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Gary Pinkel: Concerned student hashtag should not have been on tweet

Nick Bromberg
College football and motorsports writer

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said Tuesday that the tweet he sent Sunday with a picture of him and his team should not have included the hashtag for the Missouri student movement Concerned Student 1950.

The movement, which was backed by members of the football team over the weekend, helped lead to the resignation of Missouri president Tim Wolfe. Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin is moving to a different position at the end of the year.

"No what happened was is that I have somebody that tweets for me a lot to get information out and that person should not have put that hashtag on," Pinkel told Kansas City's 810 WHB on Tuesday.

Here's the tweet, which you've likely already seen if you've been following the story. As of the time of this posting it's the most recent tweet Pinkel has made.

Pinkel said the movement to remove Wolfe had nothing to do with his tweet as well.

"No. Not at all. It had nothing to do with it," Pinkel said. "It was just about a young man that was really struggling and that what it was about."

He also declined to comment on Wolfe's resignation.

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The young man is Jonathan Butler, who was on a hunger strike until Wolfe resigned. Pinkel and athletic director Mack Rhoades reference's Butler's life multiple times during their press conference Monday, deflecting from the motives of the protest. Pinkel was adamant Tuesday that the support for his players was his driving force.

"This was strictly about me assisting my players," Pinkel said. "That's what it was about. Nothing else."

Butler's announced he was going on a hunger strike November 2 to protest Wolfe over what he felt was inaction by the school's leaders about systemic oppression at the university. Missouri wide receiver J'Mon Moore said he spoke with Butler on Wednesday, talked to other teammates about Butler on Thursday and the team discussed the idea of the boycott on Saturday.

Missouri, 4-5, plays BYU on Saturday.

For more Missouri news, visit PowerMizzou.com.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!