Brady Cook, Luther Burden III show No. 11 Missouri’s potential in opening 51-0 rout of Murray State
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — It was hardly surprising that Missouri’s Brady Cook looked for Luther Burden III on the first play of the season.
How far the No. 11 Tigers go will the rest of the way will depend largely upon them.
Cook, the senior quarterback, and Burden, his Heisman Trophy candidate at wide receiver, ended up connecting three times for 39 yards and a score in
less than three quarters of work Thursday night. And along with Toriano Pride Jr.’s Pick-6, and TD runs by Nate
Noel and Marcus Carroll, they helped Missouri to 51-0 victory over lower-level Murray State.
Cook finished 19 of 30 for 218 yards with touchdowns throwing and running, and Burden had five targets through the air
and made the defense look silly on a 10-yard run. Together, the pair of St. Louis-area products — who committed to the
once-middling program in the hopes of taking it to another level — showed they are prepared to do just that.
After that initial 10-yard completion on the first play of the game, Cook and Burden hooked up again for a 16-yard
touchdown a couple of minutes later. And on the next possession, Burden got so far past the defense that Murray State
had little choice but to commit a pass interference penalty, leading to Noel’s touchdown run.
, the first quarter looked a lot like last year, when Cook and Burden burst onto the national stage.
Cook had to fight throughout camp with Sam Horn to secure the starting job, then threw for more than 3,300 yards with 21
touchdowns. Much of that went to Burden, who flashed some brilliance as a freshman but became dominant as a
sophomore, when he caught 86 passes for 1,212 yards and nine scores while getting NFL scouts buzzing
