A Fan’s Notes: Senior Sendoff

Dec 2, 2024 | Uncategorized

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Arkansas v Missouri
Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

A winning era of Mizzou football ends with a clutch victory over the league rival.

In a memorable scene from the NBC sitcom “The Office,” Andy, played by Ed Helms, turns to the camera and says, “I wish there were a way to know you were in the good ole days, before you’ve left them.”

I don’t bring this up because of Helms’ not-insignificant resemblance to Eli Drinkwitz. I don’t bring it up with the same wistful emotion that Helms conjures up in the scene, just a touch of teary-eyed nostalgia in his line reading that is perfect for a senior day football game.

As we say goodbye to Brady Cook, Kristian Williams, Theo Wease, Johnny Walker Jr, Luther Burden III, and many others, this feels like the end of the good ole days. This group has one more game to play, a bowl game to be determined, that will close the book on the second wave of players that turned around the Mizzou football program under Eli Drinkwitz.

This team and program truly pulled itself up by its bootstraps. Eli’s first two full seasons were marred by close losses and tragic play on the line of scrimmage. But he was building his roster, leaning on the transfer portal for instant infusions of veteran leaders and talent upgrades. The team culture coalesced around player leadership and a toughness attitude, and won twenty games over two seasons.

Saturday’s snowy win was a perfect sendoff for the seniors that built this team. It wasn’t always pretty, and it started quite slow. The passing attack was glitchy. But they found the things that worked, and scored on every possession of the second half. The defense made just enough timely plays. The clutch gene coursed through the veins of these Tigers, and when the clock struck zero, they had outscored their foe.

The group still has one more contest to play, venue and opponent yet to be announced. I imagine the team will be largely intact: other than Luther Burden, most of this group does not project as a coveted NFL prospect. They are older players who have overcome injuries, low prospect pedigrees, or depth chart fights to become contributors on a winning college team.

The next level of Mizzou football is going to be a lot different. We will have a new quarterback for the first time since 2021, and the Cook/Burden era will fade into our memories. The defense will have almost fully turned over from the depth chart of the late 2023 peak. The good ole days will be over.

The foundations of a winning program are in place, and Drinkwitz and his staff will continue to build, but nothing will look and feel like the resilient stories of these past two years, built on the backs of those first two seasons.

Some notes and observations, about the actual Arkansas game and not just waxing poetic, from my desk in Brooklyn, NY…

—watching all of the senior day ceremony content, and our own unique Rock M tradition, it’s hard not to notice how many of these young men came to MU as their second football home. The list of graduating players that took the leadership mantle as transfers is truly astounding. It’s a credit to the kind of locker room Drinkwitz runs, the type of player (and person) his staff prioritizes, and a testament to these young men, themselves. For Mizzou, the portal is not just a free agency market, a place to find someone looking for 500 snaps and an NIL payday.

The following players came to Columbia in the portal, walked on Saturday, and were integral players for multiple years: Kristian Williams, Theo Wease, Sydney Williams, Joseph Charleston, Tre’Vez Johnson, Marcus Clarke, Mookie Cooper, Cam’Ron Johnson, Joe Moore, Tyler Stephens, and Chuck Hicks.

At many places, the portal is a roster decimating revolving door, or a culture killer. It has been the opposite at Missouri: a way to boost talent and leadership.

–Man, there is a LOT of production leaving, especially on defense. That’s a scary amount of names to look at, especially on defense.

—Has anyone done more to hurt their own legacy than the last month of Chuck Hicks? Instead of being remembered as the guy who fought back from multiple devastating injuries to become a solid but limited rotation player, we will remember his multiple boneheaded anger-driven personal fouls, and remember his limits as a player. He was a team captain, so hopefully his behavior behind the doors reflected leadership. His on-field outbursts did not.

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