Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz couldn’t help but be sentimental after the Tigers beat Iowa in the Music City Bowl.

He quoted Henry David Thoreau, the movie Tombstone and Dr. Suess; he nearly broke down in tears and couldn’t hold back the compliments for the quarterback who has led the way for the resurgence of the Mizzou program and Drinkwitz’s rise in his coaching career.

“All endeavors call for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hour’s toil,” Drink said as he quoted Thoreau. “The fight to the finish spirit is the one characteristic we must possess if we’re to face the future as finishers.”

The Tigers can proudly say they faced the future as finishers Monday.

And while Drinkwitz was talking about his whole team in that moment, there is no way to interpret that as anything other than an homage to the man sitting two seats to Drinkwitz’s right at that moment, his quarterback.

Brady Cook, the ultimate finisher.

Game after game the past three seasons, Tiger fans have gotten to witness a drive to win at any cost from a player who refused to ever give up, because no matter what, he was going to finish the job.

He wasn’t quite able to do that in his first career start, though he did show shades of what would come.

With under 3 minutes to play, Cook led an 11-play, 83-yard drive to take a late lead against Army in the Armed Forces Bowl, but the Black Knights were able to drive back down and kick a game-winning field goal.

But there it was, the first time Cook would lead a fourth-quarter drive to take the lead with less than 2 minutes on the clock. He did everything in his power to finish that game.

“He led us on a two-minute drive,” Drinkwitz said before turning to speak directly to his quarterback. “You go up and they drive it down, kick a field goal to beat us. And how ironic is it for you on your last game in your college career. We’re down all game, you lead us to let Blake (Craig) kick the game-winning field goal and we send the defense back out there. This time, they get a stop.”

The difference throughout the past three seasons wasn’t whether Cook would finish the job, it was whether the rest of the Tigers would cross the finish line with him..

Look at 2022, when he led a two-score comeback against Auburn to tie the game, then put the Tigers in position to win on either a game-ending field goal or an overtime touchdown. But the kick was missed and the would-be game-winner in overtime was fumbled into the end zone.

Cook did everything in his power to finish that game multiple times, but in the span of his career, it will be forgotten because other players didn’t finish the job with him.

Kentucky that year, Cook led a two-score comeback to take the lead with 8:07 left in the fourth, but it ended in a loss as well. Then the Tigers dropped the Gasparilla Bowl to Wake Forest to end a second consecutive season at 6-7.

“I look back on 2021, 2022, that was not fun,” Cook said. “Leaving the bowl site and going out with a loss, not fun at all. You think about it for a long time, that sits with you for a long time and I definitely didn’t want that to be the case with my last game in a Tiger uniform.”

Then the team bought into what Drinkwitz had been building around Cook, the sell that hooked the quarterback and helped build that finisher mentality.

“Coach Drink built it, let’s be real, the one thing I’ll say about Coach Drink is he brings the right people into this building,” Cook said. “I’ve seen it from when we got here in 2020 to right now, the people he’s moved out and the people he’s brought in, it’s unbelievable. Every single person that comes into our building has the same goal, the same mission, the same mindset and that’s been the difference.”

And that difference became visible from the outside in 2023 as the team became finishers, too.

From the walk-off kick against Kansas State to the two-score comeback against Kentucky and the final game-winning drive against Florida, Cook wasn’t the only one crossing the finish line anymore.

He led, and the Tigers followed him wherever he took them.

He took them to 21 wins in two seasons, he took them to double-digit wins in consecutive years for just the third time in program history, he took them to a spot in every College Football Playoff poll in the past two seasons.

But now, the ultimate finisher crossed the final finish line. His Mizzou career is over and the Tigers will have to learn to fight to the end without him.

“Honestly, I figured the NCAA would just grant everybody eligibility, so I’ve kind of been kicking it down the road a little bit,” Drinkwitz said about envisioning his career post Cook as he began to tear up. “So I just keep hoping that there’s like, some sort of magic that will happen. But, you know, we talk about core value No. 4 is, ‘Enjoy the journey.’ And it’s been a hell of a journey and I’ll always be indebted to him for what he’s done for my family and what he’s done for this program. But journeys aren’t always meant to be together forever. And so he’s going to go start his own path and his own career and I have no doubt he’ll be successful in the NFL.

“He’s going to get a chance and just like we all found out, you can never count him out and I’m sure he’ll be a starting quarterback someday in the NFL and hopefully he’ll let me come watch him play. It’s time for him to go chase his journey now.”

Drinkwitz finished by quoting Suess, though his words were just a little off, so I’ll give the original that he was going for.

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

And Cook got the chance to smile as he stepped onto the stage set on the field at Nissan Stadium after the game. Drinkwitz talked after receiving the bowl trophy about how much Cook has meant to the team and when the jumbotron camera zoomed in on him in the background, Cook gave it a wink.

The job was done.

The ultimate finisher had finished for the final time as a Missouri Tiger.

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