DALLAS — Brady Cook sat on a blue fabric couch inside a hotel meeting space used as a holding room, waiting for the last of his Southeastern Conference media days interviews.
There was a rolling TV screen placed in front of him with an Xbox console attached and emblazoned with the SEC logo. He picked up a matching conference-branded controller from the cushion next to him and fired up the most anticipated sports video game in quite some time: EA Sports’ College Football 25.
The game that the Missouri quarterback queued up, naturally, was the Tigers against archrival Kansas. Animated avatars of his teammates charged out of the Memorial Stadium’s south end zone tunnel, just like they do before real games. The video game broadcast cut to an animated character pounding the Big Mo bass drum.
On his first offensive series in control of the virtual Mizzou offense — and the video game version of himself — he clicked away from the game’s suggested play call, scrolling down to the deep pass category.
Then he took a sack for a significant loss and laughed it off, citing the absence of his starting left tackle from the game’s mostly accurate MU roster.
“The whole time, I’m just glued to the screen, smiling,†Cook said, “because I played this game in 2013, 2014, and obviously not since. Finally it comes back, and I’m on the game.â€
The game’s release this week, enabled by the ability to include athletes’ likenesses and emboldened by popular demand for the video game franchise that ceased to exist for a decade, has been popular among the players who appear in the game too.
“It’s pretty fun,†wide receiver Luther Burden III said, “playing with yourself on the game. Having the abilities that I have on the game that other people don’t is just a crazy blessing.â€
Burden has the 11th-highest rating of any player in the game, with a 94 overall score, boosting his popularity among those who’ve fired up the game in its earliest days.
But when Cook and Burden played each other in the game — they both played as Missouri, for the record — it wasn’t smooth sailing for the preseason All-American wideout.
“It was good,†Cook laughed, tapping his chest and citing the gaudy stat line his video game self posted in the game: 600 passing yards and 150 rushing yards.
His 88 overall rating stacks up 13th among all the quarterbacks in the game, which satisfied Cook.
“I didn’t have, like, crazy high expectations for my rating. I wasn’t expecting to be at 95 or 96 — save that for Luther. I just wanted to be 85 or above, and I’d be happy.â€
More defensive delay of game calls coming?
Those who paid close attention to Mizzou’s 2023 season might remember an odd penalty popping up at times, including a Week 6 game against Louisiana State: “disconcerting signals,†a delay of game offense flagged against the defense.
It prompted confusion at the time, among coaches and players seemingly as much as fans and observers. The penalty from the LSU game, in particular, came because then-MU linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper clapped to get his teammates’ attention — after the LSU offense had already used claps as part of its cadence.
As a result, officials ruled that the clap was the defense imitating or simulating a snap to lure the offense into committing a pre-snap penalty — a signal deemed disconcerting by the rulebook.
Defensive delay of game penalties were one of the fouls highlighted during a presentation that SEC officials coordinator John McDaid gave to media Tuesday morning.
He walked through a clip of a pre-snap sequence from the Florida defense during a game last year, broadening the definition of what will draw a flag for defensive delay of game. During the example, nearly all of the Gators’ defensive line shifted left into different gaps following a verbal command from the Florida middle linebacker — something McDaid said has been and will remain entirely legal.
But one defensive tackle, set up in a four-point stance, lifted his arm and moved it backwards in something resembling the motion of a center snapping the ball. That, McDaid said, would count as simulating a snap. And next to that defender was an upright blitzer who repeatedly flinched forward. That sort of activity will also be a no-no, he explained, because it’s intended to bait the offense into a pre-snap penalty.
As is the norm, SEC officials will visit preseason camps in August, which will likely lead to more explanation of the rule for teams.
And while Missouri won’t have much reason to take advantage of it, McDaid suggested that the “Horns down†hand signal used to mock Texas won’t necessarily be a penalty, so long as it’s not used to taunt on the field.
“Take the act out of a football stadium, put it in a shopping mall,†he told reporters. “Is it something that would offend the senses of the majority of reasonable people in the area? Giving this signal, to me, isn’t offensive.â€
Georgia lovin’ Lovett
A former MU player who transferred within the conference earned some praise from one of the SEC’s best defensive backs.
When Georgia’s Malaki Starks was asked about which teammate he enjoys battling with in practice the most, he brought up wideout Dominic Lovett, the East ºüÀêÊÓƵ High graduate who spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons with the Tigers.
“I’d say Dom, Dominic Lovett,†Starks said. “When he got here from Missouri, he was fitting into the culture and now he’s one of those leaders on the team. Just his competitive spirit, which is why we go at it a lot ... we keep tally of who wins.â€
Lovett caught 54 passes for 613 yards and four touchdowns last season, his first with the Bulldogs. During Georgia’s 30-21 win over Mizzou last season, Lovett secured four catches for 33 yards and a score.
He’d recorded 56 receptions and 846 yards in his final season with the Tigers but entered the transfer portal after 2022.