Gary Pinkel rooting for Dorial Green-Beckham at Oklahoma
Gary Pinkel dismissed star-crossed wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham in April for repeated run-ins with the law, but the head coach at Missouri is rooting for him at Oklahoma.
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Green-Beckham transferred to Oklahoma where the Sooners are applying for immediate eligibility–a long shot– for the 6-6, 225-pound receiver and former recruit who was regarded as the No. 3 overall recruit coming out of high school when he set the national receiving record at the prep level.
Speaking at SEC Media Days on Wednesday morning, Pinkel expressed his support for his former player and thinks Oklahoma is a good place for him to learn from his mistakes.
"“I want things to work well for Dorial,” Pinkel said. “That’s important to me, and hopefully they will. I think that’s a good place and hopefully he learns some lessons. He’s overall a good kid, and he has a chance to turn this whole thing into a positive thing for him personally.”"
No hard feelings from Pinkel who hopes to see Green-Beckham learn from his past to ensure he has a successful future at Oklahoma and/or the NFL, but he also recognizes it will be tough to replace the Tigers’ leading receiver and All-American candidate.
Green-Beckham had 59 receptions with 883 yards and 12 touchdowns as a sophomore last year.
Bud Sasser, Jimmy Hunt, Darius White will be saddled with trying to replicate that production with Maty Mauk stepping into the starting quarterback job on a full-time basis.
Helping that trio of receivers fill the void from Green-Beckham’s dismissal are redshirt freshman J’Mon Moore and incoming freshmen DeSean Blair, Nate Brown and Lawrence Lee make contributions much earlier than expected with the big opening on the depth chart.