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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Jack Foster heard the sound of bar stools scraping across the floor.

The commotion came from behind him. At first, he thought it might have been a fight breaking out.

“Oh my God,� his wife, Heather, said. “Jack, that guy’s choking.�

On the other side of Bud’s Classic BBQ in downtown Columbia, Peter Burns was, in fact, choking. The SEC Network anchor and ESPN radio personality was eating with conference Commissioner Greg Sankey and the broadcast crew for Saturday’s football game when a piece of steak became lodged in his throat.

“I knew something was wrong,� Burns said.

He signaled to the other people at the table that he couldn’t breathe. Matt Stinchcomb, a former Georgia offensive lineman, tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver. So did the restaurant owner and a nurse who happened to be nearby. But Burns’ airway wouldn’t clear.

“Two, two and a half minutes in, I started losing everything — vision and consciousness and started blacking out,� Burns said. “Somebody else, I didn’t know who it was, somebody else started trying. I felt after around two or three tries, it started loosening up. It woke me up a little bit.�

That somebody else was Foster, a Mizzou fan and stranger whose Heimlich training saved Burns’ life last week.

Foster is a self-proclaimed Jersey boy who moved from the East Coast to Missouri in 1996. Marrying Heather meant marrying into a family of Tiger fans — the “best decision I made,� Foster told the Post-Dispatch.

The couple lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and has two sons, one who plays college soccer in Iowa and one who is a first-year student at MU. They were visiting the latter for family weekend and ventured downtown for a Friday night dinner.

The Foster family had a reservation elsewhere, but a sudden craving for brisket changed plans.

“As luck and chance would have it, we made the decision last minute to call an audible and go to Bud’s,� Foster said.

It was, if nothing else, a life-saving coincidence. Foster was the fourth person to attempt the Heimlich on Burns — the cleanup hitter, as Burns joked.

Foster credits his wife as the reason he was able to perform the Heimlich successfully. As a preschool teacher, she always knew how, so he found it important to learn. He’s a licensed youth soccer coach, which requires safety courses to be taken every few years. When recertification came around a year ago, he paid attention to the class.

Once Burns was safe, he went over to Foster’s table to hug him and thank him.

“He really downplayed it,� Burns said. “He was like, ‘Hey, it’s Missouri, it’s family. We would’ve done anything for anybody.’�

The Mizzou football training staff checked out Burns later Friday night to make sure ribs cracked in the process hadn’t punctured a lung. Coach Eli Drinkwitz learned what happened, too.

“Appreciate Jack stepping up and being a hero when he was needed to be a hero,� Drinkwitz said at his Tuesday news conference.

Foster is quick to deflect the use of that word.

“I’m not a hero,� he said. “I was just one of the guys that did their job.�

But to Burns, Foster most certainly is one. The anchor told the story of Foster’s lifesaving efforts on the air, tearing up as he recounted what happened at Bud’s. Burns spent his Tuesday morning at the doctor before visiting his kids’ school to have lunch with them — the sort of thing he felt compelled to do with a changed outlook on life.

“I just got a chance to have lunch with my kids because of some stranger’s incredible preparedness and wanting to help out,� Burns said. “It changed my life forever.�

The way Foster sees the world, though, is not about wanting to help out one time. It’s about seeking opportunities to do that on a regular basis.

“I try to set a standard for my behavior and show that it’s OK to get involved versus just watch,� Foster said. “I always say that if I wasn’t there, who would do that for my family, for my boys?�

The rest of the weekend was normal for Foster and his family. They ventured to Memorial Stadium to watch the Tigers beat Boston College. On Monday, Foster’s wife showed him the video of Burns’ story.

He was reminded of the impact that taking a required safety course seriously could have but was also struck by the emotion of ensuring, through a motion he’d learned in a class, that another man was able to avoid a catastrophe and be with his family.

“That’s really what I want this story to tell,� Foster said. “I made a new friend. We’re going to be linked. I’m actually so much more proud of the other people there and the people of Missouri because we’re good people. Man, it was awesome to see three, four people all rally around him. You hear him say he gets to home to his kids and his family and that just warms your heart.�

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BenFred: Florida should have Mizzou’s Eli Drinkwitz on wish list. Doesn’t mean Gators get him.

• Ben Frederickson

Every Tuesday, I’ve been offering up some fresh thoughts on Missouri’s upcoming SEC opponents.

