Mizzou receiver Luther Burden tries to elude Memphis defenders during Saturday night’s football game at The Dome at America’s Center. (Photo: Thomas Grove)

NCAA Football1st2nd3rd4thF
Memphis (3-1)10071027
Missouri (4-0)71071034

Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

ST. LOUIS, MO — It had been 10 years since the University of Missouri football team played a game in St. Louis. The school wanted to fix that, so it organized the “Mizzou to the Lou” Classic to be played against the University of Memphis at The Dome at America’s Center.

Mizzou came to St. Louis with clear plans to make new memories at The Dome.

So it was only fitting that the biggest stars of the night were several of the St. Louis kids on Missouri’s team, including quarterback Brady Cook, running back Cody Schrader, and wide receiver Luther Burden III.

The trio — along with the rest of their black & gold teammates — put on quite a show and led Mizzou to a thrilling 34-27 victory over Memphis.

“I first wanna say thank you to the city of St. Louis and the St. Louis Sports Commission, our athletics director Desiree (Ford-colll) and her staff for making this such an unbelievable event,” Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “I (also) wanna thank the fans. It was an unbelievable turnout. They were so loud, from the start with Tiger Walk, until the end with the win. We’re very appreciative to the great sports fans of St. Louis and the Mizzou Tigers of St. Louis, and everyone involved for all they did to make this wonderful evening happen.”

An announced crowd of 45,085 filled the first and second levels of the Dome (and a good portion of the third level too), and seemed delighted all night by the number of big plays the Mizzou team made throughout the game.

Cook completed 18-of-25 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns, while Burden led all receivers with 10 catches for 177 yards.

Missouri had four plays of at least 34 yards. It had nine plays of 20 yards or more. For the game, Mizzou racked up 542 yards of total offense on 61 plays. 431 of those yards came on 17 offensive snaps, each of which gained at least ten yards.

The Tigers were attacking the other Tigers in big bursts and it worked all night.

The first one came on Mizzou’s third offensive snap when Cook hit freshman wideout Marquis Johnson for a 76-yard touchdown pass that gave Missouri a 7-0 lead. Johnson’s nickname is “Speedy” and he showed it on that play, when he ran right past a Memphis defender on a deep post route and found himself wide open for his first collegiate score.

“Yeah, we probably don’t throw him the ball enough that’s what I think,” Drinkwitz said of Johnson. “I mean, the sucker is fast as lightning and he is making some tough catches. So, we’ve got to continue to find ways of getting vertically down the field.”

Memphis responded by scoring 10 straight points to give the Tigers from the south a 10-7 lead late in the first quarter.

Mizzou answered back, midway through the second, when it used a couple of 20-plus yard plays by Burden to get the ball down to the Memphis 1. From there, tailback Nathaniel Peat banged the ball in to put the black and gold Tigers back up 14-10.

Mizzou added a field goal in the final seconds of the first half to go into halftime up 17-10.

“It was nice to have the lead at halftime, but it felt like we left some stuff out there,” Drinkwitz said. “We made some mistakes, had a couple of missed assignments that cost us some chances. But we knew if we kept attacking them, we could wear them down.”

And that’s exactly what Mizzou did in the second half.

Early in the third, Burden made a 56-yard catch and run through the Memphis defense, which set up teammate Theo Wease for a 19-yard touchdown catch on the next play that put Mizzou up 24-10.

“I will say this, (on) the big throw to Luther in the third quarter, it was because Marquis cleared that side out,” Drinkwitz said. “They have so much respect for him. But yeah, he’s a really good player that we got to get more involved in what we’re doing.”

Mizzou added a field goal early in the fourth by Harrison Mevis to push its lead to 27-17. And at that point, things seemed comfortable for the Tigers. But the other Tigers responded with a field goal of their own to get back to within 27-20.

And even though there was only 5:18 left in the game, those Memphis three points meant Missouri wasn’t doing playing.

The Tiger offense showed they knew that as they went right down the field for another score to essentially put the game away. The Mizzou offensive line opened big holes on several plays on the drive, including the final play — a 37-yard touchdown run by Schrader — that put the Tigers back up by two touchdowns.

