Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, who served as an assistant under Don James at Washington from 1979-90, Thursday squashed talk about replacing Steve Sarkisian, telling ESPN Radio that he intends to stay with the Tigers, who will play for the SEC Championship Saturday.
“I’ll be quite frank,” Pinkel said from Columbia, MO. “I’m staying at the University of Missouri. I, with the administration’s help, can continue to build a national program and a quest for national championships. I’m a Missouri Tiger and I’m going to stay a Missouri Tiger.”
The Tigers are 11-1, and Pinkel is 101-62 overall since becoming Missouri’s head coach in 2001. After leaving Washington, Pinkel coached at the University of Toledo from 1991-00.
Pinkel last visited Seattle Oct. 27 to attend a public memorial service for James at Alaska Airlines Arena. During the service, he sat next to Sarkisian.
The Huskies said Wednesday that former quarterback and current quarterbacks coach Marques Tuiasosopo will coach Washington in its bowl game.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2171571 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2171571">4 Comments
That’s good news for both UW and UM. Unfortunately the Huskies window of opportunity was when Hedges went away from the James coaching tree and brought in Neuheisel instead. The rest is history.
Yep, that was the original sin that all the subsequent disasters stem from.
At 61 you figure Missouri is his last job
My wish list would be
1) Petersen
2) the Fresno State guy
3) Nussmeier
The list shrinks. Hard to argue with Pinkel pouring water on the fire as quickly as he did, though. He’s got an ACC Championship Game with the top-ranked team in the country and their Heisman candidate quarterback to play with a BCS bowl on the line (can’t see Mizzou going to that title game even if they beat Florida State…they’re not an old-boy football power). Why screw with that by saying he’d listen to the UW?
Based on what’s been made public the best candiate on the UW’s list is Chris Petersen. I can see UW being very interested in Nussmeier but IMO he’s got potential to do what Sark did. I’d rather get someone with previous head coaching experience anyways. Even this year Sark would occasionally show that UW was his first head coaching job and make some questionable moves. It’d be great to see Petersen have the kind of resources that UW offers at his disposal that Boise State might not offer.