Florida isn’t on that list — which is kind of a a bummer for the Tigers because the Gators look like an easy win — but I can’t be the only one wondering if what is supposed to be the Sunshine State’s premier program isn’t warming up to the idea of tying to take a bite out of Mizzou.

Not in the College Football Playoff. Florida, unlike Mizzou, has no shot of making it there. I’m talking about a potential coach poach.

If you hadn’t heard, third-year Gators coach Billy Napier is drowning in The Swamp. How bad is it? Well, he’s in even worse shape than Florida State’s Mike Norvell.

At least the Seminoles were good last season before this year’s disastrous start. Meanwhile, Napier’s Gators are 12-16 since he was hired in 2022, and this season, he’s 1-3 after deflating home losses to in-state rival Miami and first-year Texas A&M coach Mike Elko. That makes Napier, who jumped up from Louisiana, 2-10 against ranked foes at Florida, with seven consecutive L’s to power conference teams. Ouch.

Per multiple reports from those close to Florida’s program, Florida has big-money donors ready to cover the roughly $26 million buyout needed to kick Napier to the curb. The situation has taken on a when-not-if feel, and when things get to that point, we know what comes next. Prepare for massive speculation about who Florida could target to replace Napier, even while Napier tries to come up with some sort of Hail Mary.

Florida didn’t seem to realize what it had in Dan Mullen, who is now on TV talking for a living. Considering he recently posted a trolling tweet reminding UF fans of that, it’s hard to imagine a reunion.

Urban Meyer is everywhere again. TV. Podcasts. Does he want back in? I imagine the roar of Florida fans would deafen any complaints about how his previous run as Gators coach had as much off-field chaos as on-field success.

If Florida can get Lane Kiffin, the Gators should do that yesterday. He’s cranking out high-octane offense at Ole Miss, and he’s got a big-name brand that attracts talented transfers, plus previous Florida experience at Florida Atlantic.

After that, it’s hard to imagine the Gators getting very far down a shopping list before fifth-year Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz looks pretty, pretty good. And not just because it was his overtime win over Mullen in 2021 that convinced Florida to fire the guy whose Florida record read 34-15.

Drinkwitz is 14-2 since the start of last season, which included 11 wins and a takedown of Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. He’s led Mizzou to a top 10 ranking this season, has made quality hires for assistant roles, continually gets more out of the transfer portal than he loses to it, and has expanded his recruiting reach from mostly closing the state’s boarders to poaching some serious talent out from beneath the noses of more established Big Ten and SEC powers. Oh, and he spearheaded Mizzou during its creation of one of the most lucrative and aggressive name, image and likeness programs going.

There’s a lot to like, is the point. Interest in Drinkwitz from other programs is a compliment to how he’s reignited Mizzou football.

Now here’s the good news for Mizzou:

If Florida decides it wants Drinkwitz, it doesn’t mean Drinkwitz has to decide he wants Florida.

After making a great hire entering the 2020 season, Mizzou has followed through on its pledge to grow with Drinkwitz, sometimes even taking forward steps at times his team was trying to dislodge itself from a .500 trajectory. Drinkwitz hasn’t just received multiple, hefty contract improvements taking him up to $9 million annually now with more coming later. He’s welcomed a new practice facility and multiple rounds of Memorial Stadium improvements.

When he led on trying to make NIL a cutting-edge advantage for his program, the university and state lawmakers followed that lead. When former Mizzou athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois was chilly on the idea of Drinkwitz’s raise before the breakthrough 2023 season, he got one from his curators anyway, and then another after his breakthrough.

And then he got a new AD. And when new Mizzou athletics director Laird Veatch was introduced, among his first public comments was a pledge to continue to elevate Drinkwitz’s program.

No, there’s no truth to the rumor there will be a seventh column added to the quad named Drinkwitz, but who knows, maybe one day. If he stays.

Also worth mentioning: The last guy to leave the Mizzou football program despite determined attempts to keep him was former defensive coordinator Blake Baker, who convinced himself he would do bigger, better things at LSU.

Update: LSU through three games is giving up the 14th-most total yards per game in the SEC, and that includes letting winless Southland opponent Nicholls score 21. If LSU hadn’t come back to beat South Carolina this weekend, LSU fans would be dreaming up Brian Kelly replacements.

Sometimes the grass really is greenest where you stand.

