Hospital Trip Can't Keep Brady Cook From Leading Mizzou Past Auburn

After sustaining an injury at the start of the first quarter, Missouri quarterback Brady Cook returned late in the third quarter to help lead the Tigers to a Homecoming win.

Oct 19, 2024; Columbia, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers quarterback Brady Cook (12) celebrates after his team scored a touchdown against the Auburn Tigers at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. / Matt Guzman-Missouri Tigers On SI

COLUMBIA, Mo. — An ankle injury and a truck ride to the hospital couldn't stop Brady Cook from suiting back up for one of his last three home games as a Missouri Tiger.

After taking a one-yard sack at the 12:36 mark of the first quarter in Missouri's Homecoming game against Auburn, Cook instantly began limping and losing his balance on subsequent plays. Tigers coach Eli Drinkwitz opted to keep the senior going and hoping he'd find a way to walk it off, but a big hit on an 11-yard loss sent him straight to the medical tent and the locker room shortly thereafter.

For the rest of the half, it was a guessing game on if Cook could make a return. He went from "doubtful to return" to "out" as backup quarterback Drew Pyne took the reins of the offense, all while he was sitting in a space with no electronics and staring up at a blank ceiling at MU's hospital, hoping he could step back on Faurot Field.

Both Cook and the trainers tried everything they could to get him back in the game, but as time wore on and the outlook of the game looked grim, doubt crossed his mind. But finally — whatever it may have been — they found a way to heal him enough to take command of the Missouri offense again.

"We were at the hospital, got an MRI and ultimately, I realized I had two and a half games left to play in Faurot," Cook said. "I knew we needed to come back and find a way to win this game."

Cook recognized how crucial the game was, and if it meant finding any way imaginable to fight through the pain and help lead his team to a win, he was going to do it. So once he miraculously ran to the sideline at the end of the third quarter fired up, Drinkwitz asked him one simple question.

"Can you play?"

Once Cook gave Drinkwitz a resounding yes, it was the three-year starter's call.

The Missouri defense was able to prevent another Auburn from increasing its 17-6 lead, allowing Cook to return with 31 seconds left in the third quarter in hopes to change the game's direction. After a couple of incomplete passes, he found an open Mookie Cooper up the middle for a 78-yard completion, setting up a two-yard rush from Marcus Carroll for a touchdown.

Since kicker Blake Craig had already missed two field goals on the day, the Tigers decided to go for two points instead. On that conversion, Cook took the snap and ran it into the end zone, making it an emphatic 17-14 score with 14:57 left in the fourth quarter.

Suddenly, Missouri was in a position to win the game.

Following a a couple drives without a score from either side, Missouri received the ball at the 4:26 mark for its final drive of the game. Creeping its way up through Cook rushes and completions to its receiving tandem of Luther Burden III and Wease Jr., it didn't even have to settle for a field goal to tie up the contest and send it into overtime.

Instead, Cook helped his offense get to the 4-yard line at the end zone, where running back Jamal Roberts plowed through the Auburn defense to cement a 21-17 win.

Some how, some way, Missouri left a game consisting of injuries and constant question marks with a win by the skin of its teeth. Before it may not have seemed like a game it would've had to fight until the end to win, but given the circumstances, it was more than an impressive win.

"When I woke up this morning, I didn't expect all this to go down," Cook said. "Sometimes, that's college football. It doesn't always go the way you wish it would, or how you thought it would."

At the end of the day, the Tigers got the win. It may not have been "pretty," but they executed through continuous roadblocks throughout the game. Cook was at the forefront of the late-game charge, and without his return, they likely would've dropped a crucial win.

Cook's gone through his own ups and downs in performance this year, but he showed up when it mattered and his own health was on the line. For Drinkwitz and the players in the locker room, that's their quarterback, and they rallied together upon his return.

The outside noise is purely outside noise.

"Everybody's going to be able to lay their head on their pillow knowing he did his best to give us a chance," Drinkwitz said. "When somebody does that, you want to lay it on the line for them."

Coming back from a hospital visit and leading your team to a win sounds like fiction, but such are Saturdays at Faurot Field.

Just ask the hero of the story himself.

"I did not think I was going to come back and play," Cook said, "... (but) this is everything to me. The days are numbered as a Mizzou Tiger."

"We're really cherishing these moments."

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