COLUMBIA, Mo. – Harrison Mevis kicked a 30-yard field goal with five seconds to play to lift the #9 Missouri Tigers (9-2, 5-2) to a 33-31 victory over the Florida Gators (5-6, 3-5) on Senior Night before Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field’s fifth consecutive sellout crowd.
Mevis’ kick, the fourth of the game for the most prolific kicker in Mizzou history, capped a miraculous final drive engineered by quarterback Brady Cook in the game’s final 1:36. Facing fourth-and-17 at the MU 33-yard line with 38 seconds left, Cook found Luther Burden III for 27 yards to the Florida 40, then Mekhi Miller for 11 to the 29, and Mookie Cooper for 16 to the 13. Enter Mevis. Kick good. Game over.
The back-and-forth affair featured eight lead changes – six in the second half. It looked like the Tigers had salted the game away earlier in the fourth quarter, when Florida backup quarterback Max Brown fumbled, and Kristian Williams recovered at the Missouri 19-yard line. Two plays later, Cook completed a short pass out to the right to Theo Wease Jr.who, behind blocks from Cooper and Burden, sprinted 77 yards down the field – MU’s longest play of the season – for a touchdown that made the score 30-21 with 13:14 to play.
But Florida narrowed the MU lead to 30-28 with a 75-yard drive that was prolonged when the Gators converted a fourth-and-four at their own 31-yard line and ended with a Trevor Etienne nine-yard TD run. The Gators forced Missouri to punt, and Brown got them moving again. On a third-and-three at the MU 44, he ran 27 yards for a first down, and after the Tigers’ defense stopped the Gators on three straight plays, Trey Smack kicked a 35-yard field goal that gave Florida a 31-30 lead.
Missouri led 13-7 at halftime on two Mevis FGs and a 42-yard TD run by Cody Schrader, who had 123 rushing yards in the first two quarters and finished the game with 23 carries for 148 yards. The SEC’s leading rusher, Schrader has 1,272 yards this season which stands as the 6th-best rushing season in school history.
Florida’s first-half score came on a eight-yard pass from Graham Mertz to Eugene Wilson III after Mertz had completed a 61-yard throw to Ricky Pearsall down to the MU 12-yard line.
Late in the second quarter, a Mertz pass went off the hands of Arlis Boardingham and was intercepted by Jaylon Carlies at the Mizzou 37-yard line. Schrader went to work again, taking a third-down option pitch from Cook and dashing 34 yards to the Florida 26. That set up Mevis for a 38-yard field goal with 1:21 before halftime.
Florida got the ball first in the second half and gave MU a heavy dose of Etienne. He broke a run up the middle for 30 yards to the MU 40-yard line, then caught a short pass underneath the coverage from Mertz and took it 37 yards to the endzone to put the Gators on top, 14-13.
Missouri regained the lead three minutes later with an eight-play, 75-yard drive. Along the way, Burden caught a pass from Cook in front of the Florida bench. After gaining 13 yards, he ran out of a tackle at the Florida 47 and sprinted down the sideline for an additional 22 yards to the 25. Five plays later, Cook plunged up the middle for a touchdown and Mevis added the PAT for a 20-14 Tiger lead.
The Gators struck right back. A Mertz pass to tight end Hayden Hansen went for 38 yards to the MU 44, and soon after, Pearsall took a reverse 39 yards for a touchdown to put Florida back ahead, 21-20.
Burden made another big play on MU’s next possession, catching a 48-yard pass down to the Florida 19. The Tigers scored TDs twice on the trip. First, Brett Norfleet caught a 13-yard TD pass from Cook but was ruled to be an ineligible receiver. Then, Burden caught a tipped pass in the end zone, but upon review the TD was negated because the ball hit the turf. Mevis then came on to kick a 24-yard field goal to give Mizzou a 23-21 lead.
After throwing for just 56 yards in the first half, Cook threw for 275 in the second. For the game, he completed 20-of-34 passes for 331 yards. Burden caught nine passes for 158 yards, upping his season receiving yardage total to 1,152 – fourth best at Mizzou.
Linebackers Chuck Hicks and Triston Newson led Missouri’s defenders – each recording nine total tackles. Carlies, a Florida native, had seven stops including one for a loss, an interception and a pass break up. Darius Robinson had a quarterback sack for the seventh straight game.
UP NEXT
The Tigers close out the regular season with the annual Battle Line Rivalry on Friday, Nov. 24, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Game time at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium will be 3:00 p.m. and the game will be televised on CBS and air on Tiger Radio Network.
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