Pinkel on ESPN Radio

Coach Pinkel was on ESPN Radio with Scott Van Pelt this afternoon. They'll have the archive up after while, but I jotted down what I heard.

On adjusting to expectations:

"Expectations come from the respect we're earning. You get expectations by working harder. Our kids are pretty focused. We'll see if we can have back to back high level years."

On his success keeping the same coaching staff together and that impact on recruiting:

"Every one of my coaches have been in the same area for 8 straight years. Our guys will talk to janitors, they'll talk to cooks at these schools. They're good guys."

On Missouri's record against the top Big 12 teams:

"I think you earn that. People should question that. Certainly we've made progress. We won the Big 12 North, that was a goal for us. OU played better than us, and they deserved that win. Our next goal is a big 12 championship. Anything after that is gravy. We're going to work hard and see what happens. I tell all my players, "you can talk all you want about football. You have to go do it. "

On goals coming into this weekend's game with Illinois:

""I think you just want to play well. You want to do the things that got you where you were in the past. You want to protect the ball and not have mental errors. We've known they're on the schedule fr a long time. Illinois' a great team, it's going to be a bowl-type atmosphere."

John Anderson was apparently egging Van Pelt on to ask about the gold pants for this year:

"That decision is up to the seniors and captains. John can call me directly if he wants to talk about that. (laughs)"

Three straight bowl games where you've scored 38 points. Do you think you could be scoring 38 points in a game with "BCS" in the title in January?

"I don't know. We'll find out. Hopefully we can make that kind of progress."

Do you think you have a chance?

"Oh, yeah. We've got a chance."