What to Expect From Tigers QB Brady Cook in Week 1
The Missouri Tigers are less than two weeks away from their Thursday night season opener against Louisiana Tech and Brady Cook is set to take the first snap for the Tigers in 2022. The sophomore hasn’t seen an overwhelming amount of game action, but he’s risen to the challenge when his number’s been called. He battled it out with three other quarterbacks and won the starting job, answering Mizzou’s biggest question mark of the preseason.
Cook will get his first chance to solidify his grip on the position against the Bulldogs on Sept. 1. The question now on the minds of Tigers fans; What can they expect from the young gunslinger in his first start of 2022?
Let’s look at Cook’s most recent start, last season’s Armed Forces Bowl against Army. He went 27-for-34 through the air, racking up 238 yards and a touchdown. Admittedly, the Tigers' run game was gashing the Knights and Cook was mostly nickel-and-diming them down the field with quick throws. Still, he managed the game incredibly well for a freshman, orchestrated a go-ahead drive with less than two minutes to play, and most importantly didn’t turn the ball over.
The Tigers have solid ball carriers with Nathaniel Peat, a Stanford grad transfer and likely starter, as well as junior Elijah Young, a returner who starred in the bowl game alongside Cook. Both will do a lot of the heavy lifting this year and the Tigers will be a run-first squad, but Cook should be able to help on that front as well. He showed some legitimate wheels against Army and ran up 53 yards plus a score on the ground.
In Week 1, the Tigers will host the LA Tech Bulldogs, who, frankly, were not great defensively last season. They finished 106th in total defense and 107th against the pass, not to mention 114th in scoring defense. Those woes were a big part of the reason that the Bulldogs brought in an entirely new staff, helmed by passing guru and head coach Sonny Cumbie. Cumbie’s an offensive architect and LA Tech defensive coordinator Scott Power is a bright football mind in his own right, but don’t expect the Bulldogs’ nearly pass rush-less defense to make a huge jump in 2022.
LA Tech’s leading sacker from 2021, Ben Bell, is gone to the transfer portal taking all 3.5 of his sacks with him. Even if the Bulldogs improve dramatically in the pass rushing department this year, it’s not going to happen in Week 1, so Cook should have a lot of time to find his receivers. Considering most of the route tree will be under twelve yards, that should equate to a lot of completions in this one. Those short catches can pile up quickly, especially with explosive receivers like Luther Burden and Dominic Lovett making moves after the catch.
A lot of the Tiger offense’s success will depend on the running game, and we probably won’t see Cook uncorking any 60-yarders across his body. But Louisiana Tech gave up nearly 12 yards per completion in 2021 and Cook doesn’t miss much (52-for-65 career), so he’s probably going to put up big totals in the season opener. It may not tell us much about how he’ll fair against a full slate of SEC opponents, but it’s an ideal jumping-off point for the young St. Louis, MO native in his first season as the full-time starter.
Prediction: 26-for-31, 310 all-purpose yds, 2 TD
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