Missouri repeating last season's success 'depends on the quarterback' says opposing coach

Everyone wants to know if Missouri is going to be able to translate their success from last fall to this one. If they are going to, one opponent thinks it’s all going to fall on the play of QB Brady Cook.

An opposing coach shared that take on the Tigers in Lindy’s Sports National 2024 Preview. If Cook can be more of what he was a season ago this year a senior, it could make the difference in their team keeping pace with what they just did.

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“A repeat of last year? It depends on the quarterback,” the coach said. “The quarterback made it go. Brady Cook made it go. They put a lot of pressure on defenses because of him. If he rolls the same way, they can do the same thing.”

“They don’t have the same talented roster of Alabama, Georgia, A&M or Texas; they don’t have that. But they can still be very good,” they continued.

Cook had a career year last season as a junior. In total, he threw for 3,317 yards for 21 touchdowns and six interceptions on 66.1% completion. He also rushed for eight more scores with 319 additional yards.

Cook’s play was a major part of the 11-2 record in 2023 for Missouri. So were the efforts of their defense as well as offensive producers, one who left and one who is also back for this upcoming season, that two other coaches also noted.

“They’ll miss (RB) Cory Schrader a lot,” another coach said. “The biggest thing was, he was tough and relentless. He played with a lot of confidence.”

“(WR) Luther Burden is a big-time talent,” a separate coach added. “He can hurt you with a reverse or a flanker screen or a midrange pass or a deep ball.”

Mizzou has lots to live up to after posting their best finish in a decade. If they’re to do that, Cook, according to one of these coaches, will have to put up more of the same as one of the better quarterbacks in the conference and the country.

Finebaum discusses honest expectations for Missouri

Missouri is going to be one of the many programs expecting to be a playoff hopeful out of the SEC. Paul Finebaum just isn’t as sold on that as the Tigers move on from 2023 into 2024.

Finebaum recently assessed Mizzou during ‘McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning’. To him, he isn’t as demanding that they make the College Football Playoff as he is for other teams.

“I’m not quite as insistent,” said Finebaum.

Much of that opinion is because of how Finebaum feels that they performed last season at Missouri.

“I felt like they really overperformed last year,” said Finebaum. “You could argue that Missouri let a game get away against LSU. Beyond that, I thought they came up really throwing aces a lot of times. I mean they won that Kansas State game. They won a couple others, the Florida game. They really survived.”

With that, Finebaum thinks highly of the Tigers but isn’t as optimistic on them going in as others may be.

“I think they are in playoff contention. I’m just not as confident,” Finebaum said.

“I’m also not one of these guys – and you’ve probably had them on. We had some guy the other day that was talking five, six SEC teams. I mean, if you look at it objectively, that’s very difficult to pull off,” said Finebaum. “I mean we can all be optimistic but this is not the College World Series here that we’re talking about where you earn your way in.”