The St. Louis Tigers.
Yes, led by locals Brady Cook, Luther Burden III and Cody Schrader (and Mookie Cooper and Brett Norfleet and more), Mizzou’s offense was No. 5 last year in the Southeastern Conference (434.3 yards per game).
Tigers offensive coordinator Kirby Moore was in St. Louis this week to speak at the National Football Foundation monthly luncheon. Afterward, I sat down and did a one-on-one interview with Moore.
Q: Running back Cody Schrader finished eighth in the Heisman voting, so it’s hard to duplicate that. But can you share what’s next at running back for 2024?
A: There are a number of guys — I would start with Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll coming in, one-year guys who have had a ton of production where they're at, (Noel at) Appalachian state, (Carroll at) Georgia State. Different running styles. Marcus Carroll is probably a little bit more in the inside zone between the tackles, Nate Noel has been a little bit more outside zone, a little bit more of a perimeter run scheme. And so that's been an adjustment for both those guys, just figuring out our scheme and how we're going to operate. And then Jamal Roberts (from St. Mary’s in St. Louis), Tavorus Jones are pushing those guys. We’ll add Kewan Lacy in the summer, and he's got a ton of juice. So we’ve got to figure that out in the fall — I think it's too early to determine that.
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We don't necessarily go live in the spring, so you don't know who can break tackles. But I think that's better for our guys from a health standpoint. But you only learn by doing, right? So we'll kind of get a feel (in camp). We’ll get a feel if it’s: ‘Hey, this guy's our 1. If it’s a 1A, 1B? Or will we sprinkle in another guy on third down?’ We're going to work through those things in the fall.
Q: With receiver Luther Burden III, can you describe his style of play by comparing him to certain players you’ve coached or seen?
A: I like to probably use a comparison if I've seen someone live. I've seen CeeDee Lamb live with my brother working with the Cowboys. From a slot perspective, a guy who can catch the ball at five yards and take it 50. You look at some of the things he did at Oklahoma, obviously that's why he's at where he's at.
(Burden) is just very unique in college football. I have not coached anyone who has that skill set. I’ve been able to be with John Ross, Dante Pettis, who were first second and round picks from Washington. But Luther is very different in terms of his ability to make guys miss. And he has a little bit of that scorer’s mentality. He's almost a running back when he catches the ball — the play’s just getting started.
Q: Mizzou fans, especially in St. Louis, are so fascinated by quarterback Brady Cook. His leadership and connections with teammates remind me of Drew Lock — how would you describe it?
A: I think he is the epitome of being a real genuine person, first of all. How he communicates, he is very sincere with what he says. He cares about people and he shows it — it's not just words. Even with my own family, my daughter's got her second 4-year-old soccer game on Saturday and he asked me for the time. He wants to come and help support.
Just from a football standpoint, just like any young quarterback, he went through some games that didn't go his way. And I think people saw him go through those — and there was no (feeling sorry for himself). He continued to work and overcome. In the Kansas State game, he made some huge plays down the stretch -- that carried over into the season. Florida game, (the now-famous play on) fourth and 17. But just from a relationship standpoint and a work-ethic standpoint, he leads from the front. And he's very, very genuine.
Q: What’s the story about the 15 plays you asked Cook to share with you?
A: Sometimes (during research), I see this play, I love it, I think it's great. Well, if the quarterback doesn't see it, or doesn't necessarily like it, I probably shouldn't call it, right? Sometimes as coaches we get caught up in that. So (with Cook), it’s: ‘Hey, give me the stuff that you love that we ran, whether it's in the fall, whether it's in spring ball.’ And it's my job to find more ways to do that. So we're not stagnant, we're kind of maybe changing the pictures a little bit, but still for the quarterback, from a consistency (situation), that is very comfortable with that call. You know, settings get big in college football, but still he's going to go back to what he knows — and play fast.
I just asked him for 15 favorite concepts that we run on offense. Brady's a true student of the game — he emailed it to me and had his notes on the side of it. And I literally have it in my notebook, every day. And it's my job and our offense’s job to find more ways to do that.
Q: With you as a coach, can you describe the journey of growing — you're almost like a coach and also a student of the game.
A: I like to use the phrase: ‘If there's ever a time when we think we all got it figured out, we're probably getting passed up.’ And so, for me, I’ve got to live that. I've been able to be around a lot of really good people and learn from them. Been able to be around guys who win — at different levels, different conferences, different offenses — and I kind of find what fits, what I believe in. And pick and plug in. So it's been very cool, you're always evolving your offense from a personnel standpoint, what our guys do well.
Like, this was the first time I've ever been in an offense where the quarterback had the attributes of running the football. So I kind of had to evolve, because I'd never done that. So you start calling people or watching things or finding ways to use the quarterback in the run game. We’ve got a great offensive staff -- it's our offense, it's not my offense. Coach (Jacob) Peeler, he's been around round a bunch of tremendous offensive minds. (Line coach) Brandon Jones worked for Kliff Kingsbury. Our running back coach (Curtis Luper) worked at TCU for a long time. They've had a lot of success. And so, we all got ideas. It's more making sure — there's a lot of right ways to do things, let's just pick one of them and all believe in it.
Q: Cody Schrader was so good. That had to be so much fun for you as a coach. Looking back, how would you describe all he did for Mizzou?
A: Cody Schrader is just a testament to determination and work ethic. Very unique. I was not here in 2022, obviously got here in 2023. For him to stay healthy with the workload that he had each and every week, playing in this conference, that’s very rare. Cody Schrader (is an example of) -- it is easy to do things and it's easy not to do things, right?
So, we just beat Florida, let's say he has 25 carries on a Saturday night game. Night game. Cody Schrader's in the training room on Sunday at 8 am. Not everyone's doing that. Naturally, guys go out, do different things. He's in the facility, training room. I go down to grab a snack and he’s there. He's a quarterback playing running back, that's how he sees it.
We're at the bowl game. Another example. There's a bunch of activities. Guys are supposed to have fun. We're (on the bus) from practice to an event, and the film very quickly gets uploaded onto their iPads and their phones. And Cody Schrader is watching film on his phone. And not everyone's doing that. He's tapping me on the shoulder. ‘Hey, Coach, is this right, right here?’ Just a perfectionist. And that's who he is — he wants to reach his personal best so bad in everything that he's doing. It's inspiring, it makes you want to work harder. And I think that gravitated towards everyone on the team. Everyone felt that. I’m just pulling for him for next week (in the NFL Draft), just him finding the right situation. I know he'll hit the ground running.