
Next year, our guy LB3 will be making NFL defenders look foolish. Let’s reminisce with a countdown of his best touchdowns at Mizzou.
Monday of this week brought about the official announcement of a foregone conclusion: Missouri football star wide receiver Luther Burden would forego his senior year on Eli Drinkwitz’s ballclub and enter the 2025 NFL draft.
One of the best recruits in school history lived up to his billing, compiling impressive stats while recording clutch play after clutch play to lead the Tigers to twenty wins over the past two years.
To remember our time with Luther, and as we prepare to cheer him on in the NFL, let’s look back at his top ten touchdowns as a Mizzou Tiger.
10) 2022 punt return vs Abilene
Luther’s first punt return touchdown ended up being his only punt return touchdown. But for a moment, in the third game of his freshman season, it looked like Mizzou had another Jeremy Maclin for the return game. When given the chance to return, Luther struggled with the decision making necessary in the role. But for one glorious moment in September, he made the coverage team look like statues as he streaked down the Faurot sideline.
9) 2023 icing vs Tennessee
You remember that Mizzou beat Tennessee in a laffer in 2023, one of the most fun wins of the year. The final score was 36-7, but it was still a two-score game early in the fourth quarter — plenty of room for an explosive Volunteers team to get back into it. With six minutes and change left in the game, Cook hit Burden behind the line of scrimmage on an RPO from just outside of the red zone. Luther easily turned the corner and pranced into the end zone to put the game on ice.
8) 2022 game winner vs Arkansas
Burden’s freshman season had a mid-year swoon, as he struggled with some of the physicality of older players. But he got hot down the stretch, scoring four touchdowns in the season’s final three weeks, including the game-winner — and securing bowl eligibility — against Arkansas in the finale.
7) 2024 twister vs Mississippi State
The Luther Burden Touchdown Portfolio is not always about spectacular individual plays. A lot of these selections are straightforward plays at the most critical of times. This next batch, starting here, is about the spectacular.
In a game that will be remembered for Mizzou’s masterful ball control offense playing keep-away, Cook and Burden connected for a showstopper. With the ginger general rolling out to his right from about the thirty-yard line, he pointed downfield, then chucked a prayer into the back of the end zone. Luther initially overran it, then flipped his defender while spinning back to catch it. This was the definitive “3 down there somewhere” play.
6) 2024 teleportation vs Boston College
To the untrained eye, there was something almost ho-hum about this play, but the discerning viewer knows it was spectacular. After collecting a short pass from Cook, Burden makes the initial defender miss, but then he is surrounded by a trio of Eagles at the six yard line and about to be corralled. Then suddenly he is in the end zone, while they are not. There is no hurdle, or flashy spin move, or ankle-breaking juke — just a Houdini act that had to be seen to be believed.
5) 2023 deep ball vs South Carolina
This is my favorite of the spectacular catches, and I think it is underrated because it happened in a comfortable win. Halfway through the first quarter, Cook drops back with play action and throws a post with his feet planted at midfield. Burden is double covered but has beaten both defenders; Cook’s throw arrives behind his head, and he has to contort back and catch it almost at the top of his helmet, which allows both defenders back into the play. With them hanging on to his awkwardly raised arms squeezing the ball, he stays strong through the catch and lets his momentum carry him across the goal line.
4) 2024 overtime vs Vanderbilt
Mizzou escaped the clutches of the 2024 Vanderbilt upset monster thanks to a silver bullet from Cook to Burden. Their second scoring connection of the day came on a lightning strike in overtime that proved decisive.
3) 2024 almost game winner vs South Carolina
It is way more fun when the clutch plays happen in wins. In fact, this is the only one to make the list in a loss. If Mizzou’s defense had held up against LaNorris Sellers on the ensuing possession, this play would be #1 and Mizzou would be in the playoff.
Alas, it was not meant to be. But for about five glorious minutes, Cook and Burden had topped all their clutch moments over the previous three years. A 4th&5 deep ball was dropped perfectly in Luther’s breadbasket, not just for the conversion but for the shoulda coulda woulda game-winning score.
I don’t want to write any more about this one. Back to wins.
2) 2023 opening salvo vs Kansas State
After twenty wins in the past two seasons, it is hard to remember just how low the Mizzou fanbase was feeling heading into the Week Three contest hosting Kansas State. The Tigers had just struggled to put away Middle Tennessee State. An old conference rival was coming to town to try to repeat their 2022 demolition of our lads. No one was sure if Kirby Moore was a good coach. Brady Cook was booed. Eli Drinkwitz faced a “win, or else” game.
Then Cook dropped back, Burden broke free — really, really free — and the ball nestled into his hands in the end zone. Faurot was frenzied, and the first haymaker of a heavyweight bout was thrown. Three hours (and another Burden score) later, and a new era had finally dawned at Mizzou.
1) 2023 Cotton Bowl clincher vs Ohio State
Admit it: you thought it was picked, too, just like I did. With Mizzou clinging to a 7-3 lead in the fourth quarter, Cook pulled the ball out of Schrader’s belly and fired a dart to Burden on a slant. The ball found him in the back of the end zone, but not before somehow narrowly avoiding the hands of a diving Buckeye defender.
This play encapsulates the Cook and Burden connection: a telepathic ability to dial in a clutch play, overcoming the longest odds to win. Over the last two years, so many results could have gone against Mizzou. But time after time in clutch moments, somehow, someway, the play ended with the ball in Luther’s hands, in the end zone, and Mizzou on top.
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