Penalties an issue once again with this team.

I think the defensive front got a little lazy.

I do think the look more formidable....but they definitely let up and it's just awfully hard to get your ass back in gear when you do that.

Disappointing lack of focus, to be sure.

The offense looks like a carbon copy of what we were doing under Drink….

I mean I wasn’t expecting a complete makeover but it looks exactly the same.

Defense looks worse than last season so far. Got bailed out on a missed face mask penalty.

He'll get another 'live' possession before this becomes burn the clock time.

And it's like a round of golf; a single good shot on 18 makes the whole day of duffing feel worthwhile.

Still plenty to show today, Sam - get it done.

Uh oh

Why on earth are you having Burden return punts right now???

So stupid.

Eh - again, I think it did the first 3 possessions.

But by far and away my biggest issue with the offense last year was that it was all shallow or verts. I felt like there were just way too many parts of the field they left unchallenged. They really didn't do a very good job of working the middle of the field.

They did a little more of that in the first half today. Still not as much as I'd like to see but not quite 'carbon copy' either.

And jesus tapdancing christ, Burden - you have GOT to protect yourself better. That's 3 times you've gotten yourself blasted by leaving that chest exposed. Best ability is availability kid - you won't make it 3 weeks at this rate.

I know you're tall but you're gonna have to learn to run behind your pads a bit more, man.

An idiotic decision from an idiotic HC.

They're going to kill Burden.

Great, Mike Solari is playing calls for Horn.

What a competition. One guy gets 4 whole passes.

won’t even let Horn pass it anymore

This is a competition the way the Soviet weightlifters were drug-free

Let's get the monkey of Sam's back.

Put it in his hands and let him get that first college TD.

8 straight runs, ****ing ridiculous

Folks. There's no competition.

So we're gonna move on from "Really Cook wasn't very good" to "well this wasn't a real competition..."?

Shit man, he WASN'T going to look as good as Cook did in the first half. Cook looked really good. And in Horn's 4 throws he biffed one pretty damn badly.

HEY! Horn gets a TD in the statsheet!

Burden is a goddamn animal. That's a 1st round pick all day.

Thicker kicker got them over the over.

South Dakota going to cover the line at Mizzou -27.

He got to pass it 5 times in a half. I don't care about how Cook looked in the first half. A QB competition should actually mean giving the other guy a chance at all. That didn't happen.

You're the only one that seems to think this was anything close to a "fair competition". For some reason you have this undying love for Cook's mediocre ass.

It can be both. Horn missed a throw and got a bad break. That back shoulder throw to Weiss could have been caught.

Cook's longest throw of the night was the sideline shot to Luther, but I am of the opinion that a better arm talent puts that on a flatter line so he doesn't have to adjust his body. It was a safer throw, but it also represents his ceiling.

Drinkwitz going full on Bud Kilmer on Horn…

Well he killed one of his own drives with a bad throw and then the next drive with lesser mobility.

The rest was a product of the defense not getting them the ball back all that quickly.

Maybe if Horn doesn't biff a really easy throw to suddenly bring South Dakota back within shouting range then go 3 and out on the next drive, Drink wouldn't have felt compelled to move into milk the clock mode as quickly as they did.

I don't disagree. Cook's a limited player (though I believe Weiss also missed a ball from Cook in the first half that 'could've been caught). In the meantime, Cook was about as good as he could've possibly been. He was genuinely strong out there in the first half.

Speaking directly to the Burden throw - yes, that traded ceiling for floor but if Horn tries that throw and he's late or he overcooks it a bit, Burden gets killed (Again). Cook executed and gave his insanely good playmaker a chance to catch and protect himself. He was also able to keep plays alive with his legs better and seemed to operate on time better.

In terms of executing the offense, Cook looked WAY more poised and in control. And the long completion by Horn demonstrated a hell of a lot of arm talent but he still doesn't look ready yet. He doesn't look like someone that is more likely to win a football game for this team than Cook is.

Fair or not, Horn really needed to shine to take that job.

We can all reasonably say that did not happen. Still another week to go but he's gonna have to play lights ****ing out against Memphis to tilt it.

Everything says it's gonna be Brady Cook dinking and dunking to 6 and 6.

We will see how next week goes, but Drinkspiss acting like Horn couldn't even come out unless the lead was insurmountable tells me everything I need to know.

I hope they let Horn have the first half next week.

Doesn't seem likely, but it would seem fair.

You could tell that from 5 passes huh?

I'd be surprised and whoops Middle Tennessee and not Memphis.

Apparently enough for Drinkwitz. They had zero faith on that final drive.

With his 28 and 7 comment after the game, I doubt Horn takes a snap with a game in doubt the rest of the season.

