This Isn't Supposed to Happen

Led by its embattled quarterback and kicker, Mizzou won the kind of football game it had lost so many times before

It is hard being a Mizzou football fan. It would not be a stretch to call it torture. If you follow college football, you certainly remember the Fifth Down Game, the Flea-Kicker and the yet-unnamed debacle last season at Auburn, just to name three kick-in-the-gut losses. Sure, the Tigers have had their moments. They were a win away from capturing the national championship in 1960, a game that bitter rival Kansas would later forfeit, but they haven’t won a conference championship in football since 1969. Twice in a six-year span from 2007 to 2013, they were a half and then a quarter from playing for the national championship. But this is a program that over the years has found more crazy ways to lose football games than win them.

And so there I sat on Saturday afternoon, watching on TV an anxiety-laced affair against No. 15 Kansas State. The fans who packed a raucous Faurot Field witnessed six lead changes, and when the Wildcats kicked a field goal with 5:25 left, the score was tied at 27. A light rain had begun to fall. The thought entered my mind: How would they find a way to lose this one?

After an exchange of punts, Mizzou took over at its own 18 with 1:25 left. Quarterback Brady Cook moved the Tigers methodically down the field. They burned their final timeout along the way, and after Cook connected with Theo Wease Jr. on a 9-yard pass over the middle, Mizzou had a first down at the K-State 39. The clock was running, so the offense hustled to the line and spiked the ball. The Tigers had executed the two-minute drill to perfection, going 43 yards in 73 seconds. A mere six seconds remained.

And that’s when I believed I had found my answer. Inexplicably, the Tigers did the unfathomable. They took a delay-of-game penalty! Cook attempted a quick sideline pass to gain back at least a couple of those five precious yards, but the ball was batted down at the line. Three seconds now remained, and my mind raced back to a play that had unfolded midway through the fourth quarter. After originally being called a catch, a K-State pass was ruled incomplete. Either way, it was going to be fourth down and the Wildcats were going to punt, but 19 seconds ran off the clock before it was stopped—19 ticks that were never put back on. I texted a couple of fellow Mizzou alums: “Pass ruled incomplete. Clock runs for another 19 seconds. Could be a good thing. Could be a bad thing. I’ll get back to you.”

Oh, to have those 19 seconds back now.

Harrison Mevis was sent out to attempt a 61-yard field goal, and I knew where this story was headed. Mevis’s kick would flutter a couple of yards short, the Wildcats would win in overtime, and Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz would be crucified over what the hell transpired at the end of regulation. To his credit, Drinkwitz said the penalty was “totally 100 percent on me … completely boneheaded.”

But if anybody could make that kick, it was Mevis. A portly 243 pounds, he is known as the Thiccer Kicker. Two years ago, he was arguably the best kicker in the country, making 23 of 25 field-goal attempts, including all three from beyond 50 yards. He drilled a 56-yarder to send a game against Boston College to overtime. He was, in a word, nails.

Then came 2022 and a road game against Auburn. After clawing back from an early 14-0 deficit, Mizzou had driven down the field in the dying seconds, setting up Mevis for a 26-yard chip shot from the middle of the field. Automatic, right? Well, he shoved it wide right. Auburn missed its field goal in overtime but got a mulligan when the Tigers jumped offside. Still, it appeared Mizzou was going to get out of town with a victory as running back Nathaniel Peat raced toward the end zone for the potential winning touchdown. But a yard or two from the end zone, Peat extended the ball in an attempt to break the plane of the goal line. It was an unnecessary move. He was going to score! He dropped the ball before he broke the plane. Auburn recovered in the end zone for a 17-14 victory. See what I mean?

No. 1 Georgia came to town the following week, and everybody expected the worst. But this is why we love sports. A 31-point underdog, Mizzou took an early lead and never surrendered it for the first 56 minutes. Mevis? All he did was make field goals of 41, 49, 22, 52 and 56 yards. Go figure! Georgia rallied for a 26-22 victory, but at least Mevis had rediscovered his stroke. 

Or so we thought, as his 2023 season didn’t get off to the best of starts. Mevis missed a couple of field-goal attempts in the opener, and after 107 consecutive makes, the following week he missed the first extra point of his career, although this one was the result of a bad hold. Yes, the snapper and the holder were new. Still, something wasn’t right. Was a guy who had been one of the most reliable weapons on a team with little margin for error now a liability?

His leg strength has never been an issue. In his first three seasons, Mevis was 10 of 13 from beyond 50 yards. Early in the second quarter on Saturday, he narrowly missed a 53-yarder that had plenty of distance. It wasn’t far-fetched to believe he could make it from 61, especially with a light wind at his back.