The last time the Tigers were rolling like this, Michigan called and tried to hire Gary Pinkel. He declined to interview.

Mizzou can be the destination. Pinkel proved it. Maybe Drinkwitz will again.

All you can do in this crazy world of college football is hire the right guy and give him reasons to stay put. Mizzou has done a great job of that with Drinkwitz, and I think the list of places that could look better to him has shortened considerably since the day he was hired.

Take Florida State, for example. It’s not a better job than Mizzou’s. There’s a reason the Seminoles are desperate to enter the SEC. And there’s a reason Napier is being prepped for launch at Florida. It’s an incredibly impatient place.

Napier is 12-16 three games into his third season. Drinkwitz was 13-16 six games into his own, remember? Maybe not, because he made you forget. Before he could do so, though, he was given the time to do so.

He should remember that when his agent tells him someone’s interested, and it will happen, whether it’s with the Florida gig or other ones.

Yes, Drinkwitz patrols the sideline in a visor and once named his flag football team in college after Steve Spurrier. It would be silly to downplay the potential awe of being asked to lead Florida back to glory.

But when Drinkwitz talks about being and building at Mizzou for the long haul, like he has a lot lately, I don’t roll my eyes. Mizzou has shown it will fight to keep what it wants, and more important than that, it has been proactive about proving it even before outside leverage demands it.

In the end, the only way a school keeps a winning coach when poachers start calling is by having one who sees more reasons to stay than leave. The best reasons, other than the always increasing money, are the ones the place you currently coach gave you before the phone rang.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri seems to have figured out who its hot hand will be.

The No. 7 Tigers have, as expected, opened the 2024 season with a committee approach at running back. The plan, dating back to spring ball, was to use transfers Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll as the two leads, giving more touches to whichever tailback was having the better day.

As the preseason wound down, Noel emerged as the likely “1A� running back. Still, the two split carries fairly evenly through the two blowout victories that opened the campaign.

Saturday’s win over Boston College showed that it’s Noel who has earned early season hot-hand status.

He took 22 carries for 121 yards against the Eagles, including four runs of 13 or more yards. Through three games, Noel has 45 rushes for 242 yards, two touchdowns and a two-point conversion he scored against BC.

“He got really hot on the outside zone, and he’s just got so much experience carrying that play, we felt like it was going to be an outside zone game,� coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “That’s where we were going with him.�

That Noel settled into running that particular play is notable and positions him to be the main option in the backfield going forward. Zone runs — where running backs make a read on where the crease is in an offensive line that’s generally blocking in one direction, as opposed to targeting a pre-determined hole in a gap play — are a vital part of Mizzou’s offense.

According to SECStatCat’s play-call tracking, the Tigers have run outside zone 55 times through three games, making up 23.5% of all plays. It’s their most commonly used scheme, with the next-highest — inside zone reads — coming up 24 times. Combined, zone variations account for more than one-third of MU’s offensive plays.

Outside zone in particular has been working just as much as it has been called. Missouri has picked up 302 yards through that scheme, which is about 21% of its total yard share.

That scheme worked especially well against Boston College, yielding 113 yards on 21 attempts — or 5.4 yards per play.

“We got our outside zone working,� Drinkwitz said.

Noel credited the Tigers offensive line for making his reads easy.

“I was smiling going through the holes,� he said, “like, ‘Oh my, I got all this space.’ I was thinking of my next moves, really. It was nice.�

Part of Noel’s appeal out of the transfer portal was his comfort in zone schemes dating back to his time at Appalachian State — and even before it. While still in high school, the running back watched Drinkwitz’s offense there before the coach left App State for MU.

“That was really the offense I was looking forward to,� Noel said during the preseason.

So far, he’s been among the nation’s most prolific zone runners this season. With the caveat that teams have played very different strengths of opponents in their first three games and some, like Noel, have been able to sit out portions of games that became blowouts, the Mizzou tailback is tied for 13th in the nation for most zone runs so far this season.

According to Pro Football Focus, Noel has run on 33 zone plays to just nine gap situations. The only Southeastern Conference back with more zone reps is South Carolina’s Raheim “Rocket� Sanders.

For his part, Carroll has also showed that he’s a capable zone runner. When he’s in the game, though, MU tends to be more balanced with which blocking schemes it dials up: Carroll has run 18 zone plays to 13 gap sets, which is far tighter than Noel’s ratio.

