Hartman: U's Kill, Missouri's Pinkel revel in what bowl can mean

When the Gophers face Missouri in the Citrus Bowl on New Year's Day, they will certainly have to play their best if they want to pick up their first bowl victory under Jerry Kill. Missouri is a 5½-point favorite and boasts the SEC Coach of the Year in Gary Pinkel and the SEC Defensive Player of the Year in defensive end Shane Ray, who had a school-record 14 sacks this season to lead the conference.

The Tigers had six all-SEC players, including Marcus Murphy, who made the coaches' first team as an all-purpose back and a return specialist.

Speaking at a news conference in Orlando on Thursday, Kill acknowledged how tough the Tigers will be.

"Playing the University of Missouri is a great privilege, and we know how good and well-coached they are," Kill said. "I've known Coach [Pinkel] for a long time. As far as knowing a lot about our opponent, we've been busy competing in the Big Ten, so that's what our staff is back doing now and preparing for practice tomorrow.

"But we know we're getting a team that is very athletic, very well-coached, I know their defensive line is very, very good, and offensively they spread you out and are very explosive. We'll have a big challenge ahead of us and a lot of work to do in preparation over the next two weeks, two-and-a-half weeks. We're going to try to get as much down on our home front as we possibly can in those preparations."

The Tigers finished 10-3 this season, with conference losses to Georgia and Alabama and a nonconference loss to Indiana. Among their victories are wins over South Carolina, Florida, Texas A&M, Tennessee and Arkansas to win the SEC East for the second consecutive season. The big mystery was how they could lose at home to Indiana (4-8), one of only two Big Ten teams (with Purdue) to win only one conference game this season.

Last year, the Tigers lost to Auburn 59-42 in the SEC Championship Game, then went on to defeat Oklahoma State 41-31 in the Cotton Bowl.

"They have a choice of a lot of different schools they could have taken in the SEC [for the Citrus Bowl]," Pinkel said. "And they chose the University of Missouri. That made me feel really good, as a matter of fact."

Kill said reaching the Citrus Bowl already has done wonders for the Gophers, because the university has already sold out its ticket allotment. He was asked if he'll allow his players some time to enjoy being in Orlando in January.

"Sure, I think it's a reward for our players, but at the same time it's important to us that we do a good job in the bowl game and prepare to win," he said. "So there will be an opportunity for them to do some things, but we'll carry on a pretty good workday. … We'll try to keep to our usual routine, but again, they're not in school, so we'll use some of that free time without school, where they'd have to go to tutoring, to have a little fun."

Kill also said that when he was coaching at Southern Illinois from 2001-07, he'd gone to Missouri to visit and learn from Pinkel. Now Kill is the Big Ten Coach of the Year and Pinkel is the SEC Coach of the Year, facing off in the Citrus Bowl.

"It's a great privilege to be here, and it's great for our university, our state and certainly our football program," Kill said.

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