Defensive promise, a bowl streak and other spare thoughts from Mizzou’s 27-24 win over Iowa

Let’s close the notebook on Iowa (and the 2024 season), shall we?

I had some thoughts last night on Mizzou’s 27-24 win over Iowa. But I’m not done yet!

Defensive promise… and a bowl streak!

One of the moments that struck me during Mizzou’s come-from-behind victory over Iowa last night was Toriano Pride, Jr.’s interception.

Granted, that’s not a shocker. It came at a pivotal point for the defense, when Iowa was driving to make it a two-score game. And the pick itself was a show-stopper, with Pride leaping over the receiver to snag Sullivan’s wayward pass.

But the style of the play wasn’t why I was impressed. Rather, it was the fact that it happened at all. For all the pomp and circumstance of his homecoming last offseason, Toriano Pride’s first go-round as a Tiger has been fairly disappointing. At one point, he was even supplanted as one of the team’s top two corners. And after scoring a 91.5 overall grade from Pro Football Focus in Week One, his next highest overall score was 68.3. His overall grade on the season was 66.6… not what you want from a starting corner in the SEC.

But what do we say about transfers? They generally come good (or better) in their second season? The coaching staff’s faith in pride paid off against the Hawkeyes, and could look even better if the East St. Louis product becomes, along with Dreyden Norwood, one of a fierce pair of veteran corners in 2025.

In fact, you could say the same about most of Mizzou’s defense. The Tigers will lose a handful of impact contributors, but they return the bulk of their snaps and a whole lot of players coming off of strong campaigns. With the addition of a few impact transfers from the 2025 class, the return of Darris Smith and maybe even some freshman help, the defense is looking pretty stout heading into 2025. That’ll be an imperative, especially with the offense looking at a pretty hard reset.

And before we move to the spare thoughts… we’ve officially got a bowl streak on our hands! After losing his first two postseason trips as Missouri’s head coach, Eli Drinkwitz now has a pair of prestigious Big 10 wins on his CV. He’s still two consecutive bowl wins away from tying Mizzou’s all time best postseason run — a four-game streak including the Orange Bowl in ‘61, the Bluebonnet Bowl in ‘62, the Sugar Bowl in ‘66 and the Gator Bowl in ‘68 — but you can’t get to four without three and you can’t get to three without two. Here’s to another successful trip to the postseason next winter!

10 more spare thoughts…

• Is Marquis Johnson Mizzou’s next WR1? He made a good case against Iowa’s stingy pass defense. Johnson displayed threat at all levels of the field on Monday afternoon. He was a vertical threat, both in the way he got open deep and high-pointed an underthrown ball. He got open on the sidelines and made some nice footwork plays. And he had some nice crossing routes to the middle of the field. His height is working against him a little bit, but he’s an electric playmaker who has flashed against high level opponents for two straight years. A breakout season could be in the cards next fall.
• I’m really bummed that two of Mizzou’s top three receivers from the past two years had their careers ended through injury. I’ve already processed Mookie Cooper’s disappointing end to the season, but watching Theo Wease, Jr. go down with an “upper-body injury” was deflating, especially after he took a questionable hit from Xavier Nwankpa. Wease was defenseless and Nwankpa did nothing to avoid throwing a thundering hit to his head and neck, which was initially called targeting before being overturned.

I know we’re beyond the pale on the targeting rule at this point, but it’s somewhat troubling that Caleb Flagg’s attempt at grabbing a loose ball from Brandon Sullivan (end result, a tackle for loss) was closer to the textbook definition of targeting than Nwankpa’s (end result, the end of Theo Wease’s game and college career.) I know you can’t write nuance into the rulebook… but maybe we should try something?

• It wasn’t the night I, Josh Manning’s biggest fan, wanted for the sophomore, but I found myself dreaming about what his junior year might look like after that end around touchdown run. Manning seemed to probe the middle of the field before turning on the afterburners and easily beating every Hawkeye defender to the outside and hitting pay dirt. Manning has all the tools to be the heir apparent to Luther Burden III. Shore up those hands, and Beau Pribula (I assume) will have one hell of a receiving corps next season.
• I’ll really miss Johnny Walker, Jr. The explosive EDGE has been a real thorn for opposing defenses the past two years, and he always had a knack for showing up at the right time. His two sacks both came at opportune moments for the defense, including on the final drive of the game to set Iowa behind the chains. More than his stats, though, Walker always seemed to be causing the other team trouble, even when he didn’t get to the QB. The Tigers will have their hands full in finding a replacement for next year.
• I know it’s out there somewhere — that image of Corey Flagg, Jr. going over the top of the Iowa offensive line to stop the fourth and short to kill the game. If you have it, please send it our way. We’ll take good care of it!
• Did anyone else notice how bad the announcers were last night re: Mizzou research? Two things stood out to me, especially. First, while introducing the game, Taylor Zarzour noted how Mizzou and Iowa are two teams that “don’t make mistakes.” And while that could certainly be said of Iowa, I’m not sure how you watch a lot of Mizzou Football in 2024 and not determine that mistakes are inherently a part of the Tigers game.

Second, at one point Zarzour and Matt Stinchcomb kept reiterating how Theo Wease, Jr. was lined up in Luther Burden III’s spot and Marquis Johnson was lined up in Theo Wease’s spot. I’m not sure what game they were watching, but I didn’t catch any of that alignment jumbling. In fact, it seemed like Wease was making the same types of plays he always made, while Johnson occupied a greater role than he usually would, including some of Luther Burden’s plays. I get that it’s easy to slide everyone up a spot, but it didn’t pass the sniff test the first time they tried to pass it as genuine analysis… much less the third and fourth and fifth.

• I’m enjoying all the pictures I can find of Eli Drinkwitz lifting this monolith of a trophy and trying his absolute hardest not to drop it on his head.

• Could the Music City Bowl loss be the thing that finally fells Kirk Ferentz?

• Thanks to everyone for reading along with our post-game coverage this year. We really appreciate you spending your celebration or mourning with us. We look forward to doing it again next year!