It's a fine time for job rumors to surface about Missouri's Gary Pinkel, isn't it?
With the Tigers in the SEC Championship game in Missouri's second year in the conference, Pinkel's name popped up as a potential candidate at Washington after the departure of Steve Sarkisian. Pinkel was an assistant at Washington under Don James, his mentor.
But on ESPN's Mike and Mike Thursday morning, Pinkel said he was staying.
“I’m a Missouri Tiger, I’m gonna stay a Missouri Tiger” @MUTigerFootball coach @MizzouFootball on @UW_Football rumors pic.twitter.com/4wxVI7WAFm
— Mike & Mike (@MikeAndMike) December 5, 2013
Of course, Sarkisian said that he was staying at Washington before taking the USC job too, so fair or not, it's hard to 100 percent believe a coach when he says he's staying in his current position.
This is the second time that Pinkel has been mentioned for the Washington job. He turned it down in 2008 before the Huskies hired Sarkisian. That was after Missouri had gone 12-2 in the 2007 season and beat Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. Now, Missouri has an opportunity to better that record. With a contract that runs through 2017 at a school that's had much more recent success than Washington has, the guess here is that Pinkel is telling the truth and Washington needs to move on to other candidates.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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