How Mizzou football honored seniors while glimpsing at the future against New Mexico State

Missouri football’s 21 seniors dashed up the hill in the north end zone as soon as the clock at Memorial Stadium ticked down to 0:00. The yellow-clad elder statesmen each picked out a rock before climbing over the brick wall to be carried off the field by their teammates.

It was senior night for the Tigers, who had just beaten New Mexico State 45-14. The seniors had shouldered much of the load for Missouri in the win.

“That was our goal, was to make sure that these seniors had the chance to carry the rock off the field,” MU head coach Eli Drinkwitz said after the game. “That was important to us and it’s important to them and they had an opportunity to do it today.”

One of Missouri’s oldest seniors, wide receiver Barrett Banister, had a career day. The sixth-year man from Fayetteville, Ark. went for 91 yards on a career-high seven catches to lead the Tigers in receiving, including a crucial early fourth-down conversion.

After the game, quarterback Brady Cook was full of praise for the man who has been a security blanket on third down for several MU signal-callers.

“That’s just chemistry,” Cook said. “That fourth down right at the beginning, that’s just backyard football at some point when you get the scramble drill. Super excited for him. Really excited for him, really wanted to get him to 100 (yards), but we’ll take 91.”

Late in the game, seventh-year senior Jack Abraham took over as quarterback for the Tigers. It was the first snaps since the Abilene Christian game for Abraham, who joined the Tigers this season as a walk-on transfer from Mississippi State by way of Southern Mississippi, Northwest Community College and Louisiana Tech.

Cook, who rooms with Abraham in the team hotel, said the veteran, who plans to enter dental school, has been a major help in his development.

“He’s just enjoying this,” Cook said. “Enjoying the journey. This is his last couple weeks of college football, so I told him before the game ‘You’re gonna get in tonight, I promise you that.’ He’s just been awesome, all around.”

Abraham wasn’t the only backup quarterback who saw action for the Tigers. True freshman Sam Horn made his college debut, playing one series for MU.

Horn’s appearance represented another major theme of Saturday’s blowout: a chance for the Tigers to take a look at the skills of some of their youngest talent.

“I think it’s a real opportunity for them to develop and see what playing a college football environment’s like and how fast the speed of the game and handling the nerves,” Drinkwitz said. “I thought some of those guys handled it really well.”

However, the head coach was not fully happy with how the team’s younger core responded.

“I thought some of them didn’t,” he said. “There’s some guys out there that probably didn’t take advantage of the opportunity the way they needed to.”

Luther Burden was not a freshman who played more than usual. The young wideout has been a major part of the Tiger rotation all season, scoring twice on.

After the game, the highly-touted true freshman spoke of how he learned to carry himself from the team's seniors. He spoke especially highly of Banister and fellow wide receiver Tauskie Dove, who he rooms with at team hotels.

“It was real important to get those guys the rock,” Burden said. “Those guys took me under their wing when I first got here.”

Overall, results were mixed for the group. On Horn’s drive, he made one nice throw down the field to Banister, which would have put the wideout over 100 yards, if it wasn’t for an ineligible man downfield.

However, he also threw a pass that led Banister directly into a huge hit, which forced the receiver out of the game with an injury. The Tigers had a turnover in the fourth quarter as well, off a fumble by freshman running back Tavorus Jones.

Still, there were bright spots for the group. Redshirt freshman safety Daylan Carnell got to play for senior Martez Manuel at the star position, and made the most of the opportunity, taking an interception all the way back for a Tiger touchdown.

“We’ve seen that formation all week in practice, drilled it,” Carnell said. “... Ball was right there waiting for me, after that, it was all end zone.”

Another redshirt freshman, Ryan Hoerstkamp, scored his first touchdown on his first target.

“I was like ‘There’s no way there’s this much space,’” Hoerstkamp said. “Sure enough, there was and I just kept going. I heard somebody said ‘Go score,’ and I was like ‘Say less, I’ll go and do that.’”

Even if all of them didn’t take full advantage of the chances they got on Saturday, the game reps can still help with young players’ development. That could be crucial going forward, as Missouri gets late in the season, with an opportunity to earn bowl eligibility next week against Arkansas.

Cook said the game experience matters for the growth of the Tiger freshmen.

“It does, it really does,” he said. “Before you go out there for the first time, you’re really nervous and it's like this thing just lurking over your head.”

The current group of seniors still has one last home game before a full changing of the guard occurs. But on a night designed to honor and dominated by those veterans, Missouri football got to take a look at its future.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football: Seniors honored and future glimpsed vs. NMSU