By Gary Pinkel Won’t Comment on DUI Arrest, but Plenty Happy to Field Questions about Missouri’s Strong Finish and Upcoming Move to SEC
December 1, 2011 – 7:15 am by Michael Bean
Sure, he might have been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons following his DUI arrest and subsequent suspension from his head coaching duties at Missouri, but Gary Pinkel, as well as his staff mind you, deserve lots of credit for guiding the young Tigers team back from a 4-5 start to the season to finish 7-5. The winning record ensures Pinkel’s program will play in its seventh consecutive bowl game, and the eighth in as many years. Where they’ll end up playing their final game of the 2011 season is still up in the air to some degree, at least if you believe Pinkel who claims that the Tigers aren’t necessarily New York bound to play in the Pinstripe Bowl as has been speculated. Wherever they end of playing, it will be the final game for the school before it makes the transition to the SEC in 2012.
Pinkel joined 101 ESPN St. Louis to talk about how pleased he is with his team’s 7-5 season in 2011, on James Franklin’s great late-game performance last Saturday, how the move to the SEC will affect recruiting either positively or negatively, specifically in the state of Texas where he’s had a lot of success recruiting, how he will not comment on his ten days away from the team while serving a suspension for a DUI arrest, if he thinks there’s any changes his team will need to make schematically once they make the transition to the SEC, if he thinks it’s a foregone conclusion that the Tigers will be headed to New York to play in the Pinstripe Bowl in December, and if he doesn’t have any concrete idea about where his team is likely going to be invited to play in a bowl game.
How pleased is he with Missouri’s 7-5 season in 2011:
“Well I think you always look back at the circumstances, and in this business you’re always faced with where you’re at. We were 4-5 three weeks ago, we were in position and obviously lost some close games and injuries and a lot of things did happen. So I’m real proud of our team for battling back. It’s never good enough, but we certainly battled back, we’re going to go to a bowl, maintained going to seven bowls in a row, you know, the streak there and eight of the last nine years. And I was very proud of our football team for getting us in this position, and I think it says a lot about the character and really the strength of our program.”
On James Franklin’s great late-game performance in last Saturday’s win:
“Well it was really in the third and fourth quarter; he had a great third quarter. He settled down a little bit, you’re not going to be perfect playing the position. He threw three interceptions in three series in a row, and really that was, you look back at it and it certainly was surprising. I mean, three interceptions in three drives is probably as bad as you can get. You can flip it and turn it all you want, but there’s no question. But he settled down. The good news is he was mature enough to settle down and come back out and throw the ball and play well. He had played four straight weeks very consistent, and the bottom line is you’ve got to learn from it and move on.”
How will the move to the SEC impact his recruiting, and specifically in Texas where he’s had success recruiting:
“Well first of all it’s going to have an impact, no question about, from a geographical standpoint. There was a little bit of a transition this year too just because of the players that initially committed to us were going to play in the Big 12. So naturally there’s going to be a transition here in this season. But for the future obviously it will be very strong in the state of Missouri, and I think that’s going to be real, real important. As far as Texas is concerned, we will still recruit Texas at a very high level. Texas is now not just a Big 12 state now, now it’s a Southeast Conference state as well now that there’s two teams — Texas A&M and ourselves — which really I think give other opportunities in recruiting from that standpoint in that state. So I think that’s positive. What we’re going to do is we have a lot of coaches in Texas, and we’re going to pull one of the Houston area and get him into Florida, and we’re going to pull another one out of another part of Texas and put him into Atlanta, and then Josh Hanson who’s in Oklahoma used to recruit in the upper peninsula or panhandle area of Florida when he was at LSU. So we’re going to get him in there. So we’ll have two coaches in Florida, one in Atlanta, so this will be a little bit of a transition. But we’re still going to stay real heavily in Houston and Dallas area, and just be smart about how we kind of move people around. And I think it will work out as a real plus for us.”
On what he learned during his ten days away from the team while serving a suspension for his DUI arrest:
“You know, I took complete and full responsibility for that, and I’m not going to talk about it anymore.”
If there any changes that he thinks Mizzou will need to make schematically on the field once they’ve made the transition to the SEC:
“I don’t know. I think certainly one thing we’re going to do here from a facility standpoint in a short period of time, we’re changing leagues, and there’s a commitment and an investment that has to go along with that. So we’re aware of that and there’s some things we’re going to do certainly here at the university from a facilities standpoint and so on to make sure we’re significant. I don’t think you make a move to that league and just say we’re a part of it, let’s be down at the bottom of it and just do the best we can. I don’t want that, I did not want that, we did not want to be a part of that. So that’s certainly got to happen and that’s real important. That has to happen. We’ll do a full analysis once recruiting is over of every team in the Southeastern Conference, and we’ll do analysis of their offense and their defense and all those things. And I think after that I’d be able to tell you. We’re going to do what we do, but certainly I need more information, I need to analyze more, we need to analyze the details of everyone of those schools and what they do, and if there’s any adjustments we need to do, we’ll act accordingly.”
If he thinks it’s a foregone conclusion that the Tigers are heading to New York for the Pinstripe Bowl in December:
“I’m not sure we’re going there right now. I don’t have that much data on that honestly. I haven’t talked to Mike. I was in St. Louis recruiting yesterday…actually the last two days.”
Does he not have an idea beforehand where his team will likely get a bowl invitation:
“No, I’m not sure where we’re at with that in anyway. That’s come up, and there’s a bunch of other have come up that I’ve heard. So we’ll just let everything sort itself out and see where it goes. Our big thing is wherever we go, we understand we’re leaving the Big 12 — we understand that — and wherever we go, we’re going to have a lot of fun. And more importantly, we want to win the game. You know, we lost our last two bowl games, we won the two previous to that. And we’ve got a chance to win eight games, and so a combination of all those things I think are a plus for us.”
Listen here to Pinkel with Zach & The Coach on 101 ESPN St. Louis
Tags: 101 ESPN St. Louis, 2011 Bowl Schedule, Big 12, Gary Pinkel DUI, Missouri Tigers
Post a Comment
Name (required)
E-mail (will not be published) (required)
Website
Comments