Guess who played Missouri Tigers hero late in Saturday’s snowy win vs. Arkansas?

Much like the wintry conditions Saturday afternoon, the 16th football meeting between Missouri and Arkansas was, for much of the game, an ugly one.

An explosive fourth quarter for the Tigers was enough to turn the game, however, as Mizzou took down the visiting Razorbacks 28-21.

Tigers fans should’ve known that quarterback Brady Cook was going to show up when it mattered most in his final home game in a Missouri uniform. Trailing 21-20 with 2:09 left in the game, Missouri advanced all the way to Arkansas’ 30-yard line.

What happened next was a full-circle moment for a quarterback who always dreamed of playing at Missouri — Cook took the snap and bolted up the middle, running 30 yards into the end zone to give the Tigers a late lead.

“Good old quarterback draw,” Cook said. “You guys have been seeing me do that for three years. The seas just parted. Jamal Roberts picked (up the block) perfectly, and it was there. I just ran up the hash and chased down the rock.”

“For Brady to have that quarterback draw for a walk-off,” coach Eli Drinkwitz said, “I think that’s pretty special.”

The Tigers completed a 2-point conversion — Cook to Luther Burden III, who had gone most of the game, until that final drive, without a catch.

“Shoot, I mean that was special,” Cook said. “That’s the last play of my career outside the bowl.”

While it was the team’s best drive of the game, it was not sustained without some much-needed clutch moments.

With 3:24 left, Missouri’s offense faced a third-and-9 from its own 26-yard line. A failure to pick up the first down would force the Tigers to punt back to Arkansas’ offense.

Poised in the pocket, Cook dropped back and found none other than Burden for a pickup of 11 yards and a first down.

Burden, in what likely was the projected first-round draft pick’s final game at Memorial Stadium, finished with just that one reception — and two-point conversion — but walked off Faurot Field with his legacy plenty secure.

“The story of Luther Burden is not going to be the one catch that if he doesn’t make today, we don’t win,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s going to be the monumental decision he made to come to the University of Missouri when nobody thought he should. ... He’s one of the best players, if not the best player, to ever come to the University of Missouri.

“For him to make that decision and change the trajectory of my career and our program, that’s what’s going to be remembered about Luther Burden.”

With a seven-point lead and the game on the line, it was once again on the defense to finish it out. Two games back, against South Carolina, Missouri’s defense allowed the Gamecocks to drive down the field and score a touchdown to take the lead.

This time, the defense held strong. With 14 seconds left, the Razorbacks made it to Missouri’s 34-yard line. Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green lofted a pass to the back of the end zone that fell into Isaiah Sategna’s hands.

As Sategna tried to reel in the ball, Tigers safety Joseph Charleston jarred it loose with a big hit. One play later, safety Sydney Williams broke up a last-second heave, clinching Missouri’s ninth win of the season.

Mizzou improved to 9-3 (5-3 Southeastern Conference) while Arkansas finishes the regular season 6-6 (3-5 SEC).

The victory marks Mizzou’s third straight win over its Battle Line Rivalry foe. The Tigers have taken down the Razorbacks in nine of the last 11 showdowns between the two programs.

Missouri’s offense, which has experienced its share of ups and downs this season, was stagnant for much of the game.

Arkansas’ defense entered Saturday’s contest ranked 68th in total defense but succeeded in holding Cook and company to 361 total yards — 156 of which came in the fourth quarter.

Running back Marcus Carroll was one of the only remedies for the Tigers’ offensive struggles. With 13:45 left in the game, he crossed the plane from 1 yard out, giving MU a 17-14 lead. That score was the second of Carroll’s two touchdown runs.

The senior running back finished the game with 22 carries for 90 yards and two touchdowns, elevating his season total to 12. He scored five touchdowns in the final two games of the regular season.

“It was just one of those games where you had to really want to tackle somebody,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s cold out there; it was pretty icy; and his ability just to continue to gain positive yards and get his shoulders downhill was really impressive.”

Carroll’s first touchdown came at the end of an eight-play drive midway through the first quarter. His backfield partners Nate Noel and Roberts split the first three carries of the drive, but Carroll handled the final five, the last one going for a short TD.

The rest of the MU offense was mostly quiet. The only big play, aside from Cook’s game-winning TD, came with 11:12 left when Cook found Theo Wease Jr. on a quick curl route.

The senior receiver turned that reception into a gain of 70 yards. Before that play, Cook was 5-of-13 for 59 yards. He finished 10-of-20 for 168 yards.

Wease had four catches for 100 yards — his fifth game with 100 or more.

Missouri’s play-calling was conservative, and some of that can be blamed on the slippery conditions at Faurot Field. In the first half, the Tigers ran the ball 23 times and threw it just six.

“Yeah, (the weather) was a factor,” Drinkwitz said. “It was hard to run routes, hard to get a grip on the ball and hard to have footing.”

In the end, Missouri pulled out another victory to close out the regular season. And now the Tigers will await their bowl destination.

“I told our staff that the difference between a good and great year was the ability to win this last game and get nine wins and put ourselves in a position to do something that hasn’t been done a ton — back-to-back 10 win seasons,” Drinkwitz said. “And I figure we’ll finish the season ranked, which is a step in the right direction.”

Cook put it all into perspective.

“When Coach Drink came in there was a toxic culture, toxic team, not a lot of wins and I was right there with him,” Cook said. “To see the culture he’s built, the team he’s built, to play under him, to be his starting quarterback for three years and to see how we’ve both grown and overcome so much. It’s been really cool.”

Copyright 2024 Columbia Missourian

This story was originally published November 30, 2024 at 8:59 PM.