Carroll, expected to be more of a bruising back, played a “1B� role against Boston College. He took 12 carries for 57 yards, stacking rushing attempts on key drives.

“Marcus did a really good job getting his shoulders down,� Drinkwitz said.

As a duo, Noel and Carroll are both in the top 13 SEC running backs in terms of rushing attempts — Missouri is the only program in the 16-team conference with that distinction.

At this point, on-field indications are that Noel will continue to get more work than Carroll does, though the Tigers have left themselves some wiggle room.

“It’s going to be whoever fits the strengths the most,� Drinkwitz said. “Hot hand, scheme decision, whatever.�

And if that gives Noel hot hand status for now, he’ll take it.

“I appreciate it. I definitely do,� he said. “That’s what I came here for: I came here to be a hot hand. I came here to just do what I can do to help the team. But also, all the running backs, we all have our roles.�

Ben Frederickson

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Now for the good stuff.

After two games of caveats and lots of depth players getting time, postgame analysis of Missouri should not be a little more telling. For an entire four quarters on Saturday, the Tigers tried. That means more insight is available on the back end.

Now, it's your breakdown of Pro Football Focus' grades and advanced stats from Mizzou's win over Boston College.

Your usual weekly reminder of how these work: The grades come from PFF — not this writer. They're at times misaligned with what happened on the field, especially when there's a small sample size, like some players in this game. They're not worth getting worked up about.

PFF grades are based on NFL standards: 90-100 is elite, 85-89 is Pro Bowl caliber, 70-84 is starter level, 60-69 means backup, and anything between 0-59 is replaceable. Grades seem particularly dampened this week, which you can take as analysis in itself or reason to adjust what you consider to be a solid performance this week.

Offensive line

• LT Marcus Bryant, 77 snaps, 67.5
• LG Cayden Green, 77 snaps, 62.4
• C Connor Tollison, 77 snaps, 66.5
• RG Cam'Ron Johnson, 77 snaps, 68.7
• RT Armand Membou, 77 snaps, 75.5
• OL Mitchell Walters, 2 snaps, 60

Membou finished the day as Mizzou's second-highest graded offensive player. He was the only lineman not to allow a quarterback pressure. All in all, it was a tougher than expected day for the Tigers' blockers. As a unit, they allowed eight pressures. Three came from Bryant. Perhaps some of that was adjusting to a higher quality opponent — and Boston College does appear to have some legitimate talent along its defensive line — but these grades and numbers suggest some improvement might need to take place before the heart of the Southeastern Conference slate.

Quarterback

• Brady Cook, 77 snaps, 76.2

Cook took home the honor of PFF's favorite offensive player, with a relatively pedestrian mark by the site's own standards enough to make him the highest graded player on offense. He finished 21 for 30 for 264 passing yards and a touchdown. Two of those incompletions were graded as drops, and none of his passes were deemed "turnover worthy" by PFF.

The pressure allowed by the Missouri offensive line shifted how Cook was able to operate in the pocket. He averaged 2.18 seconds before throwing the ball, down from 2.3 against Buffalo and last year's mark of 2.57. On average, he targeted receivers 7.2 yards away from the line of scrimmage, which is also shorter than last year's 9.6 average depth of target. It's still early for those trends, but they're worth watching.

One of the biggest indicators of Cook's passing success is whether he's pressured and blitzed. As you'd expect with any quarterback, he performs significantly better in a clean pocket. Against the Eagles, Cook was just 2 for 6 against pressure. 

In MU's second season with Kirby Moore as offensive coordinator, play action usage continues to hover around 25%. 

Cook excelled at throwing to "medium" depth routes against BC, going 5 for 6 to targets 10-19 yards downfield. He was 1 for 3 on passes of 20+ yards, hurt by one drop there.

Running backs

• Nate Noel, 42 snaps, 68.8
• Marcus Carroll, 26 snaps, 68.6
• Jamal Roberts, 9 snaps, 54.1

Mizzou seems to have settled into a definite hierarchy when it comes to its two running backs, with Noel getting more work but Carroll still seeing his fair share of touches. Given that the two tailbacks combined for 178 yards in a game in which rushing very much mattered, that seems like a positive. 

BC proved to be a strong tackling team, holding Noel to just 1.82 yards after contact and Carroll to 1.75.

Coach Eli Drinkwitz said Noel was "hot" in the outside zone scheme, and the numbers back that up: 17 of his 22 carries featured zone blocks.