And when 2024 rolls around, we'll be ****ing the same chicken, pissed about Cook's ceiling, but stuck because the coaching staff will want to stay with the experienced starter.

Hopefully we won’t have to because Drinkwitz won’t be here….

Not necessarily. If this is STILL the best Drinkwitz can muster it's not a guarantee he makes it to 2024. This team is going to get waffle stomped in SEC play, especially after Burden is out for the year.

Then I hope you enjoy having the 20 most talented players get poached.

You couldn't?

Because yeah - it was pretty damn apparent.

Been a pretty staunch supporter of Drink, but if he says there’s a QB competition, then let Horn sling it. 5 attempts to 17? Certainly how the game played out played some part of that, but he didn’t even give him a real chance to get evaluated. Really rooting for Cook, but I just don’t see it.

There’s the possibility of that happening no matter what and if he isn’t getting anything out of them, what does it really matter?

Am I missing something here? Drink has put together an insanely talented team that played pretty well tonight. You're ready to fire the guy? WTF is wrong with you?

What are you watching? Honest question.

Like players, coaches improve too. He’s been successful at every level he’s been at so far. Remember the Peat goal line fumble against Auburn? The bullshit roughing the punter penalty? We were a hair away from 8 wins last year with torn labrum Cook. I wouldn’t write Drink off just yet. I don’t agree with how he handled the QB competition tonight, but I think that an intellectually honest person can see that there’s something to Drink that SHOULD give you optimism.

Exactly.

The program is in a very tenuous spot. Firing Drinkwitz would mean four different coaches in nine years. That's tough for a middling P5 team in the toughest conference to survive. I really, really want him to work out, because there is elite upside with his recruiting. Missouri will have this NIL advantage for a very short period of time, and if they miss this window, they will be set back perhaps a decade.

They have to thread the needle of having an NIL advantage to pair with an ascending team to give them a level of panache that a team like Oregon had 25 years ago. If Drinkwitz gets fired, the wheels fall off recruiting and the established talent will leave. That's why Cook worries me. He's good enough to get you to a bowl game, but he kneecaps the passing game. Cook has the rare ability to both lose you games (FLA) and not win you games.

Horn will lose them more games than Cook this year. But he also has the potential to win them games that Cook never will.

Three times last year, Cook had a chance to drive the team down and give them a signature win. And every time he failed.

The program needs to take the risk. And it won't. And that's a goddamned shame.

Did I say fire him? No I didn’t….

Played pretty well tonight? What were YOU watching?

That’s a 3 win FCS team that went toe to toe with you in the second half….sloppy penalties, the place kicker is mind ****ed now, Brady Cook and this offense looks EXACTLY THE SAME as last year.

Sorry if I’m not crying tears of joy over not even covering the spread….

Great post. Sort of where I’m at. I’m probably naive but since Cook is clearly QB1 in the staff’s eyes, I’m hoping that his injury limited him.

I think the big thing is I am still waiting to see the Offensive prowess from Drinkwitz.

Beyond Brady Cook being all dink and dunk, the Offense still looks sloppy and unprepared in general. They've had 2 years to build things up around him and it just looks mostly shitty.

He has an OC now, so what's the reason this time?

*first time meme*

He’s had an OC for 4 quarters. Lol, come on man.

He's had one all year. It's still his Offense being ran with the usual sloppiness.

Not sure if you’re being purposely obstinate or you are honestly mistaken. Guessing it’s the former. His OC is brand new.

The kids are eating at the table in the other room. Have a seat over there and settle on in.

That was a disappoint second half, because we just didn’t see much of Cook.

He’s not much of a scrambling/running threat, but the arm talent has the potential to make up for it and then some.

Burden looked like a viable WR in this game rather than an insane athlete who is being force fed manufactured touches.

And Brady Cook still has a popgun arm and plays like Alex Smith’s style of QB play is The Way. I hate it.

Horn* but your point remains.

I've said this in football and in baseball contexts.

Rookies (and Horn is essentially a rookie) have to force the issue. They can't win on a split decision. They can't just expect that they'll get a shot.

And Horn didn't force the issue tonight. I'm really not sure what else there is to say.

If Horn is as good as many thinks he can be - he will take over at some point. But tonight he just didn't look like someone ready to run a Power 5 offense.

Mizzou is in the same situation that the owner of the Double Deuce was in Road House. He's come into money, and he needs a way to build the brand back up, so he invests in facilities and hires a hand to change the culture. Brady Cook isn't Dalton. He's not Wade Garrett. He's not even a Terry Funk- like maniac who doesn't have the temperament to guide the ship (that was Mauk, by the way). He's that fat guy that always shows up to a fight, but usually gets his ass whipped because he has too many physical limitations. Sure, he's loyal and he shows up, but other than absorbing pool cue shots to the skull and acting as a vaulting platform for Jimmy to launch himself onto the stage, I don't see what the value is there.

