SIAP: post article on Cook and Burden joining elite

Posted on: November 24, 2024 at 14:43:17 CT

company at Mizzou. I had no idea Chase Coffman had so many TD receptions:

A score of scores: 20th TD from Brady Cook to Luther Burden III is milestone for Mizzou duo
Eli Hoff 4 hrs ago 1


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STARKVILLE, Miss. — Brady Cook and Luther Burden III have combined for a score of scores.

A score, if you think back to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, refers to a bunch of 20. It also means a touchdown.

So: 20 times, Brady Cook has thrown a football and Luther Burden III has caught it in the end zone for the Tigers.

Twenty is not an especially large volume when it comes to throwing or catching a football. Cook threw the ball 20 times just in Missouri’s 39-20 victory at Mississippi State on Saturday, for example. Burden has caught nine scores worth of passes in his three-year college career.

Still, it’s notable that the duo reached the 20-touchdown milestone of connection. Only two other quarterback-receiver pairings have teamed up for 20 or more touchdowns while wearing Mizzou’s black and gold.

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Legendary quarterback Chase Daniel got there with tight end Chase Coffman (25) and wideout Jeremy Maclin (22). Cook and Burden are the only other duo in the 20-score club.


They got there on Saturday when Cook, rolling to his right and away from pressure, heaved the ball toward Burden, who had man coverage in the back of the Mississippi State end zone. Burden, a split second before the pass arrived, separated down and away from his defender to make the catch.

“Three (Burden) down there somewhere,” Cook posted on X, formerly Twitter, after the game in apparent summation of the thought process behind his throw.

“The deep ball of Luther’s was just Luther and Brady having magic,” MU coach Eli Drinkwitz added. “They’re in a pretty good rhythm right now together.”

They’ve had more spectacular scores, like last week’s fourth-and-five one-hander against South Carolina. And the duo has had more impactful ones — like on the first play of overtime against Vanderbilt earlier this season, or last year’s Cotton Bowl.

But Saturday’s Cook-finds-Burden score should stand out. There might not be another one.

There could be another, of course, so that assertion might be a tad dramatic. The Tigers host Arkansas for Senior Day next weekend, their regular season finale. Cook and Burden could play a little passing game of blackjack and land right at 21 after that game.


In the twilight of their college careers, though, that’s not a guarantee. Cook is out of eligibility after this season. Burden could keep playing, but the NFL is calling and likely first-round picks take that call. The operating assumption is — and has been — that he’ll declare early for the draft and wind up with three total seasons played at Missouri.

That the days of Cook and Burden are fading away soon seemed to click for Drinkwitz after Saturday’s win.

“We tell our guys, this is the best days of their life,” he said. “It’s interesting, now, that for me, I’ve only got one week with them — before the bowl game.”

Modern college football means it would be more surprising if a prospect like Burden played in the Tigers’ eventual bowl game than if he sat it out to make sure he enters the draft cycle fully healthy. So yes, Coach, it’s probably only one more week.

“They’re pretty special young men for what they’ve done for this university and what they’ve done for me,” Drinkwitz said, “but what they’ve also done for the program and lifting the brand of University of Missouri football.”


The count of touchdowns is one way of denoting their combined contributions to MU. It also, in all honesty, might be lower than it could have been.

Preseason hype around Burden — a fringe Heisman Trophy contender? One of the favorites to win the Biletnikoff as the nation’s best wideout? — hasn’t been realized. With 53 catches for 574 yards and five touchdowns, Burden isn’t even the Tigers’ leading receiver: That’s Theo Wease Jr.

It’s true, naturally, of Mizzou itself. No longer a College Football Playoff contender, the focus of these final games is on resolve and putting the finishing touches on the legacy of players like Cook and Burden who have defined the recent turnaround of the Drinkwitz era. The season is not quite what it could have been, but it’s still something.

Missouri teams don’t often win eight games. The school’s quarterbacks and wide receivers don’t often combine for 20 touchdowns.

It becomes a way to praise Cook’s endurance, throwing touchdowns 19 and 20 to Burden with an injured right wrist. But it’s also a way to acknowledge the manner in which Burden chose to enter his home-state program as an immediate star but never wrestle for an undue share of its spotlight.


“I tell this to (NFL) scouts and GMs,” Drinkwitz said. “That league’s got a lot of players who are always demanding, demanding, demanding. You’re going to be able to put Luther with a vet or a rookie, and he’s never going to inhibit their growth because he’s not going to be a jerk to him. He’s just gonna consistently say, ‘I’ll do my job.’”

The next week, the Senior Day ceremony and the regular season’s aftermath will deliver more appreciation of Cook and Burden. That got a little bit of a start in Starkville with a 28-yard touchdown and Drinkwitz’s praise of his Burden’s consistent demeanor.

“It hadn’t gone exactly the way we all dreamed it this season, right? Especially for him,” Drinkwitz said. “But for him to be such a great teammate, to do his job consistently, to not complain: Never once heard from him, his parents — never heard a complaint. He just shows up and does his job every day at practice.

“The game knows,” he continued. “The game rewards you.”