Missouri Tigers rout New Mexico State, will seek bowl-eligibility Friday against Hogs

The Missouri Tigers are one win from bowl eligibility with one game remaining.

Saturday night’s 45-14 non-conference victory over New Mexico State in Columbia made sure of that.

The Tigers (5-6, 2-5 SEC) scored a trio of touchdowns in the first half and returned to their stingy ways defensively one week after getting blasted 66-24 by the Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville, Tenn.

Mizzou true freshman wide receiver Luther Burden provided a couple of highlight-reel moments on Saturday, hurdling a defender into the end zone for one touchdown and breaking some Aggie ankles on his second, but many MU players — upper- and lower-classmen alike — contributed on Senior Night at Faurot Field.

Late in the game, with the outcome well in hand, Mizzou fans even got their first look at highly touted true-freshman quarterback Sam Horn. The Collinsville, Georgia native relieved sophomore starter Brady Cook, who threw for three touchdowns before taking a deserved seat on the bench with his team ahead 42-7 in the fourth quarter.

Saturday’s matchup with the FBS independent Aggies, who next year join Conference-USA, arrived right on time for a Missouri team that entered the weekend needing victories in both remaining regular-season games in order to reach the six-win bowl threshold.

With one down, there’s one yet to go ... and it pits the Tigers against a familiar SEC rival: the Arkansas Razorbacks team for which former MU head coach Barry Odom is the defensive coordinator.

Beat the Hogs at Faurot Field next week, in a Friday afternoon game the day after Thanksgiving, and Missouri can begin thinking seriously about bowl selection.

During his three-plus quarters of action Saturday, Cook was efficient both passing and running the football. He was 11 of 19 for 149 yards and two touchdowns, with five carries for 54 yards, in the first half. Cook finished the night 19 of 27 for 251 yards, those three TDs and 71 yards rushing on seven carries.

The outcome of the game was never much in doubt. Mizzou got on the board with a flourish at the 6:14 mark of the first quarter, Cook hitting Burden for a 12-yard touchdown play that the latter finished by leaping an Aggie at the goal line.

Cody Schrader scored the Tigers’ second touchdown early in the second quarter on a 2-yard run, and their third came a 32-yard hookup from Cook to tight end Ryan Hoerstkamp. The redshirt-freshman Hoerstkamp showed some moves of his own on the nifty catch-and-run touchdown, the first of his MU career.

The Tigers piled up 260 yards of offense by halftime, and they did it with balance: 149 yards through the air, 111 on the ground. Mizzou eclipsed 400 total yards early in the final period and finished with 443.

The Missouri defense, meanwhile, held the Aggies (4-6) to 112 yards of offense through the first half and 259 by game’s end. New Mexico State’s junior quarterback, Diego Pavia, was consistently flushed from the pocket and completed just 4 of 14 first-half passes for 55 yards.

Taking the ball first in the third quarter, ahead 21-0, Missouri got back to work. Barrett Banister made a nice sideline catch with one hand that was good for 17 yards before Cook completed passes to Banister and Burden to push the Tigers into the red zone.

After Schrader bulled inside the Aggies’ 5, the senior rusher got the call again immediately. He lowered his head and rumbled into the end zone for his second touchdown of the game. Another Harrison Mevis extra point sailed through the uprights and Missouri led 28-0.

A juking Burden scored MU’s fifth touchdown on a 14-yard pass from Cook with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter, and redshirt freshman defensive back Daylan Carnell bit Pavia for a pick-six with 12:41 left in the game.

Senior placekicker Mevis was good on his only field-goal attempt, from 43 yards, and made all of his extra-point tries.

The Aggies scored their two TDs on a 10-yard run by sophomore running back Star Thomas with 4:29 left in the third quarter and a 13-yard keeper by relief QB Gavin Frakes with 4:21 remaining in the game.

Horn, the promising freshman Missouri quarterback, finished his first college appearance 0 for 2 (a dime of a pass to Banister near the goal line was negated by a penalty elsewhere on the field) and one carry for 10 yards.

A third Tigers quarterback, senior Jack Abraham, took the snaps for Missouri’s final offensive series of the Senior Night game.

Amid this Tigers season of peaks and valleys, Saturday night’s showing and outcome will be savored in CoMo. But Friday’s game for the Battle Line Trophy will no doubt be considerably more difficult for Missouri.

Arkansas knocked down No. 14 Ole Miss 42-27 on Saturday to record its sixth win of the season. And while the Tigers will be plenty motivated to qualify for a bowl, the 6-5 Razorbacks — who assured their own eligibility Saturday — will be aiming to improve the quality of their postseason assignment.

This story was originally published November 19, 2022 at 9:47 PM.