How Cody Schrader went from Mizzou walk-on to 1 of top games in major college history

More literally than ever in the era of Name, Image and Likeness benefits in college athletics, the coin of the competitive realm is recruiting.

It’s the lifeblood of any program’s ambitions, and recruiting certainly helps explain this breakout season at Mizzou: Under fourth-year coach and recruiting dynamo Eli Drinkwitz, the 14th-ranked Tigers on Saturday at Faurot Field improved to 8-2 for the first time since 2014 with a 36-7 dissection of No. 13 Tennessee.

Turns out, though, there’s still a place on the field — and doubtless in the hearts of fans — for the anomaly: the improbable athlete who didn’t appeal to the eye test or impress through the measurables and all the ultra-sophisticated metrics that say blue-chip or five-star.

So as much as this reversal of fortune against Tennessee embodied MU’s ascension this season, the most indelible story of the day was one aspect of clobbering a program that had beaten Mizzou by an average of 40 points the last two years.

Packaged in the 5-foot-8-ish frame of running back Cody Schrader, it was a day to celebrate the will and soul that don’t lend themselves to cold analytics.

Because the former walk-on from Division II Truman State, a guy who didn’t even meet Drinkwitz until he showed up in Columbia out of the transfer portal in January 2022, enjoyed a day like no other in Mizzou history and comparable to few in the annals of major-college football.

With 207 yards rushing and 116 receiving, Schrader became the first Tiger to amass over 100 yards in both categories in one game and one of just 10 players at the highest level of the college game to eclipse 200 and 100 in the same outing.

Break that down a little further, according to ESPN Stats & Info, he’s one of only three to pull that off in a game against an Associated Press-ranked foe.

Oh, and only one player in Mizzou history (Devin West with 333 in 1998) ever had more combined yards from scrimmage in a game.

Small wonder Drinkwitz called Schrader “Little Superman” after the game, saying he’s risen to the level he can’t just call him “Smurf” any more, or that Drinkwitz said “absolutely” when asked if the Southeastern Conference’s leading rusher ought now to be considered a Heisman Trophy candidate.

“He’s done more for his football team than anybody else,” said Drinkwitz, who wondered aloud when the last time a back atop the SEC playing for a top 10 team — an increasing possibility for MU after this weekend — wasn’t in the discussion.

Wherever that longshot notion could go from here, what meant the most to Schrader about this game was the 71-point turnaround against the Vols from a year ago and the love he felt from teammates afterward.

With a number of them surrounding him before leaving the field, they chanted “Cody, Cody, Cody” and hoisted him into the air — effectively returning the favor after an effort by Schrader that Drinkwitz referred to as putting “us on his shoulders.”

If you were stirred to see Schrader yelling at the top of his lungs and thumping his heart in unrestrained joy after shredding the best rush defense in the SEC, just imagine how he felt.

“That’s definitely my No. 1 moment,” he said, pausing and adding, “in my entire life.”

All because he simply refused to be put in a box, both on the field Saturday, and in the momentous decision he made to transfer to MU after rushing for a Division II-leading 2,074 yards on 300 carries in 2021.

He bet on himself because he believed in himself, Drinkwitz said, even after receiving zero Division I scholarship offers when he was coming out of high school at Lutheran South in St. Louis.

Something inside compelled him to try even if he was going to line up as sixth string, if not beyond the end of the depth chart, when he arrived at Mizzou. He didn’t know he’d become a folk hero, didn’t set out to “have a story where people can look up to me and stuff like that.”

But now that he’s got the podium, he likes the idea of inspiring others and has a consistent message to convey.

Everybody might think “you’ve got to be the fastest, you’ve got to be this and that,” but …

“The whole recipe of this thing is work,” Schrader said.

So he sets a tone with work ethic and taking care of his body and knowing “his job cold,” Drinkwitz said, a point well-taken on a day also marked by his presence of mind to hit the turf at the end of a 9-yard run to leave time for a end-of-first half field goal.

And he lives it with a certain zeal that shows up in practice or moments like this:

On his graduation day last December, Schrader had to miss a pre-bowl practice to attend the commencement ceremony. But rather than fully celebrate that night, Schrader got ahold of the practice script. And with temperatures in the 20s, he put on his pads and went to the stadium to run plays by himself for a good hour or so to be as prepared as possible.

Which brings us to another element of what makes him special.

Sure, he’s faster than you think, stronger than you might imagine and runs with no-nonsense, old-school, north-and-south sensibilities. But all of that is animated by a certain ruggedness that is a spectacle unto itself.

“You’ve got to be able to hit a person in the mouth for four quarters, and either they’re going to fold or I’m going to fold,” he said. “And I’m determined to never fold.”

Or as Drinkwitz put it: “The way he runs it’s like you’re going to have to sacrifice your body to tackle him. Because he’s sacrificing his. It’s like a big game of chicken, and he ain’t no chicken.”

In a game that began with a 38-yard pass from Brady Cook to Schrader, who later had a 43-yard catch and a 35-yard run, maybe there was no better example of that grit than when he got “smoked,” to Drinkwitz’s view, in the fourth quarter by Tennessee’s 340-pound Elijah Simmons.

Presto, up he got up. Talking trash, even.

Afterward, Schrader conceded “it hurt.” But …

“If I don’t get up, I’m going to look soft, and he’s going to think he got the best of me,” he said, smiling and adding, “Which he did.”

Only for a second, though.

Because no one got the best of this day more than Schrader, a star now even if he had few stars to his name before arriving here.