Mizzou football's Schrader, Peat compete for starting job after contrasting 1st seasons
Cody Schrader knows nobody expected much from him last year.
Most Mizzou football fans know his story by now: The Division II Truman State transfer who arrived in Columbia without a scholarship before bullishly breaking into the lineup and emerging from the 2022 season as the set-in-stone starter at running back.
There aren’t many indifferent eyes being cast over Schrader now.
“Coming into this year,” Schrader said, “now I’m more of a leader on the team. And that’s something I pride myself in.”
Peat’s 2022 campaign simmered after a bizarre game-ending fumble in Auburn and never fully recovered. So at the end of the season, the former Rock Bridge standout weighed his options, talked with family, coaches and teammates and turned to his faith. And then he made up his mind.
“(It) really just came down to the decision that Mizzou was the place that I wanted to be at,” Peat said. “Really nowhere else I wanted to be. I came here for a reason. I really wanted to fulfill my aspiration (of) playing for home and winning games here.”
What a difference a year makes.
Both Schrader and Peat return to Missouri’s backfield on the back of vastly different 12-month periods and return on expectations in their first seasons in Columbia. Both are now entering their final year of college eligibility. And both, the coaches say, will have another shot at being the Tigers’ lead tailback this season.
So, there lies the question: Who will earn the bulk of the reps?
“I think, obviously, first, we’ve got to figure out who has the best ability to run routes and create matchup problems,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said at the beginning of camp.
It also will come down to whoever adapts fastest to first-year Mizzou offensive coordinator Kirby Moore’s new scheme, which from reps in training camp appears to frequently involve the running backs in the passing game.
Schrader showed glimpses of that ability toward the end of the 2022 season, catching 19 passes for 137 yards over 13 appearances. All but 17 of those yards came after the first five games of the season.
Peat was a little less active on that front, ending the year with 66 receiving yards.
Working in his favor, however, he recently clocked his all-time fastest 40-yard dash time: 4.36 seconds.
That speed and dynamism has been evident in camp, and has been a conscious effort on Peat’s part to ready himself for the new season and system.
Peat also has been drawing on the past as he gears up for a final year of ball in his hometown.
He was in the crowd — and eventually on Faurot Field with the rest of the field-storming Tigers fans — when Missouri beat Texas A&M in 2013 to secure a berth to the SEC Championship game.
“Just after last year, I feel like I didn’t live up to what I wanted to do for Mizzou,” he said. “Just going here, seeing the tradition of winning, I wanted to fulfill that here. I wanted to win games in the places where I watched games being won. … I want to have situations like that here.”
By all metrics, it’s Schrader’s job to retain.
Through the first 10 days of camp, the St. Louis native has taken a majority of his practice reps with incumbent starting quarterback Brady Cook, who himself is locked in a competition for a starting role. Cook’s main challenger, Sam Horn, has frequently partnered with Peat at practice.
Schrader was the Tigers’ leading rusher last season with 744 yards. He accrued 170 touches to Peat’s 100. He led the team with nine touchdowns.
And that has him feeling a little bit different at his second training camp in Columbia.
“I think something I’m really noticing (this year) is just my confidence level,” Schrader said. “Coming in last year, I didn’t really know where I fit in and (was) trying to earn a spot. And now I’ve been here for about a year and a half, just my confidence level. I’m going out there, I’m more focused on pushing guys, the leadership role, finding ways to just know my guys, … just pushing them and finding ways to be the best teammate I can be.”
Schrader still feels like an underdog — always will, he said.
He’s been watching clips of Kobe Bryant giving speeches to get ready to potentially lead the offense in his last hurrah. It’s no wonder he said he still feels like he’s being overlooked.
Peat, on the other hand, has the bit between his teeth.
He said he spent a lot of the offseason watching his film from last year, some of which he surely would like to forget.
“(Whoever) is going to emerge as the guy that consistently carries the football,” Drinkwitz said, “is the guy that does the most for us consistently.”
That might be an unenviable choice to make.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football: Cody Schrader, Nathaniel Peat compete for RB job
