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Gary Pinkel, TV personality: The guy's been really good on camera, hasn't he?

Here are three Mizzou things for New Year's Day. HELLO, 2016. BOWL GAMES START AT 11 CT.

By Bill Connelly
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

1. I still wish I knew how much of an impact the Mizzou boycott was going to have...

...but it might be pretty significant in the end.

There were no sports information directors present when captain Ian Simon spoke. He read the statement from a smartphone screen with microphones from around the country, the world, shoved in his face. About 25 reporters, almost all of whom were white, stood on the quad to listen. That's an irony that shouldn't be ignored. I didn't think about it at the time, though. What struck me then was simply the moment. The many different microphones. That the reporter with the accent didn't know Harris' name. The magnitude of it all.

With Wolfe's resignation, football was back. And soon after, the national media decamped, most of them by the following day. The what of the story had been covered and disseminated across the country, the world—but what about the why?

So many of the people who reached out to me for more information about what happened at MU had similar sentiments: How did it get to this point? Isn't demanding the ousting of a university system president extreme? Isn't a hunger strike extreme?

I guess it's probably not a surprise that the boycott was No. 1 on KTGR's year-end list...

2. Life did not end when the defensive line coach left town

The Post-Dispatch's Ben Frederickson discusses life without Craig Kuligowski.

But those still in mourning Kuligowski's departure, imminent long before Miami became known as the destination, might be overdoing it a bit. Here's why:

1. Chris Wilson, the defensive line coach Odom hired, is no slouch. Nineteen of his 23 years as a college coach have been spent coaching defensive lines. He's worked for powerhouses such as Southern Cal, Georgia, Mississippi State and Oklahoma. He can cite linemen Leonard Williams, the No. 6 pick in 2015, and Fletcher Cox, the No. 12 pick in 2012, as pupils.

SOURCES, etc., but I've been hearing about a couple more names of coaches that might end up on staff, and they fit the Wilson/Cross profile: experienced hands who have spent years at big-name schools. Wilson is certainly one of those experienced hands, and while I would have loved to keep Kul on staff, life goes on.

3. Gary Pinkel was watching the Cotton Bowl with a mic on last night

Dave Matter watched so we didn't have to look at Paul Finebaum in a tux.

I think I know who Pinkel is picking to win the national title game.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

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