Missouri Head Coach Gary Pinkel Would be Wise to Not Look Toward Washington

As soon as word came down that Tyrone Willingham was out as the football at the University of Washington, speculation immediately began to build about the possibility of UDub making a run at Missouri coach Gary Pinkel.

It would be a case of career suicide if Pinkel decided to drop what he has built at Mizzou and head for the Pacific Northwest.

Pinkel spent 13 seasons as an assistant coach of the Huskies (1976, 1979-90) under former head coach Don James. Pinkel followed Don James to the Seattle school after playing his college ball under James at Kent State, in their native state of Ohio from 1970-73.

Gary Pinkel does have a history at Washington. But does that outweigh what he has built at Missouri?

Granted, Pinkel hasn’t won a Big 12 Conference championship during his seven-plus seasons in Columbia. And while he has managed to post some wins over Nebraska in recent years, in addition to a marquee victory over Kansas last year at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City for the Big 12 North crown, his team has stumbled against the likes of traditional Big 12 bullies Oklahoma (two losses last year, the last in the conference title game) and Texas.

But Gary Pinkel has been able to transform Mizzou from also-ran status to a team that could contend for Big 12 titles on a regular basis, or at the least, be the big dogs in the North Division. Pinkel has led the Missouri Tigers to three straight bowl games for the first time in 25 years. The Tigers also ascended to the No. 1 ranking in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1960 last year.

Records aside, Pinkel has made huge recruiting inroads with Mizzou’s recent success. He’s been able to cop premier talent from the state of Texas, namely senior quarterback Chase Daniel. He has successfully fended off the efforts of enemy coaches and kept the likes of tight end Chase Coffman and wide receiver Jeremy Maclin in the Show Me State.

He’s made Missouri relevant again and there’s no reason to think he couldn’t continue to build on that. Washington? That’s another story. The high school talent base in Washington pales in comparison to that of the Southwest, where Pinkel and Co. have gotten stronger, or even Missouri for that matter. Where else are you going to go to stock the cupboard? California? Good luck with that.

Pinkel’s recruiting would start once Southern California, UCLA and Cal get done picking over the five-star recruits. The chances of Washington being able to consistently compete with the California schools are slim. At Missouri, Pinkel can reasonably expect to compete in the Big 12 North and at least get into a Big 12 title game on a neutral field. In the Pac-10 Conference, there is no such title game to guarantee a berth in a BCS bowl game.

The pockets may be a bit deeper with the Washington alumni and there may be a bit more exposure playing in a big city like Seattle; but the program has been run into the ground under Willingham’s watch and the rebuilding project could be long and grueling. Would Gary Pinkel want to undergo that type of fix-it-up job again?

It would be a different story if Pinkel was being lured from his previous job — head coach at Toledo from 1991-2000 — to Washington. Toledo to Washington is a step up.

Missouri to Washington? Nothing more than a sideways move at this point.

And many more headaches.
[tags]missouri tigers, gary pinkel, washington huskies, Big 12, Pac 10[/tags]

Tags: Big 12, gary pinkel, missouri tigers, Pac 10, washington huskies

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