Top Candidates to Replace Gary Pinkel as Missouri Head Coach

The latest job set to be open in what is already shaping up to be a wild coaching carousel is perhaps the most surprising one, as longtime Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel announced last week he would be resigning at the end of the season due to health reasons.

Pinkel revitalized the Missouri program during his 15 seasons as a head coach, as he'll have a shot at reaching his 11th bowl game with the Tigers in the next several weeks. Under Pinkel, Missouri took home five division titles in two different conferences, winning at least 10 games in each of those seasons.

Now, in the wake of Pinkel's announcement, Missouri must find someone to replace the consistent head coach in what will be a crowded market—jobs are already coming open at USC, South Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Illinois.

Fortunately for the Tigers and their leadership, Missouri will be able to point to the big money, facilities and opportunity for success in the SEC East, as well as strong traditions of NFL talent production and passionate fan support in their upcoming coaching search.

Here are five of the top candidates to watch in the upcoming search for Missouri athletic director Mack Rhoades, as well as a few wild cards to consider. Whether it's a hot name in the coaching ranks for a strong internal hire, Missouri can definitely go in several intriguing directions with how it replaces a school icon such as Pinkel.

Houston head coach Tom Herman is most likely going to lead off any list of candidates during this coaching carousel, from USC and Miami to Missouri and South Carolina.

But Herman, now 10-0 in his first year with the Cougars, has a special kind of connection to Missouri that he doesn't have with the other current head coaching vacancies. Rhoades gave Herman his first shot at being a head coach late last year, just a few months before leaving Houston for Columbia.

Before high-rising with Houston this season, Herman was a successful offensive coordinator at several schools—most recently Ohio State, which he helped win a national title with his third-string quarterback. His version of the "smashmouth spread" has taken off at Houston, and he definitely has the offensive credentials Missouri fans will want to see after such a rough season on that side of the ball.

Herman may get a bigger job offer with USC this offseason, and there's a great chance he decides to stay at Houston and continue building up the Group of Five power. But he has ties to the Missouri administration, success at several coaching stops and potential to excel at a Power Five head coaching job. Missouri will at least force him to say yes or no.

The name going hand-in-hand with Herman this "silly season" is Justin Fuente, another young head coach who is succeeding at a high level in the Group of Five conferences. Fuente's Memphis team has lost back-to-back games, but it knocked off SEC foe Ole Miss earlier in the year and won 10 games last season.

The former Oklahoma quarterback was the offensive coordinator under Gary Patterson at TCU before taking the Memphis job in 2012. It took a while before he could get the struggling program going, but now he has the Tigers playing some of their best-ever football.

With star quarterback Paxton Lynch, Memphis has the nation's No. 24 offense in terms of yards per play this season and the No. 6 attack in terms of points per game. The AAC competition is a step down from what Fuente's offense would face in the SEC, but keep in mind that the Tigers put up 491 yards and 37 points against Ole Miss. 

Fuente has strong regional ties and a connection to the current Missouri staff, as he hired Missouri assistant Barry Odom to his first Memphis staff. Odom returned to Columbia as the defensive coordinator this past season. If Fuente would be able to keep Missouri's excellent defensive staff with Odom intact, this has all the makings of a fantastic hire.

But if Missouri can't snag the Memphis head coach who hired Odom a few years ago, why can't the Tigers just pick the successful defensive assistant himself to replace his current boss?

Odom orchestrated a defensive turnaround at Memphis with Fuente, and his Missouri defense this season ranks second in the SEC in yards allowed per play. The Tigers lost a lot of key contributors on their defensive front from last season, but they still have the fourth-most tackles for loss of any team in college football.

If Missouri wanted to go with continuity from the Pinkel era and stay in-house, Odom would be an excellent call. As Missouri beat writer Dave Matter of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote in his own rundown of possible replacements for Pinkel, the former Tiger linebacker is quite popular with almost everyone associated with the program.

There's an inherent risk in promoting a former coordinator without any head coaching experience above the high school level to take over a high-profile program in the SEC. But that seems to be the only real negative with hiring Odom, who has continued a tradition of excellent defense with the Tigers during this trying 2015 season.

A name that is becoming quite popular on watch lists for Missouri and several other Power Five jobs, Dino Babers would be an exciting hire from a strong Group of Five program.

The Bowling Green head man has spent his impressive career as both an assistant and a head coach at varying levels of college football. Before taking over at Bowling Green, Babers had a successful two years at FCS program Eastern Illinois and assistant stints at Arizona, Texas A&M and, most notably, Art Briles' Baylor team.

Babers' offense is averaging seven yards per play this season, and the Falcons posted wins over Big Ten opponents Maryland and Purdue. Bowling Green's only two losses so far this season came against Tennessee and Memphis, and the offense put up more than 550 yards in both games.

If Mizzou wants a high-octane, explosive offense in the future, it will most likely get it with Babers. He's in the middle of what will be a fourth strong season of head coaching at smaller schools—he currently has a record of 35-15—and it's just a matter of time before a bigger program comes knocking. Keep an eye on Babers.

Hiring a head coach from Toledo worked so well last time for Missouri, and the Rockets program currently has another high-rising name in the ranks with Matt Campbell.

The 35-year-old Campbell is in his fourth full season at Toledo, where he has a 34-14 record heading into this week's #MACtion slate. The Ohio native has coached in his home state his entire career, but there's a great possibility he'll leave those borders for a bigger job in the near future.

Campbell has built Toledo into a Group of Five power in recent years with three straight winning seasons and a few big upsets, most notably this year's victories over Iowa State and SEC foe Arkansas. Toledo has also had great recruiting success by MAC standards under Campbell.

Campbell is young, energetic and offensive-minded as a head coach, and his Toledo teams usually come up big in high-pressure games. If he can translate that same level of hard work and success to a program with more resources like Missouri, the Tigers could have a long-term success similar to Pinkel on their hands.

Georgia Southern HC Willie Fritz: Fritz isn't a hot name among the coaching carousel, but the Georgia Southern head coach is one of the most successful names from the smaller conferences. As Corey Masisak of SEC Country noted, Fritz has ties to the state, winning 97 games as head coach of Central Missouri before moving onto great success at Sam Houston State and Georgia Southern, which still has a shot at back-to-back Sun Belt titles.

Temple HC Matt Rhule: Rhule is the lesser of the "Big Three" coaching prospects from the Group of Five, as Herman and Fuente have gotten more attention in 2015. But, according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN, Rhule is reportedly a top candidate with the other two at Missouri. It would be a surprise to see Rhule leave his East Coast stomping grounds, but the Tigers might be the ones to lure him to the Power Five ranks.

Missouri State HC Dave Steckel: Steckel left his post as Missouri's defensive coordinator this past offseason to become the head coach at Missouri State. Things haven't gone well for him and the Bears in 2015, as they're currently 1-9. But Steckel was a fantastic assistant and top-notch recruiter for the Tigers for more than a decade, and he wouldn't be a total long shot for Missouri.

An experienced Power Five coordinator: As Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee wrote Monday, jumping straight from a coordinator position to SEC head coach isn't quite the best route for success. But high-profile names such as Alabama's Kirby Smart and Clemson's Brent Venables will be ones to watch with any big-time vacancy, including the one at Missouri.

Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.