ESPN Big 12 Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Tim Griffin

	AP Photo/Orlin Wagner
	Missouri coach Gary Pinkel is the coach of the Tigers ... for now.

One of my favorite places to check for Big 12 news and nuggets in cyberspace is the blog written by Columbia Tribune Missouri beat writer Dave Matter. His "Behind the Stripes" is a must read every day.

And Matter's most recent effort spells out a potential scenario for Missouri coach Gary Pinkel that is interesting.

Let's speculate that Missouri has another national-title contending team and Chase Daniel is in the Heisman hunt all season. Would doing something like that prompt another program to make a run at Pinkel and would Pinkel consider leaving if he had the chance?

Matter doesn't think so for some plausible reasons. First, Pinkel is 56 and all of his children live in Missouri. After the struggles of building the Missouri program to its current level of prominence, this beat writer thinks it would take a special offer to get him to leave.

Pinkel first received notoriety at Washington, where he worked as the offensive coordinator under Don James. Pinkel's name is always thrown out if Washington ever decided to make a coaching change and get rid of Tyrone Willingham.

Would Pinkel leave if he ever received the chance? I don't know. I think he's got other things on his mind as he attempts to direct the Tigers to their first Big 12 title.

But I bet it would take a special offer to get him to consider leaving. And there are probably only a handful of jobs like that in college football that would get his attention.