Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz made up his mind before his struggling offense even took the field in overtime. If the Tigers answered Florida’s touchdown with a score of its own, he told his players on the sideline, the offense would stay on the field, would go for two points and the win.
Despite the fact that the Tiger defense had largely held Florida in check and the offense had sputtered for much of the night — quarterback Connor Bazelak had even drawn boos from the home crowd — Drinkwitz stuck to his guns.
Following Tyler Badie’s 13-yard touchdown run, Missouri’s offense returned to the field. Whether it could gain two and a half yards would determine whether or not the Tigers won the game, whether they would reach bowl eligibility.
“It just for real gave me the chills,” said linebacker Chad Bailey, who watched the play from the sideline. “Like oh, we finna do this.”
Bazelak took the snap, backpedaled and tossed a fadeaway rainbow while falling to the turf. It found tight end Daniel Parker Jr. wide open in the end zone. The score not only gave Missouri a 24-23 victory, the Tigers’ first overtime win at Faurot Field since 2005. It served as a triumph for Drinkwitz, redemption for his quarterback and a fitting end to the (likely) final game on Faurot Field for a group of seniors.
Drinkwitz always believes in going for two points at the end of the first overtime. If Missouri had trotted out Harrison Mevis, who hasn’t missed an extra point all season, to tie the game, the Tigers would have had to put their offense back on the field, and if it found the end zone again, rules would have required a two-point conversion attempt. He felt it would be more simple to tie the result to one offensive play, and he had the right call for the situation.
“Why have to go back on offense and then have to go for two?” Drinkwitz said. “You might as well do it then. We felt really good about the play.”
This game, and thus the play that decided it, mattered a little more than most to Drinkwitz. He wanted to send the seniors out as winners and give them the opportunity to play in the postseason. During his postgame press conference, his voice caught as he recalled promising center Michael Maietti, who has never tasted the postseason in five previous college seasons, that the team would reach a bowl game if Maietti returned in 2021. He wanted to prove that the Tigers’ early-season struggles were growing pains in the rebuilding process, as he vowed at the time, that the locker room hadn’t quit on him.
“I think some people … questioned our effort and our fight a couple of games,” Drinkwitz said. “And that really bothered us.”
Perhaps most of all, Drinkwitz wanted to beat the head coach opposite him. Florida’s Dan Mullen played a role in exacerbating the bench-clearing brawl that occurred when Missouri lost to Florida in Gainesville last season. Since the offseason, Drinkwitz has directed some verbal jabs toward Mullen. Saturday, he ended his press conference with a haymaker.
After last year’s game, Mullen appeared for his postgame press conference dressed as Darth Vader — presumably his Halloween costume. This time around, Drinkwitz donned the hood on his sweatshirt (which he put on after the game) and whipped a plastic light saber out from behind the podium, saying “may the Force be with you.”
The successful two-point play also vindicated Drinkwitz’s decision to start Bazelak behind center. A week ago, Drinkwitz removed Bazelak from the fourth quarter of Missouri’s win over South Carolina, then fueled questions about the quarterback position by saying the team would hold an open competition for the starting spot during practices this week. He ultimately stuck with Bazelak, and it didn’t take long for the 47,818 home fans in attendance to make their displeasure heard.
Boos from the home fans became increasingly loud as Missouri failed to find the end zone in the first three quarters, and particularly when the Tigers punted on each of their first four drives of the second half. Bazelak, who had thrown nine interceptions in his past six starts entering Saturday, didn’t turn the ball over, but he also didn’t complete a pass in the third quarter, and his lack of mobility led, in part, to six Florida sacks.
Bazelak wasn’t made available to the media after the game, but his teammates said if he was bothered at all by the boos, he didn’t show it. When Missouri’s offense took the field in overtime needing a touchdown, Bazelak continued to exhibit confidence and poise.
“It takes a strong man to just sit there and be confident in himself and his ability,” Badie said of Bazelak. “And I told Connor, at the end of the day, like, that’s what adversity is. Everything’s not going to be sunshine and rainbows out there, and today just showed a lot of grit and a lot of passion for the game. And he came out victorious. The last play, the ball was in his hands, and he delivered for our team. And that’s the best thing that we can ask for.”
