Super Cody Schrader, shutdown defense help Mizzou football hammer Tennessee

Cody Schrader made the message reality.

Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz asked his team to not let the loss to Georgia linger. Schrader made sure the Tigers didn’t.

Mizzou kept the possibility of a double-digit win season alive with a 36-7 victory over Tennessee on Saturday in Columbia. The matchup between the No. 13 (CFP) Vols and No. 14 Tigers was the first top 15 game on Faurot Field since Sept. 29, 1979, and Schrader was the star.

Here are three takeaways from the Tigers’ bounce-back win:

Sensational Schrader

Taking over on its own 18 with 20 seconds left in the first half after Missouri linebacker Chuck Hicks recovered a Triston Newson-forced fumble, Mizzou ran Schrader inside-zone.

Missouri converted a 46-yard Harrison Mevis field goal on the back of that run to go up 13-7 just 16 seconds of clock later.

How?

Cody Schrader, who entered the MU record books Saturday, is how.

Missouri runnng back Cody Schrader (7) gets up after rushing the ball during a college football game at Faurot Field on Nov. 11, 2023, in Columbia, Mo.

He scampered 35 yards before going out of bounds, arms aloft in front of a riled-up student section. That was a common sight. Schrader was nothing short of sensational all day long.

By the end of the game, the SEC’s leading rusher had 321 yards from scrimmage, which is second all-time in Missouri history, only trailing Devin West’s 333 against Kansas in 1998. It was the third best all-purpose performance in MU history, as Jeremy Maclin had 360 in 2007 against Kansas State.

Schrader put up 198 yards from scrimmage in the first half. His punishing 7-yard touchdown run put Missouri into the end zone for the first time in the second quarter.

If the Division II transfer wasn’t the leader in the clubhouse for an All-SEC first-team selection before the day, he is now.

Tigers shut down UT’s potent offense

Blake Baker’s defense saved its best for Tennessee.

Unable to get their SEC-leading run game going, the Vols turned to the air. A couple of times they flirted with danger. Then UT collapsed.

MU safety Daylan Carnell, who got fingertips on a pair of passes earlier in the game, stepped in front of a fourth-quarter Joe Milton pass and returned it to the house. That was moments after Luther Burden had run home a sweep.

Earlier in the half, Milton was stripped by his own running back, Dylan Sampson, as his pass attempt collided with Sampson’s arm. MU safety Jaylon Carlies fell on the fumble.

The UT run game — one that entered the day leading the SEC in yards rushing per game — was shut down by a staunch Missouri effort.

Between Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small and Sampson, who each have averaged over 50 yards a game this season, and the mobile QB Milton, the Vols managed just 83 yards rushing, much of which coming on a garbage-time drive.

Newson forced a second-quarter fumble and had eight total tackles in the shutdown to lead the Tigers’ defense.

New Year’s Six?

Missouri (8-2, 4-2 SEC) vaulted into second place in the SEC East.

The Tigers’ win ended any slim chance Tennessee (7-3, 3-3) had of winning a division title.

And it may very have altered who ends up in the New Year’s Six bowl games.

Mizzou is likely to be favored in its final two games of the season, at home against Florida next Saturday and on the road to face Arkansas the day after Thanksgiving.

Win out, and the Tigers have their first 10-win season since 2014 and likely a game late in December or on the other end of the New Year’s bells.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Super Cody Schrader, shutdown defense help Mizzou football hammer Tennessee