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This Thursday, Mizzou (4-4, 1-4) will face No. 25 Mississippi State (6-2, 2-2) at Faurot Field. Both teams will be coming off their bye weeks. Gary Pinkel's 15-year tenure at Mizzou has given us a pretty large sample of bye week results.
Only in 2006 has Gary Pinkel's team had its first bye week later in the season than in 2015.
Bye records since Gary Pinkel took over as head coach of Mizzou in 2001:
2001: 36-3 home loss to #4 Nebraska after a two week[1] Sept. bye, 24-3 road loss to Kansas State after Nov. 17 bye. Finished 4-7, 3-6 after first bye
2002: 44-7 home win over Troy after Sept. 7th bye. Finished 5-7, 3-6 post-bye
2003: 41-21 home win over #10 Nebraska after Oct. 4th bye, 21-16 road loss to Colorado after Nov. 1 bye. Finished 8-5, 4-3 post-bye
2004: 17-9 home win over Colorado after Sept. 25th bye, 31-14 home loss to Kansas after Nov. 20 bye. Finished 5-6, 3-5 after first bye
2005: 51-20 home loss to #2 Texas* after Sept. 24th bye. Finished 7-5, 4-4 post-bye
2006: 21-16 road loss to Iowa State after Nov. 11th bye. Finished 8-5, 1-1[2] post-bye
2007: 41-6 home win over #25 Nebraska after Sept. 29th bye. Finished 12-2, 7-2 post-bye
2008: 52-17 road win over Nebraska after Sept. 27th bye, 40-37 neutral site loss after Nov. 22 bye. Finished 10-4, 5-4 after first bye
2009: 27-12 Thursday night home loss to #21 Nebraska* after Oct. 3rd bye. Finished 8-5, 4-4 post-bye[3]
2010: 26-0 home win over Colorado after Oct. 2nd bye. Finished 10-3, 6-2 post-bye
2011: 24-17 road loss to #20 Kansas State after Oct. 1st bye. Finished 8-5, 5-3 post-bye
2012: 33-10 home win over Kentucky after Oct. 20th bye. Finished 5-7, 2-3 post-bye
2013: 45-28 road win over Indiana after Sept. 14th bye, 24-10 road win over Ole Miss after Nov. 16 bye. Finished 12-2, 9-2 after the first bye
2014: 34-0 home loss to #13 Georgia after Oct. 4th bye, 34-27 road win over Texas A&M after Nov. 8 bye. Finished 11-3, 6-2 after the first bye
1 | Due to Michigan State game being postponed to the end of the season
2 | the win was 42-17 win over Kansas
3 | 2009 is perhaps the most significant example. 2009 came after back to back 10+ win seasons and featured a regular season Thursday night home game in which both teams were coming off a bye week. Of course it should also be noted that this was the rain-soaked game where Blaine Gabbert's ankle was injured by Ndamukong Suh.
*Team also coming off a bye week.
While at Mizzou, Gary Pinkel after the bye...
- is 0-2 vs opponents also coming off bye weeks (Texas '05, Nebraska '09). Mississippi State has a bye before playing Mizzou this Thursday
- has 10 wins vs 10 losses in games following a bye week -- 8-6 after the first bye, 2-4 after the second
- has 3 wins vs 2 losses in games following an October bye week (Mizzou's bye week in 2015 was the October 31, Halloween week)
- is 0-1 in Thursday night games following bye weeks
- has 2 wins against ranked opponents vs 5 losses in games following a bye week. Mizzou's two wins against Nebraska came when the Huskers were ranked #10 and #25. Mississippi State is ranked #25
- is 62-47 in games after the first bye week, a 56.8% win percentage
November records since Gary Pinkel took over as head coach of Mizzou in 2001:
2001: 1-2 (Win: Baylor), (Losses: @ #25 Colorado, @Kansas State, @Michigan State)
2002: 1-3 (Win: @Texas A&M) (Losses: @ #22 Iowa State, #18 Colorado, #10 Kansas State)
2003: 2-2 (Wins: Texas A&M, Iowa State) (Losses: @Colorado, @ #19 Kansas State)
2004: 1-2 (Win: @Iowa State), (Losses: Kansas State, Kansas)
2005: 1-2 (Win: Baylor), (Losses: @ #25 Colorado, @Kansas State)
2006: 1-2 (Win: Kansas), (Losses: @Nebraska, @Iowa State)
2007: 4-0 (Wins: @Colorado, Texas A&M, @Kansas State, N #2 Kansas)
2008: 3-1 (Wins: @Baylor, Kansas State, @Iowa State) (Loss: N Kansas)
2009: 3-1 (Wins: @Kansas State, Iowa State, @Kansas), (Loss: Baylor)
2010: 3-1 (Wins: Kansas State, @Iowa State, N Kansas), (Loss: @Texas Tech)
2011: 3-1 (Wins: #21 Texas, Texas Tech, N Kansas), (Loss: @Baylor)
2012: 1-3 (Win: @Tennessee), (Loss: @Florida, Syracuse, @Texas &M)
2013: 4-0 (Wins: Tennessee, @Kentucky, @Ole Miss, Texas A&M)
2014: 4-0 (Wins: Kentucky, @Texas A&M, @Tennessee, Arkansas)
After going 7-13 in November from 2001-06, Mizzou is 25-7, with three losses coming in 2012 alone.