Laterally, the Tigers' rushing attack remained balanced. Fifteen runs went up the middle on either side of Tollison, the center. Seven went around each edge. The most productive gap, in terms of yards per attempt, was between Tollison and Johnson, the right guard.

Wide receivers/tight ends

• WR Theo Wease Jr., 63 snaps, 70.7
• WR Luther Burden III, 56 snaps, 68.0
• WR Mookie Cooper, 53 snaps, 66.3
• WR Mekhi Miller, 32 snaps, 45.3
• TE Brett Norfleet, 31 snaps, 50.2
• TE Jordon Harris, 28 snaps, 72.0
• WR Joshua Manning, 18 snaps, 61.7
• WR Marquis Johnson, 15 snaps, 58.2
• TE Tyler Stephens, 8 snaps, 59.6
• WR Daniel Blood, 2 snaps, 59.0

Arguably the most interesting takeaways from these positions is the usage. 

Despite Manning starting the game with an appearance on the first offensive snap, it was the usual three experienced wideouts leading the charge for Missouri. Miller continues to see a decent number of snaps per game but isn't getting many targets — he didn't get any against Boston College. Manning and Johnson seem to be the change of pace wide receivers, combining for three targets. Blood, despite seeing a fair amount of volume with the second-team offense in the first two games of the season, barely got on the field against BC.

Some of Norfleet's work was limited by the shoulder injury that kept him out of the Tigers' second game. But when he wasn't on the field, or in some two-tight end sets, it was Harris working alongside Norfleet, not Stephens. 

Over the course of Saturday's game, Burden forced six missed tackles. That was the most of any wide receiver in the nation in Week 3.

Defensive line

• JOKER Johnny Walker Jr., 42 snaps, 63.8
• DT Kristian Williams, 42 snaps, 72.5
• DT Chris McClellan, 36 snaps, 64.5
• DE Zion Young, 33 snaps, 64.0
• DT Sterling Webb, 21 snaps, 61.6
• DE Eddie Kelly Jr., 17 snaps, 54.2
• DT Marquis Gracial, 12 snaps, 63.9
• DE Jahkai Lang, 10 snaps, 62.5
• DE Joe Moore III, 10 snaps, 55.3
• DT Sam Williams, 3 snaps, 64.6
• DT Jalen Marshall, 3 snaps, 57.9

While there continues to be a significant amount of rotation along the defensive line, as expected, Walker and Kristian Williams are cementing roles as the players who are tough to take off the field. Walker and McClellan each managed two quarterback hurries.

Mizzou averaged 4.09 defensive linemen on the field per snap, based on these participation numbers and the overall count of 56 defensive plays. That means the Tigers' use of five-linemen fronts slightly outweighed deployment of three-man fronts. This could be something to keep an eye on against other mobile quarterbacks this season, but again, it's early.

Linebackers

• OLB Triston Newson, 33 snaps, 48.8
• MLB Chuck Hicks, 29 snaps, 82.3
• OLB Khalil Jacobs, 23 snaps, 75.5
• MLB Corey Flagg Jr., 20 snaps, 75.2

There wasn't a ton of blitzing from Corey Batoon's defense in this one, so Mizzou's linebackers spent a lot of time as quarterback spies or in coverage — only Jacobs got to rush the quarterback multiple times from the linebacker position. MU blitzed on just seven of BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos' dropbacks, including one where Jacobs picked up a sack from the edge.

Hicks, who made four tackles, was Missouri's highest graded player.

Secondary

• CB Toriano Pride Jr., 55 snaps, 53.6
• CB Dreyden Norwood, 52 snaps, 67.7
• S Marvin Burks Jr., 49 snaps, 49.9
• S Joseph Charleston, 40 snaps, 54.4
• STAR Daylan Carnell, 34 snaps, 64.5
• S Tre'Vez Johnson, 20 snaps, 79.4
• STAR Sidney Williams Sr., 19 snaps, 52.1
• CB Nicholas Deloach Jr., 12 snaps, 66.9
• S Trajen Greco, 1 snap, 60.0

Like with other positions, usage is becoming more clear among Mizzou's defensive backs. Pride and Norwood are occupying ironman roles, rarely leaving the field. Deloach, the third corner, is still getting on the field in prowler package situations, though. 

Carnell's snaps were lowered because he was the player removed for an extra defensive lineman in some situations — as previously mentioned, a changed-up look to monitor moving forward. 