Schrader finished the night with 123 yards on 14 carries and the score. Most of that production came after a huge fumble deep in his own territory that helped set up Memphis for the touchdown that gave them the lead in the second quarter.

“I think it’s a testament to what type of brotherhood we have when the coaches still believe in you,” Schrader said. “And even though I fumbled, they didn’t take me out of the game. They trusted me. They put me right back in there, and they trusted me at the end of the game to get it done.”

Memphis scored a late touchdown to get back within one score. But Mizzou recovered an onside kick and was able to run out the clock to preserve the win.

“It’s always fun when you end the game with the ball in your hands,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ve got some things to work on and some things to fix. And we’re really beat up injury-wise. We’ve got a lot of guys that need to heal up. But that’s what we’re gonna do. We’re enjoy this win for one day. Then start trying to get healed up and get ready to begin our SEC play next week on the road.”

Missouri is now 4-0 on the season — the first time the Tigers have begun the year with four straight wins since 2013. And they’ll look to keep the win streak going when they open SEC play next Saturday at Vanderbilt. The Commodores are 2-3 on the year, after losing their SEC opener on Saturday, 45-28, against Kentucky.

Kickoff for Saturday’s contest is set for 3 p.m., and the game will be televised live on SEC Network.

SCORING SUMMARY

QtrTimeScoring PlayMEMMIZ
1st09:37MIZ – Johnson, Marquis 76 yd pass from Cook, Brady (Mevis, Harrison kick) 3 plays, 91 yards, TOP 01:1307
1st04:18MEM – Gillis, Tanner 43 yd field goal 12 plays, 50 yards, TOP 05:1937
1st02:15MEM – Scates, Joe 3 yd pass from Henigan, Seth (Gillis, Tanner kick) 4 plays, 10 yards, TOP 01:06107
2nd06:27MIZ – Peat, Nathaniel 1 yd run (Mevis, Harrison kick), 9 plays, 75 yards, TOP 05:141014
2nd00:05MIZ – Mevis, Harrison 25 yd field goal 10 plays, 78 yards, TOP 03:271017
3rd09:19MIZ – Wease, Theo 19 yd pass from Cook, Brady (Mevis, Harrison kick) 3 plays, 76 yards, TOP 01:171024
3rd04:07MEM – Watson, Blake 13 yd pass from Henigan, Seth (Gillis, Tanner kick) 6 plays, 69 yards, TOP 02:471724
4th11:01MIZ – Mevis, Harrison 32 yd field goal 9 plays, 74 yards, TOP 03:531727
4th05:18MEM – Gillis, Tanner 22 yd field goal 12 plays, 72 yards, TOP 05:432027
4th02:46MIZ – Schrader, Cody 37 yd run (Mevis, Harrison kick), 5 plays, 75 yards, TOP 02:322034
4th01:21MEM – Drake, Koby 21 yd pass from Henigan, Seth (Gillis, Tanner kick) 8 plays, 75 yards, TOP 01:252734

2023 MISSOURI TIGERS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

DateTimeAtOpponentLocationTVRadio
September 30, 2023 (Saturday)3:00 PMAwayVanderbiltNashville, Tenn.Tiger Radio Network
October 7, 2023 (Saturday)11:00 AMHomeLSUFaurot FieldTiger Radio Network
October 14, 2023 (Saturday)TBAAwayKentuckyLexington, Ky.Tiger Radio Network
October 21, 2023 (Saturday)TBAHomeSouth CarolinaFaurot FieldTiger Radio Network
November 4, 2023 (Saturday)TBAAwayGeorgiaAthens, Ga.Tiger Radio Network
November 11, 2023 (Saturday)TBAHomeTennesseeFaurot FieldTiger Radio Network
November 18, 2023 (Saturday)TBAHomeFloridaFaurot FieldTiger Radio Network
November 24, 2023 (Friday)3:00 PMAwayArkansasFayetteville, Ark.CBSTiger Radio Network