Brady Cook wasn’t going to let an ankle injury stop him on Missouri’s homecoming weekend. He wasn’t even going to let a trip to the hospital stop him.
The Tigers’ senior quarterback left midway through a matchup with Auburn to have an MRI exam and then returned to the field late in the third quarter. With Mizzou trailing 17-6, Cook engineered two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to deliver a memorable 21-17 comeback win.
“I came back, and I just knew, I just knew we weren’t going to lose this game. Not on homecoming. Not today. Not like this. We weren’t going to lose,” an impassioned Cook told the SEC Network after the win.
“Mizzou means so much to me,” Cook continued. “To come out here the first drive and get hurt, and to be down, to think I’m not going to come back in the game and then find a way and we just manifest it, we get it done and we fight, we fight, we fight and we win. I’m just emotional right now.”
Cook was hurt on the opening series of the game, and after his hospital trip, he also had a session in the nearby indoor practice facility, where Missouri coaches wanted to see whether his ankle could properly function.
“It was a long hour-and-a-half for sure. I did not think I was going to come back to play in the game. My stuff was off, my pads were off,” Cook said later. “Ultimately, I realized I had two-and-a-half games left to play in Faurot Field. We were going to find a way.”
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz was choked up after the game talking about the heroics of his quarterback.
“For him to be out there, and for him to put his body on the line for us is incredible and ought to be inspiring for everyone who watched it today,” Drinkwitz said.
Chase Daniel, co-host of The Facility on FS1 and a former Mizzou QB, was among those watching — and he was blown away by Cook’s effort:
The comeback began when Cook hit Theo Wease Jr. with a 72-yard pass, setting up Marcus Carroll’s TD run. Then, as time was slipping away, Cook led a legacy-making drive that kept his team’s College Football Playoff hopes alive.
Taking over at his own 5-yard line, and with 4:26 to go, Cook converted one third down by running on his sore ankle, then connected with Luther Burden III on fourth-and-5 for another first down. Cook hit Wease later in the drive on third-and-10, then found Mekhi Miller inside the 10-yard line with just over a minute to go, setting up Jamal Roberts’ go-ahead touchdown run with 46 seconds remaining in the game.
“He could have sat out and watched the game from the sideline, or on TV,” said Roberts, who stepped up big himself in place of injured starter Nate Noel, “and that showed the brotherhood we have here.”
Cook finished with 194 yards passing in less than two quarters of play. With the win, Missouri improved to 6-1 and officially became bowl eligible for the fourth straight season.
“On homecoming, to finish like that, it means everything,” Cook told KMOV afterward, while pounding his chest.
“I just decided no matter what, nothing was going to stop me from coming back. Nothing. Nothing,” he said. “I knew I had three games left here in Faurot, to play in front of these fans, to play in this stadium, I wasn’t going to waste it.”
Cook didn’t know what had transpired while he was out — cellphones weren’t allowed in the hospital — but he knew his team needed him, and the training staff did everything in its power to get him back on the field with time to make some magic happen.
“I wasn’t going to not finish this game,” Cook said. “Mizzou deserves it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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