Now imagine he's in a cigarette boat race, and not only does he have to worry his boat, but he's competing against guys with 600-hp outboard motors... the most skilled drivers with the fastest machines available. Meanwhile, he's just trying not to sink.

Pinkel is just a guy. He's an average NCAA coach who had some aberrational success after he lucked into some tremendously underrated players and feasted on a famished BXII North.

Everything that he brings to the table is eminently replaceable. There's no reason why Missouri can't hire an elite recruiter. If you can get a #5 class at Ole Miss, you can do it at Missouri.

LMAO. Unfortunately, probably accurate.

While I think he's very replaceable at this point, it's not fair to ascribe a representable track record of success to luck.

He built a program, and now it's probably time to turn it over to someone else before he also tears it down.

I just question how much of that program was actually built by Pinkel, or if he was a guy who was there during some fortunate times that also coincided with large money donations and a few recruiting oil strikes. It's a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg argument, but given Pinkel's rank incompetence as a gameday coach and his consistently blah recruiting, I'm reluctant to give him much credit at all.

The disclaimer is my obvious loathing of his professional ability.

Please, somebody, tell me there is hope for the future. I do not want my school to forever be butt buddies with Vandy at the bottom.

At least give me a likely candidate for HC once Pinkel goes 4-8 and is shit canned or somebody you would like to see here coaching. Is there an attractive coordinator looking to make a name for himself somewhere on Alabama's staff?

Vandy? The bottom? Not in today's SEC. James Franklin has made Vandy into a way stronger program than Mizzou currently is with better academics to boot.

Gary Pinkel approached the stage around 4 p.m. Wednesday, ready to discuss the future.
It was time for his annual Signing Day news conference, his first chance to talk about Missouri’s newest football recruits. But from the outset, most in attendance were staring into their cell phones, waiting to see where Ezekiel Elliott, the state’s top prospect 120 miles down the road, had decided to sign.
Elliott, a speedy, consensus four-star running back from John Burroughs School in St. Louis, was announcing his choice between Ohio State and Missouri at the same time as Pinkel’s news conference. The son of two former Missouri athletes, Elliott took a recent visit to Missouri that seemingly opened the door for the Tigers.
But Elliott decided to stick with his previous oral commitment to Ohio State, effectively locking up Missouri’s spot at or near the bottom of several recruiting services’ Southeastern Conference rankings.
Not that Pinkel — whose team went 5-7 last season, its first in the SEC — puts any stock in those things, anyway.
“I’ve never ever looked at a ranking since I’ve been coaching,” Pinkel said. “Our evaluation system has proven overall it works. We believe in it, and just leave it at that.”
For the next hour or so, that was the refrain from Pinkel and his assistants at Mizzou Arena’s Clinton Club. They do their own evaluations of players, they maintained, and lauded or not, this was a class to like and be grateful for.
Jeremy Crabtree, ESPN’s senior coordinator of recruiting, says there’s some truth to this. ESPN ranks Missouri’s class 38th nationally.
“While it’s exciting to see them have a top-40 class nationally, it’s also quite sobering to realize that’s how competitive things are in the SEC,” Crabtree said.
No doubt. Despite its decent overall ranking, Missouri’s class — according to ESPN — ranked last in the SEC, which had six teams finish in the top 10 nationally, with Missouri (38th), Kentucky (36th) and Arkansas (31st) among those rounding out the pack. Rivals.com listed Missouri’s class at No. 49 in the country, also last in the SEC, with Arkansas being the next closest team at No. 31 overall.
“The SEC is all about winning and you have to be able to sell that,” Crabtree said. “Missouri didn’t produce the type of season they wanted on the field, and that makes it a lot more difficult to recruit against some of the teams in their same conference.”
But Crabtree likes some of the players in this year’s class, particularly in-state. Fort Zumwalt South star Chase Abbington possesses the size (6 feet 2, 205 pounds) and speed to be an impact running back. Crabtree calls three-star Rockwood Summit linebacker Eric Beisel “a hard-nosed throwback,” and he also raved about Hogan Prep star Anthony Sherrils, who projects as a cornerback.
“If you put him in Dallas, Houston or Atlanta, instead of having a handful of offers he would have had 20-30,” Crabtree said of Sherrils. “He’s a heck of a player. Give credit to (MU assistant) Andy Hill for keeping him home.”
Missouri also landed three more players from the Kansas City area in Staley quarterback Trent Hosick, Blue Valley offensive lineman Clay Rhodes and defensive end Charles Harris from Lincoln Prep.
“Certainly, Kansas City is real important to us,” Pinkel said. “Kansas City has been very good to us.”
Missouri also landed one player each from new recruiting territories like Georgia (quarterback Eddie Printz), Alabama (safety Shaun Rupert) and Florida (defensive lineman Nate Crawford).
Pinkel hopes to see more players from those states come to Missouri in the future, though he added it will take time. Crabtree agreed, adding that this year’s recruiting haul — while not lauded like others — was at least a step in the right direction.
“We saw them go into Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and to be successful, they’re going to have to grow and be more competitive in those states,” Crabtree said. “That’s easier said than done, but the good news is we’ve seen some positive returns so far.
“The Tigers’ coaches and the Mizzou brand is recognized as an SEC program, and coaches will get more comfortable sending kids there because of familiarity. To a high school coach in Florida, Missouri is still a new phenomenon. But that’s something that could get better over time.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/02/07...#storylink=cpy

Pinkel's claims they don't care about rankings is b.s.

