Missouri may be banged up on offense, but Tigers still have playmakers at WR

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Missouri could be without starting quarterback Brady Cook this weekend at Alabama. Cook suffered an ankle injury in the Tigers’ last game against Auburn, and although he was able to return and lead Mizzou to a victory – after a trip to the hospital – Cook was listed as doubtful on the team’s first availability report on Wednesday night.

If he can’t play, Drew Pyne will start against the Crimson Tide on Saturday, Oct. 26. A transfer from Arizona State, Pyne has only attempted 43 passes for 206 yards this season. His numbers don’t jump off the page, but the passer still has plenty of talent on the outside.

Missouri has one of the best wide receivers, not only in the SEC but all of college, with Luther Burden. The 5-foot-11, 205-pound wideout has the full attention of the Alabama defense.

“I think he’s going to end up being a high draft pick,” said Alabama cornerbacks coach Maurice Linguist. “Very good in the intermediate throw game. He runs your whips, your pivots, your option routes. He has the speed on the GPS and on film to take it over the top and create separation. 

“He’s a friendly target for the quarterback, and they find ways to get him the ball and find ways to get him his targets and touches. From a deployment standpoint, they do a good job of moving him around and putting him in all positions. He’s at the field one, boundary one, he’s at both slot positions, he’s the move guy on jet sweeps. So they do a good job.

“A very smart coaching staff, a very smart football player to be able to align in all those places and still be able to operate and function and they have enough pieces around him where you start focusing on Luther too much, the other guys can go win as well. So definitely a challenge. 

“We know how dynamic and explosive they can be and how much they’ve shown on offense, and we’re going to get ourselves ready to go.”

Burden leads Missouri with 37 catches and four touchdowns through seven games. But he is second on the team in receiving yards (447) behind Theo Wease, who has 463 on 35 catches. In 2023, Burden had a huge sophomore season with 1,212 yards and nine touchdowns on 86 grabs, which likely led to more attention from opposing defenses this fall.

Wease, more than anyone else, has been the beneficiary of that, but Mookie Cooper, Joshua Manning and Marquis Johnson have also been factors – though Cooper (doubtful) and Johnson (probably) both appeared on the availability report prior to the Alabama game.

“The receivers are extremely talented,” said Alabama safeties coach Colin Hitschler. “Obviously, there’s a lot of attention on a few individuals in that room, but across the board, it’s a really good receiving room, and they’ve got a lot of dynamic players that play different spots and move around.”

Alabama played better defensively the last time out against Tennessee, but there is still plenty to clean up. When focusing on Missouri’s passing attack, the Crimson Tide can’t give up big plays. In Knoxville, Nico Iamaleava attempted a lot of deep throws but only completed 2-of-8 passes of 20 or more yards. He had receivers seemingly open but couldn’t hit them. 

The Crimson Tide defense has given up 12 pass plays of 30-plus yards this season, which is tied with Oklahoma for the 14th-most in the SEC. Only Kentucky has surrendered more (15) in terms of conference teams. Missouri, however, has only produced eight such plays, which is 13th in the SEC. But the Tigers have players at receiver to make those.

“In big moments, we’ve given up some big balls, and we can’t let them happen,” Hitschler said. “We’ve gotta continue challenging them and challenging the quarterback to make great throws. Some of them are great plays, great catches by the offense, but we’ve gotta stay on top and we’ve got to make the play when it matters most.”

Missouri isn’t near the top of the league in downfield passes and it may be without its starting quarterback this weekend. But given some of the success other teams have seemingly had at getting behind the Alabama secondary, the Tide has to be ready for anything.

“We know copycat things will show up at this time of the year,” Linguist said. “A lot of September football when you come out of training camp, you’re using rules. People are still trying to figure themselves out. People are trying to figure each other out. You get 7-8 games in, there’s a lot of video evidence of things. So copycat plays will come alive. 

“And how do we combat certain things that maybe were a hole or a leak that we gave up over the top or in a run gap or whatever they may be? And we’ve gotta put things to bed so offenses are gonna say now, ‘OK, they’ve taken care of this issue. How do we attack them in a different way?’

“It’s a back and forth. It’s a chess match. And we’ve gotta continue to show multiple variations of coverage on the back end and make it as difficult as possible for quarterbacks to find ways to get the ball over the top.”

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