Notebook: Badie breaks single-season rushing record
The Missouri offense struggled to find the end zone during its 34-17 loss at Arkansas on Friday. But that wasn’t the fault of Tyler Badie.
The star tailback did what he’s done all season: Put the offense on his back and find yards on the ground even when opposing defenses know he’s getting the ball. In a fitting cap to a historic regular season, Badie handled a career-high 41 carries and turned them into 219 yards on the ground, his fifth game this season with more than 200 rushing yards.
During the fourth quarter, Badie passed Devin West for the most rushing yards in a single season in Missouri history. He has now amassed 1,612 rushing yards on the year.
“It’s just a blessing,” Badie said of achieving the record. “I just thank my coaches, my teammates. They just always believed in me every day. It’s not even what I did, it’s just my o-line blocking for me, quarterback believing in me, coach Drink believing in me, running backs coach believing in me, just the whole thing believing in me.”
Badie became the first SEC player since before 2000 to record five 200-yard rushing performances in the same season, and just the 12th FBS player ever to accomplish that feat. He currently ranks second in the country in both rushing yards and scrimmage yards behind only Central Michigan’s Lew Nichols, although Michigan State’s Kenneth Walker III and Syracuse’s Sean Tucker have a chance to catch him with games remaining this weekend.
Earlier this week, Badie was named one of three finalists for the Doak Walker Award, presented annually to the nation’s best running back. Walker and Iowa State’s Breece Hall, who exploded for 281 total yards and four touchdowns during the Cyclones’ win over TCU Friday, were the other two finalists.
“He’s a special player,” Drinkwitz said. “He's a great competitor. He gives us everything he's got. And, you know, for him to get that record, that's a special thing. I know he'll be disappointed in the result today, but I know he gave us everything he had.”
One of the most impressive aspects of Badie’s 2021 campaign has been his durability. After serving as a change-of-pace option during his first three college seasons, during which he handled a combined 317 touches, Badie has touched the ball 322 times this year alone. And Friday, he did what he normally does: break more tackles as the game goes on.
Badie accounted for 51 of Missouri’s 58 yards on its final drive of the game. Even after he surpassed West’s school record, he stayed in the game, eventually scoring the Tigers’ lone touchdown of the game on a five-yard plunge. Badie insisted after the game that he remained more focused on trying to help the team win than he did on any records.
“It’s not about all the glitz and glamor and all the titles and stuff like that,” he said. “It’s just more about doing whatever I can do for this team, and just helping them, just being able to be that spark plug for our offense.”
Missouri fans likely haven’t seen the last of Badie in college. While Badie is expected to forego his final season of eligibility and enter this spring’s NFL Draft, he said Friday that he plans to play in the Tigers’ bowl game.=
“Definitely I’m trying to play in it,” he said. “I’m just figuring out what coach Drink and coach (Curtis Luper) want me to do, but I definitely want to play in it and just be there for my teammates.”
Defense falls victim to explosive plays
Whereas the Missouri offense struggled mightily to generate chunk plays, with only one play all game gaining 20 yards or more, Arkansas owed just about all of its scoring to big plays. The Razorbacks had six different snaps gain more than 30 yards. All six of the team’s scoring plays came after one of those plays.
Quarterback K.J. Jefferson did the bulk of the damage. On Arkansas’ first possession, Jefferson kept the ball and ran up the middle for a gain of 49, setting up a field goal. Later in the first half, he fooled the Missouri defense with a play fake and hit a wide open Treylon Burks for 43 yards. Arkansas would score its first touchdown a few plays later.
Jefferson would go to Burks again later in the game. Missouri got two sacks when Arkansas didn’t block blitzing defenders during the first half. When defensive coordinator Steve Wilks dialed up more pressure in the second, Jefferson recognized it and threw a lob toward Burks, who was matched up one-on-one with true freshman cornerback DJ Jackson. Jackson, starting in place of the injured Akayleb Evans, could match the speed of Arkansas’ leading receiver. Burks caught the pass and took it 52 yards to the end zone.
“I think they do a really good job of putting the defense in hard spots on some of the big plays they hit,” Missouri linebacker Blaze Alldredge said. “So you have one big play over the top to 16 on a freshman corner, and those types of plays just happen.”
Alldredge also said Arkansas found success with some unusual plays and formations that Missouri didn’t prepare for during its short week of practice. For instance, Jefferson lined up under center, a rare occurrence, and faked a handoff before throwing a tunnel screen to wideout De’Vion Warren. The play action got Missouri out of position and opened up the room for Warren to gain 55 yards. Later, Warren took an end-around and gained 32.
“The things that stick out in my mind are all of a sudden going under center, (Burks) in the backfield, play-action, tunnel screen away, reverses, quarterback throwbacks,” Alldredge said. “I think they brought out just about every trick play in the playbook tonight except for the Fumblerooski. So they did a great job hitting on that, and the thing about that is it’s hard as a defense to really practice against every trick play in the book over the course of a week. So you really just have to be disciplined and stick to your rules, and we got out of that a couple times and they took advantage and hit big plays.”
Mizzou short-handed due to flu
Missouri didn't have a few of its regular contributors due to an illness that circulated through the locker room this week. Among those who missed Friday's matchup were starting tight end Daniel Parker Jr., offensive lineman Xavier Delgado and reserve running back Elijah Young.
"We were down a few guys just because of injuries and sickness, and so we were trying to play a little bit tighter game," Drinkwitz explained.
In the absence of Parker, junior Messiah Swinson saw a bit more action than usual. Swinson caught one pass for eight yards. Freshman Ryan Hoerstkamp also saw some action as a blocker. Luke Griffin started at left guard, where he and Delgado have split time all season.
One other true freshman who saw time was defensive back Daylan Carnell. The appearance marked the first defensive action of the season for Carnell, not including mop-up duty at the end of a blowout.
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