The ball was snapped by Trey Flint, a graduate transfer from Grapevine, Texas. This time last year Flint was snapping at Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, Ark. Welcome to the SEC, kid! The snap was perfect, as was the hold by Luke Bauer. As the ball was in mid-flight, Kansas State coach Chris Klieman appeared to utter, “He made it.” Standing at the back of the end zone was Phillip Brooks, a dangerous return man who was eager to get a shot. And, yes, the thought crossed my mind that it would be so Mizzou for Brooks to field a kick that fell a couple of yards short and return it 108 yards for the game-winning TD. But as Brooks tracked the ball, his body language said it all. He continued to look high into the sky. He gave a quick glance over his shoulder as the ball sailed over his head and landed a couple of yards beyond the crossbar. Mizzou couldn’t have afforded another penalty, but Mevis had a yard or two to spare. (Had he missed, it turns out he would have gotten another shot from five yards closer, as K-State had two No. 8s on the field.)

Bedlam! Mevis went into his customary strut and then a sprint before his teammates mobbed him. Fans stormed the field. Some had an issue with that, and, no, you don’t typically storm the field after beating an opponent over whom you now hold a 61-33-5 series advantage. You do storm the field after watching your kicker make a 61-yard field goal on the game’s final play. Moments like this make college football so special. (Shout-out to the Columbia Missourian for its sports-cover headline: Siccer Kicker!)

Harrison’s Hail May, as I’m calling it, will go down as the longest field goal in the storied history of the SEC. In a twist of irony, it will not go down as the longest field goal in Mizzou football history. Tom Whelihan made a 62-yarder against Colorado in 1986, back when the Tigers were playing in the Big 8.

It was a much-needed win for Drinkwitz, and not just because of how he botched the clock. He has recruited at a level never before seen at Mizzou, but his record has hovered around .500. He was hailed for his offensive acumen when he arrived in late 2019, but after some early splashes, notably a 45-41 victory over defending national champion LSU in 2020, the offense was awfully vanilla. In January, he brought on an offensive coordinator with the hiring of Kirby Moore, and the program rolled out the acronym STP: Something to Prove. But in the first two games, the offense, while efficient, didn’t look a whole lot different.

Since the start of last season, Cook has been the whipping boy. When the offense is struggling, the quarterback is always the whipping boy, but the fan base was especially hard on the three-star recruit from St. Louis. Some questioned his arm strength and accuracy. Others wondered whether he could read a defense and go through his progressions. Yes, he was an elusive runner. So why didn’t he use his legs more?

Unbeknownst to most, Cook played much of the 2022 season with a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder, an injury that required offseason surgery. He missed spring football, and Drinkwitz announced the job was wide open. Cook’s main competition was Sam Horn, a heralded two-sport redshirt freshman from Georgia with a 96 mph fastball. When Horn delivered a dart deep down the middle in the opener against South Dakota, many clamored, “Why isn’t this guy playing?”

But this was always Cook’s job, and the guy who says his dream was always to play quarterback at Missouri wasn’t about to lose it. He completed 17 of 21 passes in the opener and 14 of 19 in a too-close win over Middle Tennessee State. Dating to last season, he had now gone eight games without an interception, or 247 passes. But he threw for only 374 yards in those two wins, and the critics complained about the lack of downfield passes and throws across the middle. STP? I quipped the acronym stood for something entirely different: Same. Tired. Playcalling.

Drinkwitz and Moore were apparently saving some things, however. Because against K-State, Cook completed 23 of 35 passes for a career-high 354 yards and two touchdowns. He ran for a score on a cleverly designed run. He answered the Wildcats’ game-opening TD drive with a 47-yard dime to uber-explosive wideout Luther Burden III. He hooked up with Marquis Johnson for 42 yards, with Mookie Cooper for 41, with Wease for 26, with freshman tight end Brett Norfleet 27. A tight end sighting! The interception streak is now at a school-record 282 attempts.

And, of course, because these things tend to happen, as the offense was humming along, Cook sprained his right knee while landing awkwardly during a run just before halftime. He missed a couple of plays and was hobbled the rest of the way, but he wasn’t sitting this one out. Mevis made the kick and Cook had his signature victory.

“I hear it,” Cook said afterward about the criticism. “It’s hard. This is my dream school. All I want to do is play quarterback here. I’d like it if everyone else wanted me to play quarterback here.”

Drinkwitz was quick to praise his kicker and especially the embattled Cook. “Redemption is a beautiful thing,” he said, “and hopefully it will quiet the noise and get people to be pushing in one direction.” And then he raised his voice, saying, “It pissed me off when we booed our starting quarterback to start the game. It pissed me off. He went out there and played his butt off for this university and this team. They need to get behind him.”

Almost everyone is now a Cook fan as he leads the Tigers back to his hometown for a Saturday night game against Memphis. As was the case when a handful of 2024 commitments were in attendance for the win over the Wildcats, it will be an opportunity to showcase the program in front of in-state recruits. Drinkwitz, by the way, already has a commitment from a defensive end whom one service ranks as the top recruit in the country. And in the wake of the win over K-State, Mizzou got a commitment from the No. 1 player in the state of Kansas in the Class of 2025. Did I mention that Drink can recruit a little?

Beat Memphis and win the following week at Vanderbilt and the Tigers would return to Columbia 5-0 as they prepare to face LSU. The boys from Baton Rouge will be a stern test, but an undefeated Mizzou would be playing with house money. Would the Tigers dare?

I’ve seen stranger things happen.