Great analogy :clap:

So our only hope is for a polar bear to fall on Cook?

I will say this for Jerm...to be successful, Mizzou has to get it right at QB, and he has gotten it so, so wrong. If ED gets canned after a 6-win season, it will all come down to his inability to move off Cook. He simply is not a Power 5 QB, not close. I would rather see Garcia...and I've never seen Garcia.

The fact we’re in Year 4 of this and he hasn’t found a QB to at least push Cook is pretty worrying to me…borderline asinine esp. for a guy who’s recruiting prowess is talked about so much.

I don’t think it’s particularly unfair either…

I agree with everything you said.

He is 'close'. He might, if healthy, be a firmly average P5 quarterback.

I think having Mahomes has broken our brains as to what an average college quarterback is. Or even a GOOD college quarterback.

College QBs aren't guys that are standing tall in the pocket and slinging 40 yard missiles over the middle of the field. The overwhelming majority of them are very similar to Cook. Mobile, smart, tolerable arm strength, passing flirtations with being accurate.

Again, there's not a dime's worth of difference between Brady Cook and Stetson Bennett.

Is Cook a good Power 5 quarterback? No, probably not. Though we'll see if the shoulder was truly impacting him - again, having torn my labrum in the past, I just think this whole 'he was playing hurt' thing is overblown. If his labrum was actually torn he couldn't have done even as little as he did - you cannot throw with that level of instability.

But "He's not even close to a Power 5 quarterback" is ridiculous. There are 75 friggen Power 5 teams. There are maybe 15 of those that have OBVIOUSLY better options than Cook. Probably 15 of them that have obviously WORSE options than Cook. Then there's the big-ass pile of largely interchangeable guys that play the game almost identically to Cook.

This is James Franklin 2.0. People so badly wanted Matty Mauk under center that they just roasted Franklin every chance they got. When all Franklin ever did was be a pretty ordinary college starter - he did college quarterback stuff. And hell, they ended up 5th in the nation with him and would've gone to the national championship game with any sort of defense at all.

This team's not that team, but its very demonstrative of what a good team can do around a smart, reliable quarterback. Yes, it's game manager shit but unless/until Horn proves it - until he TAKES the job - it's silly to just sit here and act like we're trotting Jim Dougherty out there.

No, that's Tinker, the other fat guy.

I'm talking about this muffin:

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0098206/m...f_=ext_shr_lnk

Dafuq?

We just went into game one of the season with Cook and a 5-star redshirt freshman in a quarterback competition. And behind him is another 4-star dual threat from this year's class. And in that mix is ANOTHER 5-star transfer who was top 10 nationally at the position just 2 years ago.

I swear to god, some of y'all just continue to make the arguments you WANT to make, actual evidence be damned.

Maybe - just maybe - Cook's not the piece of grabasstic shit you fellas keep insisting he is. Maybe every damn recruit that walks into Columbia doesn't miraculously start dominating the best football conference in the country as a Sophomore.

****ing dipshit worthless pile of ass Eli Drankmess didn't get Caleb Williams - we should fire him.

Lord that's just idiotic. You honestly said "there's nobody pushing Cook" when the only thing that kept that from being an open competition last night was that Cook ran the offense so well in the first half that Drink took the air out of the ball in the second half.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Throw all the stars and accolades you want at me, it don’t mean jack shit if they can’t get on the field…

Who is pushing him? Horn? Garcia? Neither of them are…they had all Spring and Fall Camp to get the job and couldn’t do it….

And again, I didn’t call Cook horrible…I don’t think he’s terrible but I don’t think he’s anything better than average.

Let's do this...I will recant "not close to a Power 5 QB" if you recant "there's not a dimes worth of difference between Cook and Stetson Bennett"! 90% of being a good P5 (or any college) QB is reading the D, making quick decisions, and accurately delivering the pass. There is a trunk of gold coins difference between the two there. I don't like to crap on college players, especially at such a difficult position, but which SEC teams do we have a QB advantage over?

I wish it was James Franklin 2.0.

Cook can't hold his (nutjob) jock.

Bennett made as many poor decisions as any QB I saw last season. He was bailed out by superior targets and time to do his taxes before he threw.

As for the rest of the SEC - that's my point: I don't necessarily see any teams we have a clear advantage over. But I see very few that have a clear advantage over Mizzou.

I mean we're really gonna keep pumping off Spencer Rattler? How long are we going to act like Graham Mertz is anything worth worrying about? I mean sure, Jayden Daniels and KJ Jefferson seem like the head of the class. But the rest have almost as many questions as answers. And many of those guys will have bad years this year - it's just how it works.

