Missouri Tigers blast UMass Minutemen in non-con football game: Here’s the recap
The No. 21-ranked Missouri Tigers went to their ground game early and often in Saturday’s non-conference road football contest against Massachusetts.
Marcus Carroll rushed for two first-half touchdowns and Mizzou led 24-3 by intermission. That advantage swelled to 45-3 through three quarters, and that proved to be the final score at Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium in Amherst, Mass.
Mizzou (5-1, 1-1 SEC) entered the game as a 27.5-point favorite. In retrospect, perhaps the Vegas oddmakers were a little too generous to UMass (1-6).
Senior MU running back Carroll finished the 11 a.m. game with three touchdowns and 91 yards on 15 carries. Usual Mizzou starting running back Nate Noel did not record a touch on Saturday, but in all, seven Tigers carried it for a total of 231 yards.
Not to say this game didn’t feature at least some Missouri passing. Quarterback Brady Cook threw for a pair of second-half touchdowns (one to tight end Brett Norfleet, the other to wideout Joshua Manning), and finished the afternoon with those two TDs and 219 yards on 14-of-19 accuracy.
Backup quarterback Drew Pyne even got to see some snaps for Missouri, completing three of five throws for 11 yards.
Star Mizzou wide receiver Luther Burden III caught a team-high five passes for 59 yards. But his best work, too, came on the ground: He scored on a 61-yard carry on MU’s opening drive.
Burden went left out of the backfield down the sideline, then cut back and eluded defenders the rest of the way for a touchdown. He finished with two carries for 68 yards, giving him 127 all-purpose yards Saturday.
Burden’s day ended early when he appeared to get hurt as, or right after, he was hit by a UMass defender while leaping for a catch in the third quarter.
Burden landed awkwardly on the ground as the ball fell incomplete. He left the game and did not return. But there was a good sign during the game, when MU coach Eli Drinkwitz — interviewed quickly on the TV broadcast — said, “He’ll be just fine.”
After the game, Drinkwitz had no further update about Burden’s status.
For the most part, everything went MU’s way Saturday. Missouri’s lopsided victory came a week after the Tigers’ disappointing 41-10 Southeastern Conference loss to Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.
UMass was overwhelmed from the jump by a Tigers defense that was obviously looking for a bounce-back performance. MU got that in spades.
In particular, Missouri was effective in haunting talented dual-threat quarterback Taisun Phommachanh.
The senior Minutemen signal-caller rushed for minus-1 yard on eight carries and was 12-of-22 for 132 yards as a passer. The Tigers sacked Phommachanh three times and intercepted him once.
Saturday’s odd midseason non-conference game was set up in 2018 by former MU athletic director Jim Sterk. The Minutemen are playing as an independent this season and will rejoin the MAC starting in 2025.
Mizzou returns to league play next weekend, hosting Auburn on Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbia. Kickoff time for that SEC showdown of Tigers vs. Tigers is yet to be announced.
This story was originally published October 12, 2024 at 2:26 PM.