.