Don't call the coroner on Mizzou's season just yet.
Missouri football starting quarterback Brady Cook's status for the Tigers ' next game still seems to be in the arena of reasonable doubt, but the QB's season, per his head coach, is not.
MU coach Eli Drinkwitz provided an update on Cook's health during the SEC Football Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday, saying he "absolutely" expects Cook to return and play again this year. But Drinkwitz stopped short of providing any updates for the quarterback's participation against Oklahoma , citing keeping a "competitive advantage."
The team is staying quiet on Cook's status for the Sooners after the quarterback sustained an injury to his throwing hand/wrist — a second availability-altering affliction in as many games — that kept the three-year starter out of most of MU's shutout loss at Alabama on Saturday.
The cards hardly fell in Cook's favor through October. Leading up to the Tuscaloosa trip, a high-ankle sprain put his participation in peril up until the coin toss. Then, in the second quarter, he left the field. Cook went for an X-ray in Alabama's facilities. He returned to the sideline without a helmet.
Mizzou never looked the same.
Will it look like itself any time in November?
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Missouri , after hosting OU, travels to a plucky South Carolina and a dismal Mississippi State before returning home for its regular-season finale against Arkansas .
The College Football Playoff is all but a lost cause. Mizzou, ranked at No. 23 in the latest coaches poll and No. 25 in the AP poll, has two 30+-point blowouts in the two road contests that could have provided a résumé boost.
There is, theoretically (and we mean that in the loosest definition of that word), a path to the SEC title game. Don't hold your breath, mind you. It requires an unbeaten record and a manifesto's worth of results elsewhere to fall in MU's favor.
On Tuesday, Nov. 5, Missouri will find out if it is even an afterthought for a CFP berth when the committee releases its first rankings of the year. Best guesses suggest Mizzou, unattached in the committee's eyes to the preseason rankings that have likely kept the Tigers ranked by the coaches and voting media, will not see its emblem flash on screen during the made-for-TV event on ESPN.
Drinkwitz was quick to point out, immediately after the Alabama loss and the first shutout of his MU tenure, that there's still four SEC games left to play.
"Still a potential to finish with a double-digit win season," he said.
Missouri has put together back-to-back 10-win seasons just twice — both under former coach Gary Pinkel — in program history . The significance, playoff or not, of that kind of follow-up to the Tigers' 11-2 2023 season should not be understated.
Anything from 10-2 to 6-6 is still on the table for the Tigers. Mizzou is already bowl-eligible, but there's a stark difference in importance between the Citrus Bowl, which takes the first SEC team out of the CFP, and the who-won't-opt-out Gasparilla Bowl.
If Cook sits out any meaningful time, the path to the upper echelons of the bowl landscape obscures significantly, as Mizzou's depth at quarterback portends poorly for the final month of the season.
Drew Pyne , who was thrown into the fire against Alabama and came out scorched, threw three picks in his first four possessions as the game quickly sprinted out of Missouri's sight after Cook's exit.
JR Blood, a preferred walk-on transfer from Southern University , came in for two snaps. MU's only other option is true freshman Aiden Glover, who has seldom looked like a viable option in the team's practices that were open to the media. Sam Horn , who likely would have been the natural next signal-caller in line, is sidelined all season after undergoing Tommy John surgery earlier this year.
Drinkwitz is confident Cook will return … but which Cook?
The QB that hobbled out a quarter and some change against the Tide was admirable, yes. But helpful to a winning cause? Less so.
And when will he be back?
A curtain call in the regular season finale is likely too late to salvage this season.
There are no conference contenders left on MU's schedule, but there aren't many games you'd classify as pushovers without a healthy Cook, either.
The Tigers are not required to submit an availability report until next Wednesday, which precedes their game against Oklahoma on Saturday, Nov. 9 on Faurot Field. The team seems intent on keeping QB1's status an in-house secret until then.
The grand reveal could be the difference.
With a little more than a week to go, it might be worth letting a little hope in.
"Brady's been in here every day," Drinkwitz said Wednesday. "He's getting treatment and I absolutely expect him back this season. And right now I have no update that would tell me I don't expect him for today's practice."
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Does Missouri football saving season depend on Brady Cook's timely return?
