Hayes: Mizzou is showing everybody why it’s worthy of Playoff talk in 2024
By Matt Hayes
Published:
He walked into the Cotton Bowl press conference earlier this week wearing a black cowboy hat, and, you know, fittin’ in.
Enjoy the journey, Eli Drinkwitz told his Missouri players over and over this breakthrough season. Live in the moment.
“That’s why I embraced the ol’ cowboy hat coming down to Texas,” Drinkwitz said.
Well, as they say in Texas, all hat, no cattle.
For 3 quarters, anyway.
They tried to muck it up, they really did — stumbling around in the Cotton Bowl against an Ohio State team playing its 3rd string quarterback before finally making a statement with a 14-3 win.
Maybe Missouri won’t be a 1-hit wonder after all.
At least, it won’t feel that way heading into the offseason — which is what this bowl game was all about, anyway. This was the next step from the season mantra of Something To Prove (STP).
Except Missouri spoke all week about dropping the “P” and moving the mantra to ST — or Showtime.
Too bad it looked a whole lot like PBS for the first 3 quarters.
Yet somehow, in a Cotton Bowl full of misery, Missouri found a way to take care of business, thank you. It was ugly, it was dysfunctional and discombobulated and nothing like what the Tigers had shown all season.
But here’s what else it was: a statement about what’s ahead for a program just starting to feel it again in the big, bad SEC.
With a win over Ohio State, Missouri won 11 games for the first time since 2014, the last of 2 straight appearances in the SEC Championship Game. So what if Ohio State played without beleaguered quarterback Kyle McCord (transferred to Syracuse) and star wideout Marvin Harrison Jr. (opt out).
The Buckeyes’ defense is loaded with future NFL Draft picks, and the offense still has elite skill players. This was still Missouri stepping in the box against a college football blue-blood, and taking a hefty swing.
Even if it took 3 quarters to do so.
“That’s just grit. We’re just a gritty team,” Missouri quarterback Brady Cook said in the postgame press conference. “Not letting adversity get you down.”
Earlier this week, Drinkwitz said his goal for the game was to “push towards next season.” He’s already looking at 2024, already riding momentum of an experienced team returning and strong work in both high school and transfer portal recruiting.
“At this time next season,” Drinkwitz said, “If we’re in the top 12, we’re going to be talking about the Playoff.”
How about that for looking to the future.
It wasn’t that long ago that Drinkwitz was in danger of losing his job. Now he’s talking about riding rare momentum into the expanded 12-team Playoff in 2024.
Missouri has gone from a coach who didn’t have everyone at the university on board with keeping him — fortunately, the Missouri Board of Curators wanted him, and extended his deal — to the SEC coach of the year.
The Tigers have gone from a team that couldn’t find a quarterback and couldn’t get its most valuable threat (WR Luther Burden III) the ball, to an offense as dangerous as any in the SEC under 1st-year OC Kirby Moore — with a hot quarterback and a distinct identity.
It took 3 quarters Friday night, but Moore finally realized what worked all season would work again in a critical bowl game. That meant plenty of work in the power run game with tailback Cody Schrader.
The philosophy has been the same all season: run downhill, and get 2nd- and 3rd-level throws off play-action from Cook. Push the ball downfield in the pass game — or 180 degrees different from what was in 2022.
So Schrader got the ball and did what he does best since arriving in Columbia in 2022 as a walk-on from Division II Truman State. He found the crease and hit it hard — and ran over and by the Ohio State defense.
The nation’s leading rusher (yards per game) had 128 yards, and an early 4th-quarter touchdown to give the Tigers their first lead of the game at 7-3. More important, his 2nd half running opened the pass game, and forced Ohio State to play more man coverage — which finally got Burden untracked with a 4th-quarter touchdown.
Not bad for a former St. Louis high school star who had no FBS offers, and signed with Truman State. Not bad for the former Division II star who jumped into the portal and could’ve played else where — but walked on to Missouri because he didn’t want to play anywhere else.
And because he wanted to show Missouri what it could’ve had since 2019 — then did it every time he stepped on the field since taking over as the team’s starter in the 2nd half of last season.
Then 2023 arrived, and by the time Missouri routed rival Arkansas in late November to win 10 regular-season games for the first time since 2013, Schrader had moved into the No. 1 spot as the nation’s leading rusher. He’s the reason Cook, too, has developed — and Burden is now the legit threat Drinkwitz envisioned when he landed the suburban St. Louis 5-star wideout over Alabama.
The defense has gotten better in each of Drinkwitz’s 4 seasons, and finished 6th in the SEC in scoring defense (22.3 ppg.). More important: 1st in turnovers forced (18), 4th in sacks (35) and 4th in tackles for loss (78) heading into the Cotton Bowl.
Then the defense played its best game of the season holding the Buckeyes to 203 total yards, and eliminating hope early — with or without the 1st quarter injury to backup quarterback Devin Brown. Ohio State could’ve played with McCord, and it wouldn’t have mattered.
So yeah, this isn’t a flash season. This isn’t the planets aligning and what worked in 2023 won’t in 2024. Star wideout Theo Wease says he’s ignoring the NFL and returning to Missouri, and the Tigers landed 4 impact starters from the portal.
Oklahoma’s Cayden Green, who started 5 games at guard this season as a true freshman, is a projected left tackle for Mizzou. Clemson’s Toriano Pride, the No. 1 cornerback in the portal, committed 2 days after the portal opened.
Then there’s RB Marcus Carroll, who rushed for 1,350 yards for Georgia State in 2023, and will be the answer to Schrader’s departure. Missouri also landed a Top 25 recruiting class, including another 5-star win (top 5 overall DE Williams Nwaneri) — this time over Georgia.
The only thing that’s left now is a spot in the 2024 Playoff.
“We’re talking about how we accelerate through the curve and continue to expect to be in this position,” Drinkwitz said.
To be the team fittin’ in. And enjoying the journey.
Matt Hayes is a national college football writer for Saturday Down South. You can hear him daily from 12-3 p.m. on 1010XL in Jacksonville. Follow on Twitter @MattHayesCFB
