‘We’re going for two’: Inside Missouri football’s game-winning play against Florida in OT
.JPG "Missouri tight end Daniel Parker Jr., center, holds up the ball as teammates Michael Maietti, left, and Javon Foster, right, celebrate his winning catch during overtime of an NCAA college football game against Florida, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, in Columbia, Mo. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson)")
With everything on the line in overtime against Florida, Missouri football coach Eliah Drinkwitz called a timeout.
Running back Tyler Badie had just scored a 13-yard rushing touchdown to bring the Tigers within one point of the Gators. To the ordinary eye, it appeared as though the head coach had gathered the huddle to decide whether to kick the extra point and knot things up or to go for the two-point conversion to win the game.
But whether they would go for two was never in question. Neither was the play that they were going to run.
“They always know if we’re up second (in overtime), then we’re going for two,” Drinkwitz said.
As soon as quarterback Connor Bazelak took the snap and dropped back, two Gators charged his way — one to his right and the other in front. As they converged on him, Bazelak shifted his body to the left and threw up a pass. He fell to the ground as the ball soared through the air, landing perfectly in the arms of tight end Daniel Parker Jr., who had cut into the end zone, to secure the victory.
But Parker, a Kansas City native, wasn’t the first option on the play. He wasn’t even the second.
“The first read is a fast flat by Tyler (Badie). And the end went really wide, which then took away our second read, which was the under by Barrett (Banister),” Drinkwitz said after the 24-23 victory.
“And you’re trying to get a flood to that area. But last year when we put the play in, our offensive staff said we need to make the Y and just run a hide route as a throwaway, and if whatever reason it’s not there, maybe the quarterback has that option.”
Badie knew he was the first read as the play unfolded. So when he saw the ball go up, he said he was scared, not knowing if he had messed up and was supposed to go over and grab the ball. “Ooooh, I hope somebody catch it,” he recalled thinking at the time.
“And then DP caught it, and I’m just very happy for him,” Badie said. “At that moment, just to help the team, I’m pretty sure he was ecstatic, too.”
Once he made the game-winning catch, Parker threw his hand up in the air, still clutching onto the football for dear life. Within a matter of seconds, he was mobbed by a swarm of Mizzou players. They jumped and yelled, celebrating emphatically in realization that they were indeed heading to a bowl game, eventually forming a dog pile.
“It means the world to get those (seniors) to a bowl game,” tight end Niko Hea said. “Honestly, you talk about it all the time. You go home after games and practices, and you’re like, ‘We just gotta get that one more win. One more win.’ You’re crawling and scratching and fighting to get that win, and you finally get it and just that’s always relief off your shoulders. ...To finally get that sixth win and know you’re going to a bowl game is huge. It’s awesome.”
Drinkwitz couldn’t even remember how he celebrated right after the grab. “It’s all a blur, man,” he said.
There is one particular detail Drinkwitz does remember vividly though. Not from the game-winning play or what happened afterwards, but from the day prior.
Mizzou practices the play, the name of which the head coach wouldn’t reveal, every Friday in practice. Usually, they go through it mindlessly, simply running it with the first read to the tailback. But it just so happened that yesterday, for whatever reason, Bazelak ran the play almost exactly as it panned out against the Gators on Saturday, throwing it up to Parker instead of the primary options.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s interesting,’” Drinkwitz recalled. “And then practice execution makes game day reality.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2021 at 10:37 PM.
