Missouri coach Gary Pinkel to step down following cancer diagnosis

“I will say this, I feel pretty good right now, and there are a lot of people who have cancer a lot worse than I have”, Pinkel said. Pinkel, 117-71 at Missouri since taking over in 2001, will stay on through December 31 or until athletics director Mack Rhoades hires his replacement. “I felt great going into the season, but also knew that I would need to re-assess things at a few point and I set our bye week as the time when I would take stock of the future”.

It was a very rough week for Missouri, which almost lost a good portion of its team when players threatened to strike if the president didn’t resign (he did). The school chose an interim replacement, Michael Middleton, on Thursday.

Offense shows life, can’t finish drives: Missouri showed more life on offense than it has throughout a four-game losing streak, but that success dried up in the red zone.

He said he had a PET scan on October 26, met with his family and decided the next day that this season would be his last.

‘I don’t know how many years I have left, but I want to turn my focus to life outside the daily grind of football’.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. “‘I know where we’re going to be. Prayers go up for Coach Pinkel and prayers go up for the coaching staff and everything this team’s had going on this week”.

The news conference was Pinkel’s first opportunity to discuss his decision at length, other than after the BYU triumph over the weekend.

This has been exactly the type of game Missouri has had all season: defense and ball control.

– Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel)This sums up exactly how I’m feeling about my head coach, @GaryPinkel right now.

“When you get it, it’s so numbing”, Pinkel said.

When Pinkel arrived at Mizzou after the 2000 season, he inherited a decaying program that had been to just two bowl games in the previous 17 years. Missouri Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel walks on to the field before a college football game against BYU at Arrowhead Stadium, Saturday, November 14, 2015, in Kansas City, Mo.

“He resurrected Missouri football from the depths of the ocean to the peak of the mountain top”, former wide receiver T.J. Moe said.

In 2011, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated during the season and was suspended for a week by the school, missing a game against Texas. In 2007, the Tigers were a victory away in the Big 12 title game from playing for a national championship. However all five wins have been over lesser teams. 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. He notched two straight SEC title game appearances and a 23-5 record in that span. BYU had a chance to take the lead after cutting into the lead with a touchdown catch from Francis Bernard but they were unable to move the ball in their final possession. “I’ll just be able to be a normal person”.