Welcome, Mizzou fans, to the Touchdown Luther experience.
The stat line wasn’t mind-boggling by any means. Star freshman Luther Burden III finished his first game as a Tiger with three catches for 17 yards and a touchdown and three rushing attempts for 26 yards and another score.
But sometimes it’s about more than the stat line. Sometimes you know what you see.
“I see it every day to be honest,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said.
Burden’s first touch came when he lined up at quarterback in the wildcat. He faked a jet sweep to Mookie Cooper, kept the ball, outran a free defender to the sideline and picked up 17 yards. Later, Burden appeared to break open against single coverage on a deep route, but a pass that was underthrown by Brady Cook resulted in an incompletion. A similar play later drew a pass interference call against Louisiana Tech.
But the fireworks were yet to come. With Mizzou up 14-3, Burden took a short pass behind the line of scrimmage from Cook in the left flat at the 7-yard line. There was nothing there. Well, that’s not true. There were four Tech defenders.
“I saw like three defenders right behind him,” quarterback Brady Cook said. “I was like, all right, go do your thing, man.”
Drinkwitz said the assistant coaches were starting to talk about third down plays already. Burden jumped one way to make the first tackler miss. He dipped the other way to make the second man miss. Then he split the remaining two and dragged them both into the end zone. Touchdown Luther had his first.
The second came in the middle of the third quarter. One play after he had lined up at quarterback and handed off to Dominic Lovett for an 18-yard gain, Mizzou went back to the same formation. This time, Burden didn’t even wait for his fellow East St. Louis product to get in position for the handoff. Burden simply bulled forward, bumping Lovett along the way for a one-yard score. Missouri was up 31-10 and the Luther Burden Hype Train was in overdrive.
“I came into the game knowing what the expectation was,” Burden said.
Burden came to Missouri from East St. Louis with expectations unmatched by any Missouri player since Dorial Green-Beckham a decade ago. It seemed like they were borderline unreachable. How could anything he do be as much as everyone else hoped for? But Touchdown Luther has never seen an expectation he couldn’t exceed.
“That’s just a bunch of outsiders,” Burden said. “I just put that to the side and just lock in with my teammates. Just trying to win, that’s all.”
“I kind of knew what was coming,” Drinkwitz said. “I just didn’t want to build it up too much.”
In his first college game, he was the best offensive player on the field (nod to Florida transfer linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper who was a terror on the other side of the ball in his Missouri debut). The kid who is already in a car commercial and on a bag of potato chips was the face of Drinkwitz’s third team before he took a single snap. His debut didn’t do anything to douse the enthusiasm.
That’s not all to say there’s no room for improvement. Burden had a pass bounce off his hands for an interception in the red zone. He didn’t record a reception in the second half. It wasn’t so much the body of work as the flashes he offered us along the way.
“I’m gonna go look at some tape, move forward and get better,” Burden said.
Remember, it is but game one. Missouri fans get this for three years. Buckle up, the train is leaving the station. If Thursday night is any indication, it’s gonna be a hell of a ride.
Stay up to date on all the Mizzou news with your premium subscription
Talk about this story and more in The Tigers' Lair
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage
