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Columbia Daily Tribune
Mizzou football names Brady Cook starting quarterback
- Story byColumbia Daily Tribune
- Mizzou football names Brady Cook starting quarterback
Brady Cook rides again.
For the second straight year, Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz has named Cook as the Tigers' starter, this time ahead of the second game of the season.
Cook earned the job over redshirt freshman and former four-star prospect Sam Horn and Miami transfer and redshirt sophomore Jake Garcia .
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The Chaminade product out of St. Louis was the frontrunner to earn the spot this season after Drinkwitz said he would open camp running with the first team. That was subject to change should any of the challengers take charge, and the competition between at least Cook and Horn ran into the season with both suiting up in Week 1.
Cook played the first half in Missouri's season-opening win over South Dakota , completing 17-of-21 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown. He added a score on the ground. Horn played the second half, throwing five passes with three completions, a touchdown and an interception.
Drinkwitz was complimentary of Cook's performance, character and leadership in his post-game press conference last Thursday. He announced the QB competition was over during his weekly media availability Tuesday. He said Horn will continue to get reps, but that the Tigers will move forward with Cook as QB1.
"We will be moving forward with Brady Cook as quarterback number one while getting Sam opportunities to grow throughout the game," Drinkwitz said.
Missouri Tigers quarterback Brady Cook (12) throws a pass against the South Dakota Coyotes during the first half at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium.
Cook, who is in his fourth season with the Tigers, was named as Missouri's starter one week into fall training camp in 2022. He started all 13 of the MU's games over the course of its 6-7 season that culminated in a 27-17 Gasparilla Bowl loss to Wake Forest. Cook threw for 2,724 yards (209.5 per game), 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions and added 585 yards (45 per game) and six touchdowns on the ground last year.
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In late December, the team announced Cook had suffered a torn labrum in Missouri's Week 2 loss against Kansas State. He played through the rest of the season with the injury but underwent surgery in the offseason that caused him to miss the entire spring.
He told the Columbia Daily Tribune on July 30 that he was cleared for full activity in May.
"I think the only difference (this year) really is that experience behind me, that confidence I'm gonna have now just knowing I've seen all these looks, I've been here before," Cook said at the beginning of camp. "I've competed in fall camp before, you know, it's just a sense of confidence I'm gonna have. Other than that, you know, it's fall camp. It's fall camp number four for me, you know, it's the same process and the same deal."
Cook took over the starting role from an injured Connor Bazelak for Missouri's 2021 Armed Forces Bowl loss to Navy. He had made eight appearances in MU uniform before the 2022 season, all but one in reserve.
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Horn was the main challenger to Cook's job security, but he is set to continue the season as the primary backup.
Drinkwitz said Horn will continue to receive "opportunities to grow," adding that the Tigers "plan on playing him in a series at some point in the game."
One certainty: The QBs won't split time like they did against South Dakota.
"It won't look the same as it did this past week as far as maybe exactly equal first half, second half," the coach said. "But we're definitely committed to let Sam continue to get reps and improve and grow. I think he's earned that opportunity, but I also think Brady Cook has earned the right to be quarterback one and take the lion's share of the reps.
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"And so that's going to be how we operate moving forward."
Missouri's second game of the season comes against Middle Tennessee State and kicks off at 6 p.m. Saturday in Columbia.
And it is Cook's show.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football names Brady Cook starting quarterback
