The Legend of the Throwback – Brady the Uncommon

Oct 23, 2024 | Uncategorized

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The Morning Commute for Wednesday, October 23rd

Welcome to the Morning Commute

Today I’m talking about the Legend of Brady Cook. And yes, I think that should be a formally capitalized phrase, just like kansas should never be formally capitalized.

The thing that so many of us college football fans love about the sport comes from a romanticized viewpoint. We love our school, we love the kids that choose to come to our school and we love how they lay it on the line for us. especially when they win, right?

The new business-like model of college football, with NIL, transfer portal and conference realignment being such a drastic change agent, it’s taken a bit of the romanticism out of the game. It’s got a lot more professional feel to it, somewhat mercenary, if you will. That doesn’t mean we don’t root for all of the transfers who come to Mizzou to continue their playing career, but you know deep down, the school and the Columbia/Mid Mo community just don’t mean as much to those kids as the ones who grew up dreaming about wearing the Black and Gold and came here fresh from high school.

And that brings me back to Brady Cook. For all of the things that are making college football a little less recognizable to its past (whether good or bad), Cook is a throwback. This dude grew up dreaming of playing QB at Mizzou. That’s seemingly all he wanted to do, and he burned that dream into his psyche and did everything he could do to make it happen.

Before COVID hit in the spring of 2020, I was still the football SID at Mizzou, and of course was working with Coach Drinkwitz. I don’t remember the date, but there was one day in February or early March that I got Drink in our mini studio at the football stadium to do an appearance on some ESPN or SEC Network show. He was expecting a call from Brady Cook that day, because he needed to connect with him to make sure he was still wanting to be a Tiger after the coaching change. Remember, he committed to Mizzou under the previous regime.

Once Drink and I got done with his interview, we were walking back to the south endzone offices, and his call from Brady came in, and while I didn’t get to hear the other end, I could tell that they were having a great conversation. When Drink was done, he was excited about what he heard and while I don’t recall specifics of our talk, he was relieved to have learned that Cook was still on board with attending Mizzou. He didn’t know at the time just how tough this dude would be, and how much resolve he would show throughout his Tiger career, but I feel like Drink got an inkling from that conversation just how much this kid wanted to be a Tiger. And it’s shown on and off the field. No matter if things are going well or poorly, Cook gives everything he has for Mizzou.

So, my point with all of this is just to say that whether you like the current state of college athletics or not, Brady Cook is a throwback to the days that a lot of us grew up with when you had your guys for their entire careers, and you saw them develop into something special. So he’ll always have a special place in my fandom for all that he’s given and all that he’s meant to this place.

And that’s with me readily acknowledging that Mr. Cook – to his credit – has fully taken advantage of the system as we know it today. He’s reportedly got some very lucrative NIL deals, so kudos to him for doing the business side of it well. It feels like we struck gold with someone doing well with both sides of the proverbial coin.

Lastly, I will offer a word of caution this week about Brady’s health at Alabama – don’t get your hopes up that he’s going to be 100 percent. He was running on adrenaline and likely a shot of Toradol or some similar pain killer that got him pain free enough to get back on the field last Saturday against Auburn. I imagine he’ll be well below 100% for most of this week, so he’ll probably be very limited in practice and I’m going to guess he’ll be in a walking boot to give him his best chance of being effective at Alabama.

I don’t know if he’ll have to get another shot before the game to be good – or if that would even be the right thing – but either way let’s hope like hell that he’s going to be able to play and inspire the Tigers for 60 minutes in Tuscaloosa like he did last Saturday.

Here’s the weekly SEC Shorts video. Among their best efforts of the season, if you ask me.

Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+

Beyond the Boxscore by Nate Edwards looked into an explanation for how Mizzou won the Auburn game, and it largely boiled down to the Tiger defense.

While we will always remember this as the Brady Cook Hospital Game, the real MVPs were the guys making stops for 60 minutes of game time. Brady’s heroics wouldn’t have amounted to jack squat if the defense had watched their QB hobble off the field and fall into a funk of malaise and let Auburn uncork their explosive plays. Instead, Corey Batoon’s boys held the bad guy Tigers to 10 points and six explosive plays on the day. They’re not the flashiest or make as big of booms as last year but damn if this defense isn’t supremely competent and well managed.

I know casual observers will poke holes at Mizzou’s defensive performance by saying ‘it’s only Auburn,’ but their offense – despite the 2-5 overall record this season – has been among the top-25 most efficient in the country this year, so holding them to just 10 points Saturday was damn impressive.

Auburn’s vertical passing game hit one shot play against Mizzou, but got virtually nothing else out of the day. Adeen Rao looks at how the Mizzou secondary successfully kept Auburn’s top receiver shut down in the win.

KeAndre Lambert-Smith was targeted five times on Saturday, which is his lowest amount of targets in SEC play up to this point. Prior to this game, Lambert-Smith had been targeted at least seven times in every conference game. On top of that, 16 yards for Lambert-Smith was his lowest total of the season, his previous low being 30 yards against Cal in a game where he picked up a touchdown.

Be sure to check out this feature, Adeen has some good video clips that show exactly how the Tigers made things work Saturday.

In Josh Matejka’s weekly Revue column, he looks back and marvels at how Brady Cook was able to get back on the field from a medical perspective.

Modern science is a miracle. We can take on diseases that have been wiping species off the map for generations and reduce them to a mild inconvenience. We can repair someone’s elbow ligament by pulling something out of his hamstring. We can repair Brady Cook’s collapsed lower leg with all the time that it takes to make a Sunday roast.

Men’s hoops opponent preview series by Sam Snelling continues with a look at the Ole Miss Rebels and their new coach Chris Beard, who is looking to resurrect his career after imploding at Texas.

Beard’s rise as one of the nation’s top coaches was a lot like the tale of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, and his wax wings melted. Maybe Beard didn’t fall into the sea and drown, but ending up as the coach for Ole Miss might be the closest thing.

Tuesday’s Morning Commute by Sammy Stava offered lots of praise for Brady Cook from national pundits, among other tidbits.

Break out your grading pens in this week’s SBN Reacts fan poll, where you can judge the play of the Tiger offense and defense through seven games!

What was the tone of things Tuesday at Drink’s weekly presser? Check out what he and others had to say with this recap from Quentin Corpuel.

Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about all sorts of topics related to football, hoops, Olympic sports and other athletic-related matters. Be sure to check it out!

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