Gary Pinkel
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Gary Pinkel (born April 27, 1952) is the head football coach at the University of Missouri.
Pinkel, who has been coaching at Missouri since the 2001 football season, previously coached at the University of Toledo, where he experienced success in the Mid-American Conference, winning a conference championship with the Rockets in 1995.
Pinkel's record at Mizzou is 39-35, and his conference record is 20-28.
Gary Pinkel graduated from Kenmore High School in Akron, Ohio, and received his bachelor of science degree in education from Kent State University in 1973, where he played tight end. He did post-graduate studies at Kent and Bowling Green University, and in 1997 was inducted into the Kent Athletic Hall of Fame.
Since arriving at Mizzou in December of 2000, Pinkel has guided the Tigers to two Independence Bowls. The first was in 2003, a 27-14 loss to the University of Arkansas, and the second was a thrilling 38-31 win over the University of South Carolina on December 30, 2005.
Coach Pinkel also ended the Tigers 25-year losing streak to the Nebraska in 2003 with a 41-24 win in Columbia, Missouri. In 2005, the Tigers again beat the Cornhuskers 41-24 in Columbia.
Despite these successes, Gary Pinkel has struggled against non-conference opponents from non-BCS conferences. In each of his first two seasons at Missouri, the team lost to Bowling Green University. The next year, Missouri survived Middle Tennessee State University at home by one point. That was followed up the next year with a loss at Troy State University on ESPN. In 2005 Pinkel's Tigers lost to the University of New Mexico at home.
In 2006, Pinkel led the Tigers to a 6-0 start, the team's first 6-0 start since 1973. However, as the team entered the Big 12 portion of the schedule, things soon fell apart and the team finished 8-5.