Mizzou's resolve started with unflappable QB1. Here’s how Brady Cook earned full-circle bowl moment

ARLINGTON, Texas — Brady Cook is who holds Missouri together, according to teammate Darius Robinson. He’s why the defensive end doesn’t think this season, remarkable within Missouri football’s recent history, is a one-off.

“He's the staple,” Robinson said. “He’s the glue of our team.”

When Brady Cook leads the Mizzou offense out against Ohio State on Friday at AT&T Stadium, it will be 737 days since his first start as a Tiger.

That game came during bowl season, too. And, like the Cotton Bowl, it was played in North Texas.

The world has changed a little for Cook since the Tigers lost to Army in the Armed Forces Bowl in 2021. He underwent, and recovered, from shoulder surgery. He’s won two quarterback competitions. He’s cemented himself as the Tigers’ iron-clad starter in his final year of eligibility, 2024.

Now, from the Armed Forces Bowl at TCU’s Stadium to the Cotton Bowl at Jerry World, Cook and the Tigers are back and bowling in Dallas, this time for a New Year’s Six Bowl berth, where No. 9 MU will walk out onto the AT&T Stadium field to take on No. 7 Ohio State for one of the most highly anticipated games in recent Missouri history.

Did the cyclical nature of the location hit Cook?

That wasn’t where his mind was Dec. 3, the day the game was announced.

“That's a good point. I didn't think about that yet,” Cook said. “Yeah, my first start was right in that area. … Yeah, I mean, like my brother Ben says, ‘Everything runs through Dallas.’ I'm excited to be back in the city and, you know, put on a good show.”

You’d be naive to doubt him.

He suffered a torn labrum in a blowout in Manhattan, Kansas, in the second game of the 2022 season but played through the injury for the remainder of the 6-7 campaign. Shortly after, he had surgery on the injured shoulder, which caused him to miss all of spring camp.

But the setbacks haven’t stuck.

His new offensive coordinator saw the signs of what was to come while the QB was sidelined.

“It starts last January,” said MU offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, who was hired the same month. “He had a procedure after the season, so spring ball, he was not available. But from a mental standpoint, he was glued in, right? Taking meetings, really in the meeting, you felt like he was practicing. Just the amount of detail, communication that he had.”

Moor, speaking Tuesday, said Cook quickly caught up once he returned to live reps in the summer, and the offensive coordinator quickly got an idea of what the quarterback-to-be’s strengths were.

The quarterback competition, which ran into the first game of the season, pitted Cook against Horn. Cook was officially named the starter after a Week 2 win over MTSU, but the race was unofficially over before that game.

Still, he was booed by certain sections of the Memorial Stadium crowd as his name was announced as the starter ahead of the Tigers’ Week 3 game against Kansas State.

Like injury, doubts haven’t held him back much.

“Early in the season, we were able to win, but we didn't play our best, I would say, on offense,” Moore said. “That third game against Kansas State, (Cook’s) confidence really grew. There were things we did offensively that he felt comfortable with. It comes back to execution, and that carried over throughout the rest of the season.”

Cook heads into the Cotton Bowl with 3,189 passing yards, which ranks eighth all-time in Missouri history, and has 20 passing touchdowns to five interceptions. He has added eight scores on the ground.

“Work ethic is second to none,” Moore said. “Offense starts with him. The things that we ask him to do at the line of scrimmage, taking care of the ball and really being the starting point in terms of having command of the offense.”

The Tigers have won the Cotton Bowl — in Cook’s lifetime, too. James Franklin, who sent Cook a message of support during the season, was the quarterback when the Tigers defeated Oklahoma State on Jan. 3, 2014.

Cook was watching.

“It was crazy. My mom pulled up the pictures from the Cotton Bowl party 10 years ago. We were all in my basement watching Mizzou in the Cotton Bowl,” Cook said Tuesday. “None of us would have thought I would have been the quarterback in the Cotton Bowl a decade later. Super full circle.”

It’s been a long road to the New Year’s Six Bowl for Cook and the Tigers, and the buck doesn’t stop there.

Mizzou has defeated Ohio State before, in 1976. Pete Woods was the MU quarterback for that game.

Cook, in a season full of doubt-erasing moments, wants one more.

“I heard (Woods is) the guy who beat Ohio State,” he said. “And, you know, I've got to be the next one to do it.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: MU's resolve started with QB1. Here’s how Brady Cook earned full-circle bowl moment