Mizzou Tiger Talk with Gary Pinkel, Marvin Foster, and Evan Boehm

The atmosphere was upbeat and full of smiles for Tiger Talk this week, when Mizzou head football Coach Gary Pinkel was joined by standout players Marvin Foster and Evan Boehm.

Pinkel summed up the Georgia win by saying, “Very proud of our football team. That was a great test in a very, very hostile environment.”

Mizzou play-by-play man Mike Kelly brought up the success the Tigers are having in the turnover margin category to which Foster replied, “If we don’t remember anything that Coach Pinkel says, he always talks about the turnover margin. We’re fourth in the nation right now [in that category] and you can see how that reflects on our record.”

Although Boehm is from Lee’s Summit, he talks about how his parents grew up in Boonville, which inspired the Mizzou fandom that they’ve passed down to him. “I grew up a Mizzou Tiger fan, watching Brad Smith and Chase Daniel on television, and seeing Coach Pinkel back when he was young,” he says.

The statement drew quite the response of laughter from Tiger fans. The Foster and Boehm combo was certainly entertaining, but they were also candid about the Mizzou experience in general.

“Have you ever just stared off in someone’s direction, and they thought you were looking at them, but you were really just looking at space?” Foster asked Kelly. “In Columbia, they look at you and say, ‘Hi, how’re you doing?’ But, where I’m from in the city, you stare off into someone’s direction and they’re like, ‘What’re you looking at?’ I just like how everyone is so nice here.”

Boehm echoed Foster’s sentiments by saying, “The family atmosphere in Columbia and on the football team and throughout the whole complex—it’s one big family. It’s no sport gets this, or no sport gets that, it’s everybody that comes together as one sport, one family and one Mizzou.”

Kelly also spoke with Pinkel about the phenomenal home field advantage that the Tigers will be enjoying at The ZOU over the next three games. “We need to get our fans in the stadium by 10:30. It’d be nice to crank out a few in a row here,” Pinkel said.

One of the highlights of the show was when both players were asked to share something about the other player that they might not want fans to know. Boehm actually has a few false teeth from a waterslide incident when he was 8, and Foster does a dance in the locker room following Mizzou wins in which he stands in the middle of all the players who chant, “big Marv, big Marv” over and over. It was certainly one of the most memorable Tiger Talk sessions ever.

A couple things have been made clear about Mizzou’s upcoming game against the Florida Gators on Saturday. Wear gold, and get in your seats early. The importance of these items cannot be understated as Tiger football is entering a new frontier, and it is up to the student body to show the successful football image of the school.

Pinkel also touched on the game against Florida, who will play at The ZOU Saturday at 11:21 a.m. It’s a Tiger Talk recap that you simply can’t miss.