They threw around "nation's No. 1 recruit" like crazy with DGB. And I heard through the grapevine there were some complaints voiced about Rivals' criminal underranking of Duron Singleton.

Though I understand that. Rivals ranked Singleton as a 5.2 **. Which, from watching his film, is just silly. If you take 10 minutes to watch his film, you see at least a *** talent, and I'd slot him ****.

Rivals in general in slipping in terms of national rankings, anyway. They've lost a lot of guys to 247sports, which seems to eschew the team site model (that puts a lot of money into publisher's pockets) and instead just do rankings and throw all the money at national analysts.

PowerMizzou is still the best Missouri site... but Rivals is not the authority it was when it comes to football rankings like it was when I joined in 2005.

Looking at rankings for an individual player is pointless IMO. They are going to miss one some and hit on others. I like to use the rankings more from a macro POV. #48 and last in the SEC type classes will consistently have us finishing at or near the bottom of the league. It just isn't good enough. It's not even close. And unfortunately it's not that far off from what he's usually accomplished in terms of recruiting.

I think Pinkel's done. This is the 3rd underwhelming class in a row. I think the staff does a pretty doggone good job of identifying talent but is mediocre at recruiting it. He had two opportunities with the SEC in mind to upgrade the staff the past yr and he promoted a lapdog in one instance and hired his nephew in the other. That is inexcusable and those decisions along w/ allowing our oline and dt to be as depleted as it is is as much a reason I am done w/ him as any other.

He's done a lot for MU and I appreciate it but it's over. I understand why they gave him another season but if he's not wacked after what I expect to be another underwhelming 6-6ish type of season then I'll be furious as I'm sure many will be.

HE said MU had to step up. HE hasn't held up his end of the bargain. The proof isn't so much in the pudding of on field results as it is in how he's handled his staff.

Contrast that w/ the way Arkansas' has aggressively gone after coaching talent from HC on down to the very bottom of that staff. Whether or not it works out it won't be for lack of effort.

I think there's a lot of truth to this but it doesn't take away that he's put some pretty good teams on the field.

It's just over. He's had his run. He's just banking checks at this point and doesn't seem to have the fire. It just feels like to me he's hanging on as long as he can to get as much out of it as possible before hitting the road.

I think Alden's reticent to replace him. It wouldn't surprise me if he's here another season after next with a 6-6 type of effort.

Pinkel puts guys in the league, and will continue to do so (including this year). I have no issue with replacing him with a high profile coach, but I wouldn't make a change just to make a change.

Losing the OL to ISU was the biggest problem I had with this class. The players we got appear to be solid.

Pretty much where I am. Pinkel has done a lot of good things for Mizzou but has run his course.

I don't think Alden will be reticent to replace him - at all - if they miss a bowl game again this year. So... rooting for 5-7/4-8 is the way to go if you're on that mindset.

If he hits 6-6/7-5, Pinkel likely is retained.

It's all about how you view it. There's some kids in the class I really like but we aren't running with KU and Iowa State any longer. "solid" in this case is bottom of the barrel for our new league. Rivals has KU's class rated 4 spots higher. That should tell you something. Whether there's is actually better than ours or not isn't relevant. What is scary is that they're even in the conversation.

The staff has been good enough over the yrs that I give them the benefit of the doubt on any unheralded guys they go out and find during the heart of the yr that they offer and clearly want. The most disturbing thing to me this yr is it seemed like we made more late desperate offers to warm bodies than in the past. The kid from Lincoln Prep that thought he might end up at a Mowest type of school prior to Monday night is the most glaring example. Hopefully they pan out. Most of the time they don't.

There isn't near the talent on the roster now as just a couple years ago and it seems to continue sliding in the wrong direction. I am making that statement looking at the on field product and not just the recruiting rankings.



Looking at next season the scariest thing to me is thinking about how the defense shapes up. We are bereft of interior line talent and don't have near the depth of de talent that we had even last season let alone two years ago. Outside of EJ our secondary is very blah. I am concerned what was a bad unit could be absolutely atrocious offsetting whatever improvement the offense makes.

I don't really know what I'm rooting for, definitely not another middling 6-6/7-5 season that gets him retained.

I like Pinkel overall and appreciate what he's done so really I hope he can turn it around - I just don't see it as likely. I do see 6 or 7 wins as very possible.

4 or 5 wins and regime change is for the best if the alternative is that.

Given Missouri's population, metropolitan centers, donor base, and lack of DI schools in-state it is absolutely criminal that the football team has had as little success as it has.