'Human joystick' Luther Burden III saves best Mizzou football performance for hometown

ST. LOUIS — Luther Burden III’s ceiling was already lofty.

On Saturday, in his hometown, he punched through The Dome at America's Center's roof.

Missouri football is 4-0 for the first time since 2013 after defeating Memphis 34-27 at The Dome at America’s Center, and it was the hometown heroes who paved the way. 

Chaminade grad Brady Cook put together a second straight 300+-yard game. Lutheran South alum Cody Schrader put the game to bed with a 37-yard burst into the endzone, giving Missouri a two-score lead with mere minutes left on the clock.

But Burden, the five-star prospect out of East St. Louis High, was the star of the show, catching a career-high 10 passes for a career-high 177 yards.

The wide receiver was there when his quarterback needed him most.

Down 10-7, and on what appeared to be at least a third read, Cook dumped it out to Burden in the flat.

You should know what comes next ...

Without a blocker in gold in the 314 area code, Burden darted forward, dropped the shoulder, changed course in the split-second, trademark fashion that has put so many would-be tacklers in his rearview — then did one it more time for good measure.

Two defenders, two faces full of turf.

When two Memphis players finally caught up to him, he had put Mizzou on the goal line.

“He’s a human joystick,” Schrader said about his teammate after the game.

It turned nothing into a Nathaniel Peat touchdown, which gave Missouri the lead for good.

Burden was involved every which way on Saturday.

From first play to last.

As Missouri’s offense took the field for the first time, Cook sent his first pass Burden-ward — a quick toss left that allowed the receiver to earn the first 15 of his 129 yards after the catch against Memphis (3-1, 1-0 American Athletic Conference).

Three-and-a-half hours later, if there was any doubt whether he truly could do it all, he recovered Memphis’ last-gasp onside-kick attempt, icing the game.

“It was great for him to finish the game in the right way,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said.

Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield joked Tuesday that he hoped Burden missed Missouri’s bus to St. Louis.

No such luck.

Missouri put the ball in Burden’s hands on glorified handoffs and on dink and dunks and on post routes all the same. And they almost all worked.

Burden hit the 500-yard mark for the season on a 56-yard catch in the third quarter of his fourth game. By comparison, last season, he finished the year with 375 receiving yards.

Upon learning he’d just set a career-high for single-game receiving yards, seemed taken aback in his postgame press conference.

“Oh dang, that’s bliss,” he said.

Burden has very much adopted a team-first mindset to his role — “I’m just doing whatever I can to help my team win,” he said. “Whether it’s 100 yards or three touchdowns or whatever it is, I’m gonna do what my team needs me to do to win.”

And the Tigers are proving hard to beat when he’s in that zone.

Mizzou now transitions into Southeastern Conference action, with Vanderbilt next on deck at 3 p.m. Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee. Missouri is unbeaten through four games for the first time since Gary Pinkel prowled the sidelines — for the first time since the season it reached the 2013 SEC Championship game.

Burden’s rapid rise from promising, but perhaps underutilized, freshman to star sophomore has coincided with the rapid uptick of the Mizzou offense, especially in the past two weeks.

The wide receiver likes that new offensive coordinator Kirby Moore has the Tigers getting downfield.

“He wants to throw the ball, he wants to take shots,” Burden said.

Ask Schrader, and there’s no secret why the Tigers are cruising.

“He's an incredible athlete, but now he's developing into a true leader of this offense,” Schrader said. “I think that's one of the main reasons our offense is really starting to click now.”

Burden was a little more modest about his role as a leader.

“To be honest, I don’t really see it,” he said. “I just be out there playing and I try to do my best.”

In St. Louis, his best had never looked better.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 'Human joystick' Luther Burden III saves best Mizzou performance for hometown