There's so much 'grass is greener' stuff here. You guys are judging everyone else's Quarterbacks on what they COULD be and holding Mizzou to the standard of their quarterbacks worst days. Mertz has had 5 YEARS in college football and has never had a season even as good as the season Cook had last year. And I think last season was Cook's floor.

You're simply not giving Cook any credit at all for being a relatively ordinary, high floor, low ceiling college quarterback. While you're presuming all these other guys are going to hit their ceilings - INCLUDING our own internal alternatives.

And now Dubya is a 'Good Republican' When he used to be Hitler.

Time heals most wounds.

There were very few people anyone was favorably comparing Franklin to in real time.

I honestly believe that with "average P5 QB play" in 2022, Mizzou wins 3 of 4, or even 4 of the Kentucky, Florida, Auburn, Georgia games...maybe GA shows up more ready to play with "James Franklin" at QB. Mizzou was in position to have an amazing year with a QB that could accurately throw down field. If it was his shoulder that caused that, then I will be proven wrong and will eat crow wearing a Burger King crown, but based on last night's play (aside from the Mekhi Miller TD throw) against a below avg FBS defense, I see the same level of play as last year, which will waste a darn good WR corps.

Maybe for some. That was never me. I was always a fan of what Franklin brought to the table.

I want Cook to be better, but I just don't see it. His lack of arm strength is just such a limiting factor for him.

I was no great fan of Franklin, but he was a hell of a lot better than Mauk, and I said so at the time. Cook is just Mauk with worse wheels, less coke, and the same FCS arm.

Lots of turnover this year, and it remains to be seen how they perform, but the bottom line is this: "relatively ordinary" QB in the SEC gives you exactly what we got last year- 6 or 7 wins, a minor bowl, and several disappointing losses to "superior" programs that we could have/should be climbing over (Fla, Kentucky, Auburn) including another moribund bowl game flop. I think those of us who are down on ED's QB outcome believe that, in the era of the portal and quick-fixes, ED, for whatever reason, has failed to procure an above-average solution to the most critical position on the field, which has in turn yielded a very average result. The offensive play speaks for itself, and the eyeball test is critically judged by those of us who have seen far better play.

Given many of the absolutely boneheaded interceptions he threw last year, are we sure Cook is really a high floor guy, or is that just a common label we slap on QBs we know aren't good enough?

"Everything that I ever wanted to know about Brady Cook he's already told me.. he's got a girlfriend or otherwise I'd be trying to get him hooked up w/ once my daughters turn 18"

This dude will never move off Cook.

Did Eli say this?

To be fair, he shouldn't have expected it to get out, as it was uttered in the privacy of a post-game press conference.

1:10 mark

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Really passionate speech from <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mizzou?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mizzou</a> football coach Eli Drinkwitz on Brady Cook&#39;s leadership and character in the midst of this QB competition: &quot;That guy&#39;s got so much character, so much grit, so much determination...&quot; <br><br>Also added: &quot;Write what you want, say what you want. It… <a href="https://t.co/kZ6v64jWEo">pic.twitter.com/kZ6v64jWEo</a></p>&mdash; Nathalie Jones (@NathalieABC17) <a href="https://twitter.com/NathalieABC17/status/1697461068375945293?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It's so much more cringe when you hear it.

Cook is what he is and Eli has chosen job security with the known QB over the mystery box. Selfishly I would go with the mystery box, but I also recognize he might be under more pressure than expected and can't risk the very low floor with Horn. A 3 to 5 win season likely gets him fired.

They can do better than 6-6 this year with the conservative dink and dunk and random shots down the field for Burden. They just can't keep shooting themselves in the dick, expecting it to work.

Kstate is going to ****ing shred this team in two weeks if they can't start cleaning up some mistakes.

Getting shredded by KState might be a good thing

Nope. It will set the table for a horrible year, if they can somehow eek that one out then they might win 8 games this year.

The sloppiness was more disconcerting than the QB play.

A couple of unforced errors on penalties. Wise dropped a couple balls that should've been caught. LBs got lost a time or two (CB/Safety exchange got butchered once on an overthrow). Defense lost focus.

It was not a sharp performance by most of the squad.

If you're looking for a hard reset, watching Kstate have their way with Mizzou in Columbia will be therapeutic. If you want to see them try and hold all these recruits, well, not so much.

Agreed. Instead of harping on the QB performance which I am clearly biased over and it's been discussed to death already, I looked more at how prepared they looked.

That's the point I was aiming to make last night when someone from the kids table made a mess. With an OC in place taking some of the workload and no installations of new systems and all, I was looking to see a more mistake-free game. We didn't get close to that, right down to our big beautiful kicker missing shit allover the place.