When this season started there were plenty of Missouri fans wondering whether Gary Pinkel should be the coach to lead the Tigers in the big, bad Southeastern Conference.
Now with two games remaining in the regular season, those same fans are thinking Pinkel should be Coach of the Year in the league, even though Gus Malzahn at Auburn will likely earn that distinctive honor.
Missouri is 9-1 and the surprise leader in the SEC East. The only blemish on the Tigers’ record is a double-overtime loss to South Carolina. They are currently ranked No. 8 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches polls — and in the BCS ranking. All that stands between Missouri and a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game are two wins to close out the season. That’s the good news.
The bad news? Those two wins are going to have to come at Ole Miss and at home against Texas A&M.
If the Tigers win Saturday in Oxford, Missouri will post its 10th win for the fourth time in the past 10 years. It was also be Pinkel’s 100th win at the school, which will bring him to within one victory of the Tigers’ career winningest coach Don Faurot.
The Tigers will welcome back their starting quarterback James Franklin, who has been out since injuring his should against Georgia on Oct. 12. This season, Franklin has passed for 1,477 yards and 14 touchdowns and rushed for 290 yards and three more touchdowns.
“He looks really good. He looks just like he left off before the injury,” Pinkel said of Franklin.”What has been really good is having a couple extra practices, which we always do for our bye week as preparation for our next opponent. He practiced last Wednesday and Sunday night. We do quite a bit of best (of the offense) against the best (defense). It works really well for his timing. He looks really good.
“He’s excited about being back, and the team is excited about getting him back too. I obviously want him to do really well. He had some adversity and battled through it and we are excited to have him in.”
Franklin is also excited about playing against the Rebels.
“Yes, it is weird because I have had to change my throwing motion a lot because of shoulder injuries since I have been here,” said Franklin. “I was telling Coach Pinkel on Wednesday that the ball feels better coming off my hand than it did before. Hopefully, I can do a little bit better than before I got out early.”
Pinkel knows what’s at stake. He also knows that Ole Miss is a hot football team. The Rebels have won four consecutive games — and rolled up 751 yards of offense in beating Troy last week.
“They are a really good football team. We expect them to be a good football team,” Pinkel said. “I told you about this league (SEC), there are a lot of great teams. He (Head Coach, Hugh Freeze) has a done a great job with that program and I think their quarterback (Bo Wallace) has played at a high level. They have good receivers, and really good running backs. They have a stable full of athletes at those positions. The numbers they are putting up and the stress they put on defenses is real and they do a really good job. Defensively, they also play really well. They are very well coached, and they keep people in front.
“We are going to play a really good team on Saturday. When you are in the hunt like we are now, you expect to play games like this. Our whole thing is to remain focused on playing our best football game. You do not need any more motivation that,” he said.
Pinkel discounts that the pressure from everything that is at stake for Missouri will cause any problems for his team.
“That is clutter. Teams that prepare right don’t let that affect them,” he said. “They focus on what they can control, and that is playing well. That is when your mental toughness kicks in, and you do not let outside things change your focus. I will be really disappointed if we put all those kind of pressures on ourselves. That does not help you play well.”
If the Tigers get out of Oxford with a win, there will be even more on the line in the season finale when Texas A&M comes to Faurot Field on November 30th.
But for Pinkel, that’s a concern for another day.