Parents of Missouri football super seniors reflect on ends of long college careers

TAMPA, Fla. — Michael Abraham wasn’t supposed to be in the lobby of the Tampa J.W. Marriott on Friday before the Gasparilla Bowl. His son, Missouri quarterback Jack Abraham, was supposed to say his goodbye to college football after the 2020 season at Southern Mississippi.

Instead, he got an extra season of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, a medical redshirt due to post-concussion syndrome at Mississippi State gave him another.

Hence Michael’s presence in the team hotel, getting ready to watch his son play football for the final time.

"He was like ‘I’m taking it, I’m gonna keep playing,’” Michael said of the extra opportunity. “You’re only young once and he wanted to play.”

Michael had been watching Jack play football since his son was eight years old. Back then, Michael was helping coach the peewee football program in Oxford, Mississippi, where he attended Ole Miss and continues to live.

The program was small in those days and was mostly 11- and 12-year-olds, but Jack still wanted to participate. He couldn’t play or be hit, but was allowed to give it a try in practice.

Once he started throwing the football, he turned heads. Michael remembered exactly where he was, even the direction he was facing, when he first saw the talent.

"A ball just jumped off his hand,” Michael said. “The kid who was running the route was about 12. We all looked at each other just ‘OK, he can throw a football.’ Eight years old on a practice field in Oxford, Mississippi, and I was like ‘Jack can throw a ball.’”

Jack grew into a solid starter at Oxford High School, playing with a loaded team that included current Seattle Seahawk DK Metcalf. Those days generated some of Michael’s favorite memories of his son, including the second round of the 2015 playoffs, when he threw a last-minute touchdown to beat Germantown.

Another came in Jack’s final game, despite a loss. In the state championship, against Wayne County, Jack threw for 550 yards and four touchdowns. Late in the game, he dove for the pylon trying to win the game, but came up just short and broke his collarbone in the process.

Still, the performance was one his father would never forget.

"It was a great memory,” Michael said. “We just lost the damn game.”

When it came to recruiting, Jack, who had been told he would never be a Division I quarterback by one of North Carolina’s coaches at a camp his sophomore year, had a hectic time. He was originally committed to Tulane, but when head coach Curtis Johnson was fired in favor of Willie Fritz, the new coach wanted someone else.

Jack found his way to Louisiana Tech for a season. Since then, Michael has watched a ton of college football, from Northwest Community College to Southern Miss.

He even had to sit through last season, as Jack suffered from post-concussion syndrome after being injured during a June 2021 drill at Mississippi State, where he had transferred for a chance to play SEC football in his extra season. For Michael, the injury and its aftermath were some of the most challenging times.

"You talk about really hard to give advice to your child,” he said. “You’re sitting on that seesaw of, how much do you say? I have some knowledge, but I’m not a concussion guy, I’m a dentist. So how much of my opinion do I interject in a decision-making process for something somebody loves to do?”

When Jack was fully cleared to play, Will Rogers had taken full ownership of the MSU starting job. Jack received a medical redshirt from the NCAA to gain a seventh year of eligibility, and entered the transfer portal.

The Abrahams figured Brady Cook was likely to earn the Missouri starting job. Still, the opportunity to walk on and join the competition appealed to Jack.

"This isn’t just about you,” Michael said of Jack’s attitude. “If you don’t win the job, you can still be a great guy, a great number two, help the team win, be a great guy. I think he’s done that.”

This year was just that. Cook earned the job as expected, but Jack was there behind him in a support role.

When senior night against New Mexico State rolled around, Cook and company got the meaningful snaps over with fast, so Abraham could get playing time.

The Tigers didn’t have much trouble with the Aggies, and Jack made the final appearance of his long college career. Even with that action, Michael’s lasting impression of the season will be watching his son thrive without stepping on the field for most of the year.

He got to see Jack “genuinely and authentically” enjoy the success of his teammates in a support role.

“If the purpose of sports is not to help learn about life lessons, I know that’s so cliché but it’s genuinely true, if it’s not, then what are we really doing with it?” Abraham said. “A lot of good stuff you’re gonna learn. Group dynamics and hanging with other people, learning about different personalities and how to interact with folks.”

