The winningest football coach in Mizzou history will be inducted into the Cotton Bowl Classic Hall of Fame today in Arlington, Texas.
Gary Pinkel went 2-0 in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl, beating Arkansas 38-7 in 2008 and Mike Gundy’s Oklahoma State Cowboys 41-31 in 2014.
“Those are two great games, the Cotton Bowl is a historic game in the bowl system and they do an incredible job. And I want to make sure I really emphasize that when I’m down there (Arlington, Texas) and they ask me to speak or interviews,” Pinkel says.
Coach Pinkel will be inducted today with one of his former stars, running back Tony Temple from Rockhurst high school in Kansas City. Pinkel tells 939 the Eagle’s “Wake Up Mid-Missouri” that Temple had an incredible game in 2008, carrying the ball 24 times for 281 yards and four touchdowns. Houston Nutt’s Arkansas defense spent bowl week preparing for Heisman finalist Chase Daniel.
“They dropped off eight, nine people (from line of scrimmage) most of the whole entire game. I mean, there was no place (for then-Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel) to throw the football, so as coaches we’re discussing you know adjustments and things like that and then they just said let’s run it. And it looked like they hadn’t worked on any running plays,” says Pinkel.
Coach Pinkel went 2-0 in the Cotton Bowl and was also a two-time league coach of the year at Mizzou: in 2007 in the Big 12 and in 2014 in the SEC. Coach Gary Pinkel was inducted into the college football Hall of Fame in December and was also honored as an SEC legend that month.
Pinkel and Temple will be enshrined at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, along with former Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning and four others. Dallas Cowboys play-by-play man Brad Sham will serve as today’s master of ceremonies.
You can listen to the full “Wake Up Mid-Missouri” interview with Coach Pinkel here.
