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1) Against my better judgment, we're going to start by talking about the quarterback. I'm going to say up front, this is not a defense of his play. Brady Cook has to be better than he's been. I know it, you know it, he knows it, his coach knows it. Let's just start with that as the baseline. If you're planning to respond here with "he is not playing well and here's why" we're stipulating that off the top. He's not playing well so far. But this isn't about that.
I'm doing something that I probably shouldn't do. I'm addressing what is in all likelihood a very small, but very vocal minority. I do not think most rational people believe Brady Cook should be benched. But here's the thing: He's not going to be so any energy used on wanting it or talking about it is a complete waste of said energy. It. Is. Not. Happening.
Also, it should not happen. Here's the mistake all of us who are not in the locker room make: We take all emotion and human nature out of it. We just look at the 60 minutes on the field every week and we say "I think this guy played better than that guy so bench that guy and play this guy." (With quarterbacks what we actually say is "I don't like the way that guy played. Play the other guy because I have no idea if he's actually better, I just haven't seen him play poorly yet" but that's a different story). And I can already hear the responses: "Of course we judge it on the play on the field, what else matters?"
What matters is the locker room and the team. The head coach has to make sure he's got all 120 guys, plus the staff, pulling in the same direction. If that's not happening, you don't win. The fans don't matter in that assessment. The media doesn't matter in that assessment. The parents and the girlfriends of the kids don't matter in that assessment. Everyone in that locker room has to be on the same page or you don't win. Sure, there are some exceptions of teams that are good enough to overcome it, but those teams generally have an overwhelming talent advantage and I don't think that''s the case for Missouri in most of the rest of the games this season. So not only do the players have to be talented and play well, but they also have to form a cohesive team.
If you bench a guy who has gone through what Cook has gone through to get to this point, who was the leader of the team that reinvigorated this program by winning 11 games and finishing 8th in the country, who is a two-time captain who has the overwhelming support of everybody in that locker room, what does that say to every other kid on the team? It tells them the coach doesn't have their backs. It tells them they're one bad night from the same fate. And, again, I can already see people replying "Good. I thought every job was supposed to be open dadgummit!" Sure, it's a good thing to say. And technically every job is open. But not every week.
Brady Cook earned the starting job by sitting and waiting his turn for two years. Then, when the starter got hurt, he watched a guy who was behind him on the depth chart, who was never going to be a starting quarterback here, start a game on the road at the No. 1 team in the country. Then, he saw his coach go out and woo every transfer with two arms. Then, he fought off the four-star apple of everyone's eye and won the job again. Then he won 11 games and everyone fell in love with him. Now, he's the quarterback of a 4-0 team that sits No. 11 in the country...and there are people who want to see what the backup can do. It's complete and utter lunacy.
Cook has to play better. That's not being debated. He said it Saturday night. Missouri knows it. But as of today, he's won 15 of his last 17 starts and he's 100% earned the right to be the starting quarterback for every snap he is healthy enough to take. If this team goes to the playoff and does everything you want it to do, Cook has earned the right to lead them there. If this team falls short of those goals, Cook has earned the right to be out there and go down with the ship. He's the quarterback of this team for better or worse going forward. You can agree or disagree with that. If you want to spend your time and energy arguing against it, feel free. It's pointless.
2) I want to compare the attitude toward Cook to that toward another Missouri quarterback. I thought about this yesterday and I find it interesting.
In 2013, Missouri's starter went down. A redshirt freshman came in in the second half of a week five game at Georgia. He threw three passes, completed them all for 23 yards and ran three times for 12 yards. Missouri won the game, thanks largely to a trick-play touchdown on which a wide receiver threw the pass. Over the next four games, with James Franklin hurt, Maty Mauk completed 57/114 passes for 910 yards, 10 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He ran 31 times for 165 yards and another score. He led Missouri to four consecutive wins and kept the train on the tracks until Franklin returned in week 11. He was the starting quarterback for two wins that sent Missouri to the SEC title game, the loss to Auburn and the Cotton Bowl win over Oklahoma State. There was a full-throated roar during that Cotton Bowl for Gary Pinkel to play Mauk because Franklin was struggling. The coach stuck with his starting quarterback who had gone through a ton over the previous three years to get to this point and Franklin ended up helping Missouri to a 41-31 win that cemented a top ten national finish.
In 2014, Franklin was gone and Mauk was the starter. He completed 53.4% of his passes for 2648 yards, 25 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He ran for 373 yards and two scores. Missouri lost to Indiana in week four and was shut out 34-0 by Georgia in week six in a game in which Mauk went 9/21 with four interceptions. The Tigers wouldn't lose again until the SEC title game and Mauk would cap his career with an MVP performance against Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl.
At that point in time, Maty Mauk's career record as a starter was 15-3. That stats weren't overly impressive. He had accounted for 4321 yards of total offense and 39 touchdowns in 18 games. He had a really good running game and a great defense and he did what he needed to do for his team to win football games. The wheels all came off in 2015, but to that point, Missouri fans were in love with Maty Mauk. And I completely understand why. A decade later, there are still many fans who will put Mauk above some of the quarterbacks who followed him (including one who set the SEC record for single-season touchdown passes) because he won a lot of games. Some of them were a direct result of his play, quite a few of them weren't. But because of the team's record when he was the starting quarterback, his career is elevated in the minds of many Missouri fans.
You can argue whether that elevation is justified or not, but it happens. Now contrast that with what we're looking at with Brady Cook. The record is exactly the same over the last 18 games as Mauk's was. The numbers are quite a bit better: 66.8% completion rate, 4263 yards passing, 4679 yards of total offense, 37 total touchdowns, 7 interceptions. But some want to have the conversation about whether Drew Pyne should get a shot. Point 1 here was that it's an irrelevant conversation; Point 2 should show you why. Personally, I think Brady Cook is a better quarterback than Maty Mauk was, but that's not even the point. I find it interesting that one was continually propped up by the fanbase while the other has been continually beat up. Maybe it's simply the passage of time. But I don't remember anybody, even after the four-interception shutout loss to Georgia, calling for Mauk's job. They shouldn't have then and they shouldn't be now.