Drinkwitz noticed the boos. He didn’t exactly give Bazelak an unwavering green light. On the Tigers’ final possession of regulation, he ran Badie three times and then sent Mevis onto the field for a 46-yard field goal, which missed wide right. But when the game boiled down to one play, Drinkwitz felt comfortable putting the team’s fate in Bazelak’s hands. Bazelak delivered by making the right read and, despite his limited mobility due to a hamstring injury suffered against Vanderbilt, bought himself just enough time with his legs to allow Parker to get open.
“Everybody has a right to express their opinions,” Drinkwitz said. “That's fine. But these young men are playing as hard as they possibly can. And they're not perfect. None of us are. And the number one quarterback requirement is ignore the noise, and all that's a lot of noise. And you can have one of the worst games you’ve ever had, and with two minutes left to go in the game, you’ve got to be a rock. You’ve got to believe in yourself. And Connor is doing that. And I get it. The most popular person on a football team is the backup quarterback. But right now Connor gives us the best opportunity to win the game, and I thought he stepped up, made some big plays.”
Bazelak had three receiving options on the two-point play. All were among the 23 seniors honored before the game.
His first read, of course, was Badie. Florida bottled up Missouri’s star tailback during the first half, but as he has done all season, Badie got better as the game progressed. Of Badie’s 146 rushing yards, 127 came after halftime. His 1,385 rushing yards on the year now ranks third in Missouri history. He needs 193 to catch Devin West for first all-time.
Each of Missouri’s two offensive plays in overtime went to Badie. Before he got the first handoff, he knew he would find the end zone for the 17th time this year.
“I had full confidence that I was going to score,” Badie said. “They just weren’t really physical going into the last drive, and we knew that we had them beat. Just mentally.”
But it wasn’t just what Badie did with the ball Saturday, as he showed on the two-point conversion. Florida’s defensive game plan was quite clearly to make someone other than Badie beat them. They paid particular attention to Badie as a receiver, stopping him for negative-two combined yards on his three catches.
Badie recognized that Florida was prioritizing slowing him down, and he used that to create opportunities for the Tiger tight ends. Drinkwitz said Badie actually told him to call the play that went for Missouri’s only touchdown during regulation, during which Bazelak faked a screen pass to Badie and threw deep to Niko Hea for a 41-yard score. On the two-point conversion, too, Badie drew the attention of Florida’s defense as he ran into the right flat.
“Really I was the first read,” Badie said. “So when the ball was in the air, I was scared, because I was like, I don’t know if I’m supposed to get the ball, I don’t know if I messed up. But luckily we came down with it and won the game, so that’s all that matters.”
In addition to Badie, Bazelak had slot receiver Barrett Banister as a receiving option on the two-point play. Banister lined up as an H-back behind left tackle but ran into traffic as he crossed the formation. Ultimately, Drinkwitz credited Bazelak for recognizing that Parker, another senior, would be the open man.
“Every Friday we practice that play, and yesterday — I mean, normally we just go through it mindless, we come out and we just go to the tailback,” Drinkwitz explained. “For whatever reason, yesterday, Connor came out, boom, fakes it (to Badie), looks, buys the exact same play like he did right there and threw it up to Daniel and he caught it. I thought, well, that’s interesting. And then practice execution makes game day reality.”
Drinkwitz called the moments after Parker secured the catch “a blur.” All he remembers before he ran to midfield to greet Mullen was running backs coach Curtis Luper grabbing him by the shoulders. The Tiger assistant coaches watching the game from the booth stormed into the hallway, screaming in celebration. Missouri’s players mobbed Parker in the end zone, then meandered toward the northeast corner of the field, where some players exchanged high-fives with the students and the seniors climbed onto the hill, each claiming a rock from the white-washed M.
Twice this season, after seven-point losses at Boston College and Kentucky, Drinkwitz and his players spent the postgame press conferences saying the team needed to find "one more play." Thanks to their head coach, star running back and resilient quarterback, the Tigers made that play Saturday and achieved bowl eligibility in the process.
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