As Cody Schrader’s teammates chanted his name and put him on their shoulders, reality should’ve sunk in for the outside world.

Mizzou is so much more than a feel-good story.

This isn’t your standard plucky underdog that captivated some national attention in the first half of the season and then faded when the quality opponents showed up. A darn good football team took Tennessee to the woodshed with a loud 36-7 statement win Saturday.

It wasn’t just a statement that the Tigers were by day’s end, as Eli Drinkwitz said in the postgame CBS interview, “Tennessee state champs,” by becoming the first team to beat 4 FBS teams from the Volunteer State in the same season. It wasn’t just that the Tigers took down multiple top-15 teams at home in the same season for the first time since 1976 or that it happened in front of the 4th consecutive sellout at Faurot Field, which hadn’t happened since the Jimmy Carter administration. And sure, it was noteworthy that Mizzou won its first matchup of ranked teams since 2013.

Saturday was about more than that for Drinkwitz’s program.

Schrader earned the right to be carried by his teammates after he put the team on his back. He had to. Luther Burden III dealt with an ankle injury all week and was clearly limited. Brady Cook got off to a slow start and was banged up at times throughout the day. Mizzou leading tackler Ty’Ron Hopper left the game with an ankle injury.

So naturally, Mizzou turned to the former Division II transfer to do the heavy lifting. Like, the guy who started off No. 6 on the running back depth chart when he arrived as a walk-on last season.

By day’s end, all Schrader did was become the 5th Power 5 player in the past 25 years to record 200 rushing yards and 100 receiving yards in the same game. Schrader’s 321 scrimmage yards (205 rushing, 116 receiving) were easily the most of any SEC player this season, and it came against a Tennessee defense that entered the day ranked No. 22 in scoring and No. 14 against the run.

“I’ve never seen a performance like that,” Cook said afterward on the CBS broadcast.

Amen.

Somehow, Schrader had enough energy to join the Mizzou faithful after a day in which he had a career-high 40 scrimmage touches. Schrader was so dialed in that he even made a savvy move at the end of the first half to slide on a run so that Mizzou could call timeout and set up a Harrison Mevis field goal in the final seconds.

Of course, 3 points didn’t matter a whole lot by day’s end. Schrader made sure of it.

The same could be said for that Mizzou defense. All Blake Baker’s unit did was hold Josh Heupel’s offense to its worst offensive output since he arrived at Tennessee. The same Mizzou team that allowed an average of 64 points in its first 2 meetings with Heupel totally flipped the script by pitching a second-half shutout.

“We had unfinished business from last season,” Drinkwitz said in the postgame interview. “Our defense kicked their ass tonight.”

He’s not wrong.

(Drinkwitz calling a timeout as Tennessee attempted a last-minute field goal in a 36-7 game might’ve also been some of that “unfinished business.”)

Tennessee entered the day with the No. 1 rushing attack in Power 5 with 228 yards per contest. The Vols were stuffed for just 88 sack-adjusted rushing yards. Oh, and the Tennessee offense that led the nation in average yards by running backs (194) was held to just 47 yards from its tailbacks.

Joe Milton came in riding the best 2-game stretch of his career, yet he was held to just 1 first-half touchdown pass. He turned the ball over twice, the second of which was a pick-6 into the arms of Daylan Carnell that thwarted any last-chance hopes of a Tennessee comeback.

Mizzou was one step ahead all day. Even when the Tigers went into the break up 13-7, it felt like they had done everything they set out to do. They had 300 first-half yards, and yet only 5 of them came from Burden.

The former 5-star receiver who entered Saturday ranked in the top 10 in FBS in catches and receiving yards was mostly held in check. He came up limping after his first touch of the day, and he only finished with 26 yards on 4 catches, though he did break loose for a 21-yard score late on a nice play design from OC Kirby Moore.

Speaking of Moore, he might’ve earned himself a legitimate case for the Broyles Award with his offensive game plan. He has been everything that Mizzou hoped he’d be after he arrived from Fresno State as Drinkwitz’s first offensive play-caller. The Tigers have turned into a balanced, explosive attack that can beat you in a variety of ways. Saturday might’ve felt like it was a bit Schrader-dominant (because it was), but his variety of touches perfectly exhibited that offensive versatility.

If Mizzou was simply “The Burden Show” and a bend-don’t-break defense, Saturday wouldn’t have happened. It’s as simple as that.

Instead, we’ve been reminded week after week why Mizzou’s improvement in Year 4 of the Drinkwitz era was inevitable. In Billy Connelly’s final percentage of returning production rankings, the Tigers came in at No. 2 in FBS with 82% of last year’s production back. Even in the 2 losses, we watched Mizzou play 4-quarter games against preseason Playoff contenders.

Saturday was anything but a moral victory. It was an actual victory against a respected SEC foe that moved the needle even more than Kansas State. At least it should’ve.

With favorable matchups against Florida and Arkansas to close the regular season, there’s now a very realistic path for Mizzou to reach 10-2 and play in its first BCS/non-Playoff New Year’s 6 bowl. That didn’t happen in the impressive 2007 or 2013 seasons because the Cotton Bowl wasn’t part of the BCS bowls. It’s wild to think that if Mizzou were having this success in 2024, we’d be talking about its path to the 12-team Playoff.

But appreciate this 2023 Mizzou team for what it is. It embraced a new internal mantra that was on display all afternoon.

“Four quarters of hell.”