Mizzou Coach Gary Pinkel Has Lymphoma, Will Retire At Year's End

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel will retire due to health reasons at the end of the 2015 season. Pinkel will remain the coach through Dec. 31 or until a new coach is in place, Missouri announced Friday.

Pinkel was diagnosed with lymphoma in May 2015, but chose to manage it and continue coaching.

"I made the decision in May, after visiting with my family, that I wanted to keep coaching, as long as I felt good and had the energy I needed," Pinkel said. "I felt great going into the season, but also knew that I would need to reassess things at some point, and I set our bye week as the time when I would take stock of the future.

"After we played Vanderbilt [Oct. 24], I had a scheduled PET scan on October 26 for reassessment, and then visited with my family and came to the decision on October 27 that this would be my last year coaching. I still feel good physically, but I decided that I want to focus on enjoying my remaining years with my family and friends, and also have proper time to battle the disease and give full attention to that," he said.

"I want to make very clear that I'm not doing poorly, and that this is a manageable disease, but it's one that will never go away," Pinkel said. "So many people have bigger struggles with other forms of cancer and other serious diseases, and I feel blessed that I've got something I can fight and still enjoy a good quality of life. I don't know how many years I have left, but I want to turn my focus to life outside of the daily grind of football," he said.

Pinkel was one of the longest tenured coaches in college football, having taken over the Missouri job in 2001. The Tigers have compiled a 117-71 (.622) record in his 15 seasons as the head coach.

Pinkel led Missouri to two SEC East division titles and three Big 12 North division titles, and in 2007 helped the Tigers reach No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time since 1960.

Missouri has three games remaining on the schedule, starting with BYU on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City before finishing the season with Tennessee and Arkansas.