SEC Preview: Final Home Game For Missouri FB Coach Pinkel Against Tennessee

The Missouri Tigers ( 5-5) will play their final home game under coach Gary Pinkel this Saturday against the Tennessee Volunteers (6-4).  Pinkel, the 15 year coach for the Tigers, announced last week that he will be retiring at the conclusion of the season for medical reasons.

The Tigers are coming off an impressive 20-16 win against BYU last week, and with this being  Pinkel’s last home game, emotions and motivation are high. In the 2014 season, the Tigers beat the Vols 29-21 at Tennessee. Pinkel says this is a very important game for the .500 Tigers and their 21 seniors.

Even with all the emotions leading into this game, Mizzou needs to take advantage of the way Joshua Dobbs has been playing the past couple weeks and the fact that Tennessee’s offensive line has allowed 21 sacks this season. Even with the struggling Tennessee quarterback having issues in the passing game, the Tigers are still preparing for an athletic Dobbs to take the field.

Pinkel also announced freshman defensive tackle Terry Beckner Jr. will be out of Saturday’s game due to a knee injury.

For Tennessee, their four loses this season have been by a total of 17 points. Even though they shut out North Texas last week, head Coach Butch Jones says the Vols still need to get better and that the hard fought games they have played this season have showed they need to improve to be able to finish games.

Coming into this weekend’s game, Jones knows this game will be a challenge and expects an emotional, SEC environment.  The Vols will try to improve on their 3-3 SEC record.

Kick off is set for Saturday at 7:15 pm.