We are proud to welcome Will Garrett, Agency Sales Manager of Missouri Farm Bureau Insurance as our partner and sponsor. When you’re looking for in-depth analysis of everything happening at Mizzou, Monday Morning Thoughts is the place to go. When you’re looking for an in-depth review of your insurance policies, Will Garrett is who you need. Born and raised a Tiger fan, Will is proud of his hometown and takes pride in protecting his community, and the people in it. The time to prepare for tomorrow is today. Find Will in his office just south of Faurot Field! Click here to get in touch with Will and start the process.
1) It's worth discussing whether Missouri's 36-7 win over Tennessee was the best single game performance of my lifetime. I can't go back to the Dan Devine days. There may very well have been games in the 1960s that were better. Maybe even the 3-0 win over Notre Dame or the 1978 win in Lincoln for some of you. My conscious memory of Mizzou football starts around the very dark days of Woody's Wagon collapsing in various Big Eight cities. So I haven't seen some of the games you all will probably bring up (Kansas State, 1969, I'm guessing). But in the nearly four decades I have followed Missouri football I'm struggling to come up with a better single game performance than what we saw on Saturday afternoon.
I think the first answer from most people will be the 36-28 win over Kansas in 2007. And it's still the biggest win in school history and I understand why you'd put it here. But Mizzou got outscored 21-8 in the fourth quarter of that game. Todd Reesing and the Jayhawk offense went up and down the field in the fourth quarter. You might bring up the 2013 game at Georgia, but after racing to a 28-10 lead, Missouri had to stop a two-point conversion to avoid being tied in the fourth quarter. The win over No. 1 Oklahoma in 2010, Missouri trailed at the start of the fourth quarter.
Saturday was complete wire-to-wire domination. Even when the Tigers were down 7-3, the reality was Mizzou had moved up and down the field on its two drives and Tennessee had gotten one incredible play. For 60 minutes, Missouri looked like the better team. By a bunch. No, the game didn't clinch a division title, but this was absolutely a huge game for both of these teams. Tennessee was playing to keep its SEC title game hopes alive and Missouri was playing for a potential spot in a New Year's Six bowl and the seventh 10-win season in school history. The Tigers were up to the challenge. Credit to Eli Drinkwitz and his staff. A week before, some had asked if Missouri would still be able to find the motivation to get up for the Vols after seeing some of their dreams disappear in Athens, GA. The Tigers delivered the answer resoundingly for three-and-a-half hours on Saturday.
2) The engine behind that performance was Cody Schrader. The senior running back was the first player in Missouri history with 90 yards rushing and 90 yards receiving in the same game and his day wasn't even halfway over.
On top of being the best team performance I've seen, Schrader's Saturday is in the conversation for the best individual Mizzou performance I've ever seen. I'm not sure it's the best, but it's in the conversation. Here are the other games I remember that I'd put in the top five individual Mizzou performances (again, same time frame, we're talking the last 40 years):
Devin West, 1998 vs Kansas: West ran the ball 33 times for 319 yards in a 41-23 win over the Jayhawks in week two. The day accounted for about 20% of West's 1,578 yards on the season, which ranked fifth in the country and stood as Mizzou's school record until it was broken by Tyler Badie two years ago.
Brad Smith vs Texas Tech, 2003: Smith was 13/24 for 128 yards passing. So why is this game great? He ran the ball 19 times for 291 yards and five touchdowns. The Red Raiders knew what was coming and had no answer. Smith scored on runs of 10, 27, 2, 41 and 61. Tech made it a 41-31 game early in the fourth quarter and Smith ran for three touchdowns in the final 12 minutes. It was the single-best individual game, in my opinion, of a legendary career.
Tony Temple vs Arkansas, 2008: Missouri's offense had gained national acclaim with Heisman finalist Chase Daniel flinging the ball all over the field for 4306 yards and 33 touchdowns. The Razorbacks were bound and determined that wasn't going to happen in the Cotton Bowl. Daniel went 12/29 for 136 yards and an interception on what may have been the least effective day of his brilliant career. But with Arkansas dropping into coverage, refusing to let Daniel's lethal receivers beat them, offensive coordinator Dave Christensen just kept handing the ball to Temple. He ran it 24 times for a Cotton Bowl record 281 yards and four touchdowns, easily outperforming the Razorbacks' duo of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones as Missouri won its 12th game of the season 38-7.
Danario Alexander, 2009 vs Kansas State: Alexander caught 10 passes for 200 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-12 win in Manhattan. He did it every way possible. He caught an 80-yard touchdown. He caught a 54-yard touchdown which should appear on YouTube when you search "Mossed." He caught a 16-yard touchdown. Maybe his most impressive play of the day was losing his helmet on a hit and stretching out for a first down after the lid had come off. The funny part is it was only the third best game Alexander had statistically in the month of November. But it was the one that's always stood out in my memory as the crown jewel of the best individual season in the history of Missouri football.
I don't know where Schrader's 321 yards from scrimmage falls on this list. I just know it's on it. It's a game we'll be talking about 20 years from now the same way we still talk about the other four above.
Last edited:
