If Missouri Tigers make a New Year’s Six bowl, this drive will have been major reason
Pick your favorite play.
There’s a good chance it was Brady Cook’s fourth-and-17 dart to Luther Burden III to keep Mizzou football alive.
Or maybe it was one of the late throws — either to Mekhi Miller or Mookie Cooper — to help Harrison Mevis into manageable territory.
The subsequent game-winning 30-yard field goal from the man coach Eli Drinkwitz calls “Money Mevis” is a safe choice, too.
All together, you get a season-defining drive.
The Tigers (9-2, 5-2 SEC) were flailing, one play from losing to Florida, losing their chance at a rare 10-win regular season and losing any hope at a New Year’s Six bowl.
But as No. 9-ranked Mizzou so often has done this year, it pulled out the unthinkable, defeating Florida 33-31 on Saturday at Faurot Field in Columbia.
“What a way to send the senior class out,” Drinkwitz said.
It started with Cook and Burden.
A false start and three passes going nowhere quickly brought about the do-or-die play. Drinkwitz called the Tigers’ final timeout; the Tigers had 67 yards of field in front of them and 38 seconds of clock remaining.
You can’t take the timeouts with you, Drinkwitz said postgame.
“In that situation you’re not thinking much, to be honest,” Cook said. “It’s do or die.”
They didn’t die.
Burden got wide open, and Cook didn’t miss.
Then the Tigers got moving. If they hadn’t, Mevis would have needed to kick another 60-yarder.
But Miller came up clutch, making a third-down catch earlier in the drive before a 10-yard reception to reach the 29.
“Just super proud of (Miller),” Cook said. “He’s such a smart player.”
Then Cooper got in on the action, picking up 16 yards on an out route.
“Great catch by him,” Cook said. “Great toe tap to get out of bounds.”
And so, eventually, did Missouri’s all-time points leader, who saved the day again.
“We’ve just been through a lot as a team,” Mevis said on Saturday. “This team deserves it. I’m just blessed to be a part of this team. blessed to be a part of this win tonight. Means everything. ... You can’t write it up any better.”
No kidding.
It was so good the Tigers got to celebrate twice, as the officials added another second after the Tigers prematurely ran onto the field.
There was perhaps a day when the Tigers wouldn’t have won it once.
Cook said it first. Cody Scharder, Mevis and Robinson all repeated it later during postgame interviews.
“No,” Cook said, “I don’t think we would have won this game last year.”
Cook said the Tigers’ resiliency came from all the close losses of the 2022 season. There was Auburn, where Mevis oh-so uncharacteristically missed a potential game-winner. There was Georgia at Faurot Field, and the fourth quarter that could have been. Kentucky and Florida both managed one-score wins over the Tigers.
But this is a new Missouri football team.
It’s the ninth win of the season. One more and Missouri will have double-digits for the first time since 2014.
Mevis Gator-chomped his way back to the MU sideline. Cook did the same in front of the Mizzou student section.
After all the pain a year ago, what a sight, what a scene.
Now the Tigers are one win away from a New Year’s Six bowl berth, heading to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for their regular-season finale Friday.
Drinkwitz said the game was the story of the senior class, who in traditional fashion were carried off Faurot Field one last time with a rock from the hill in hand.
The head coach, explaining that statement, said those players started their careers during the COVID-era. They went through the lows of last year. They came back when they didn’t have to.
So an ending like that?
Easy.
“Whether it was K-State, whether it was Kentucky, whether Tennessee when we were down, this game — this team always fights back,” Drinkwitz said. “They believe in each other, and they have ... a stubborn refusal to quit. And I just think that’s part of the senior class’ makeup.”
The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.