Head coach Eli Drinkwitz announced before senior night that Jack was planning on entering dental school, joining a family legacy of dentists that includes his father and grandfather. However, before the end of the season, the quarterback got a call with a different opportunity.

Now, he and his wife Amy will be moving to Tupelo, Mississippi, for his new job in orthopedic sales. Some of the soft skills he picked up in the locker room will be put to good use.

"You get to learn how to interact with people and all this stuff when the worst consequence is you lose a ball game,” Michael said. “It’s not like you’re doing neurosurgery here. If it’s a good experience or a bad experience, you’ve just got to apply the lessons to life.”

Without Jack on a college roster for the first time in seven years, Michael will get back some of the time he previously spent traveling to games (attending every contest in 2022). He said he plans to spend it being more involved in Oxford’s youth football program.

On Saturdays, he plans on visiting the Grove before Ole Miss games, less for the football than for the family and friends in attendance.

"From a parent’s standpoint, I’ll tell you, we’ve had a blast,” Michael said of Jack’s final season. “We’re in the stands and he’s not getting hit, he’s gotten in just a little bit. We’ve seen a lot of places we’d probably never see again. Saw enough of Manhattan, Kansas to never want to see it again, but I appreciate it.”

Barrett Banister’s family: 'It’s been really neat’

In the Raymond James Stadium lower bowl stands before the game, Barrett Banister’s family was just happy he was on the field. The sixth-year wide receiver had missed Missouri’s regular season finale against Arkansas after an injury suffered against New Mexico State.

For the Fayetteville native, who came to Missouri after not receiving even a preferred walk-on offer from the Razorbacks, despite having a grandfather and uncle who both played and coached there, missing the game was devastating.

“That was pretty hard,” Barrett’s father Brian Banister said. “Thank goodness we won, because it would have been miserable otherwise.”

Barrett dressed out for the Arkansas game and fulfilled his duties as a captain at the pregame coin toss. After not playing, he and the team doctors worked to get him game-ready by Gasparilla Bowl game time.

It worked, and a large Banister contingent now sat in the bleachers, ready to watch the former walk-on's final game.

"It’s really going pretty well,” Barrett’s mother Holly said. “I’m not emotional yet and Barrett hadn’t been emotional.”

It wasn’t lost on the family just how far Barrett had come since joining the Tigers. For a player who was barely supposed to be on the roster as a freshman, things have worked out just fine.

He earned a scholarship. He earned playing time, becoming the “third and Banister” option in the slot that Missouri fans have come to love over the past several years.

They’ve also watched him grow up. He entered MU as a teenage football hopeful and leaves as a man in his mid-20s, marrying his wife Sarah before the season.

"You realize that Barrett playing six years is like watching him from seventh grade through a senior in high school,” Brian Banister said. “That kind of puts in in perspective, like wow. It’s going to be a shock for us when next football season rolls around.”

For Barrett and the Banister family, football has led to all sorts of experiences they otherwise wouldn’t have had. The wideout spoke during a bowl week press conference about how much he appreciated the people he had met through the game.

His parents were no different, with Holly even pointing to a bowl week conversation with the mother of Darius Robinson, one of the Tigers Barrett said he wouldn’t have met without MU football.

“She’s from Detroit, I’m never going to Detroit,” Holly said. “She’s never coming to Arkansas. It’s been really neat.”

The family won’t be far from football. Holly’s brother Tim Horton is still coaching at Air Force, so they can finally catch some of his games.

If Barrett has his way though, they’ll still need to plan on attending his games. He’s going to chase his football playing dreams until the road runs out.

According to Brian, Barrett would likely play in the USFL, XFL, CFL or one of the other myriad professional football leagues. Still, his end goal is to be in the NFL.

And why not? He’s been an underdog his entire college career and still succeeded. It’d be hard to tell him he can’t do it again.

Even if his playing career ends soon, Banister could remain involved with the game. He could enter coaching, even try broadcasting according to his family, who said he might also go into financial advising.

The options are endless. But for that night, his family would sit in the Tampa bleachers and take in his final game.

"He’s been at it for so long, been at Mizzou for six years, so it’s kind of like ‘Wow, this is coming to an end,” Brian said. “We really don’t know where it goes, the future from here, so it’s kind of exciting.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football: Barrett Banister and Jack Abraham's parents reflect