After getting burned over the top on a couple of plays, the Tigers' safeties received low pass coverage marks from PFF. Pride and Norwood seem solid in coverage, though. The only catch Norwood allowed was for a loss of yards — plus he intercepted Castellanos. Pride allowed two receptions on five targets, one of which was a touchdown. 

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri almost got got, and in that, it got what it wanted.

Trailing No. 24 Boston College 14-6 in the second quarter of Saturday’s game, the No. 6 Tigers were in risky territory.

After not allowing a point in its first two games this season, Mizzou’s defense had given up a couple of scores to the Eagles and dynamic quarterback Thomas Castellanos. A key penalty fueled one BC scoring drive while coverage more busted than too-tight skinny jeans gifted the visitors another touchdown.

MU’s offense, meanwhile, had started in pedestrian fashion, settling for a pair of field goals while struggling to consistently complete the passes it craved.

Tre’Vez Johnson, one of the defensive backs who rotates through the safety position, prowled the sideline.

“Just don’t flinch,� he told his teammates, a phrase that trickled along the benches between Faurot Field’s 20-yard lines.

With 4:20 before halftime, Johnson snared an underthrown pass from Castellanos for an interception, returning it to the Eagles’ 25-yard line.

A short field was just what Missouri’s offense needed. On its third play after the pick, wideout Luther Burden III cooked four BC defenders while breezing into the end zone.

His touchdown, set up by Johnson’s interception, was the first of a string of 24 unanswered points that Mizzou (3-0) scored in the middle of a 27-21 victory over Boston College (2-1) — a result that the Tigers think was mostly about their ability to respond to trying circumstances.

“Today was not pretty, was not our best performance, top to bottom — but (we) really responded,� coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “We hadn’t been challenged all year, and (I) was concerned, with so many new faces, what that response would be. Today, I think you saw a team that’s committed to each other, a team that responds, a team that’s never out of the fight.�

Drinkwitz made the call to go for a 2-point conversion after Burden’s score to tie the game 14-14 in the second quarter, which proved prudent when running back Nate Noel took a shotgun snap himself and powered across the goal line.

“That could get ugly real fast, so for us to turn it around and (the) defense to get a stop and us go score right after that, that’s good for heading into the rest of the season,� Burden said.

He and Noel were the offensive standouts from Saturday’s game.

Noel ran the ball 22 times for 121 yards, including four carries of 13 or more yards. Burden caught six passes for 117 yards and a receiving score, creating plenty with the ball in his hands — namely 74 yards after the catch.

The preseason All-American wideout’s performance mirrored the offense at large: It wasn’t until he started getting touches that the Tigers really started moving the chains. But Burden wasn’t surprised at how MU settled in.

“I knew we were gonna keep swinging no matter what,� he said.

Kicker Blake Craig — “the difference� in the game, Drinkwitz said — shot a booming 56-yard field goal through the uprights just before halftime, the longest kick of his young career. That gave Missouri a 17-14 lead heading back into the locker room, an advantage it wouldn’t relinquish.

Back inside quieter confines, the Tigers’ coach emphasized the importance of winning the game’s “swing eight� minutes — the four minutes on either side of halftime. Receiving the ball to start the second half, Mizzou’s players executed on his challenge.

Another Burden catch produced 36 yards of man-made magic and set up a rushing touchdown for quarterback Brady Cook to go up 24-14.

The score came 4½ minutes into the third quarter, so not precisely within the swing eight minutes. But if Drinkwitz expanded his emphasis to a swing 10, that span saw the Tigers score 21 points.

A late-game blown coverage allowed Boston College to re-enter one-score territory and briefly threaten the Tigers, but MU’s offense controlled the ball to ice the game in the fourth quarter. Forced to throw on a third down to keep possession, Cook found Burden for a short but vital completion that set up an opportunity to drain the clock.

There were lessons throughout the game that will come up on the practice field for Missouri — namely regarding pass coverage, which produced both two interceptions and two catastrophic collapses. But there was a more intrinsic takeaway from the MU sideline, too.

“For us to have to face some adversity and then figure out who we are, who we can count on, what are you going to do when your back’s against the wall and you’re tired?� Drinkwitz said. “I think that was really important.�

The combat analogies weren’t just coming from the coach, either.

“We’ve been through situations in spring, fall camp with each other,� Noel said. “We already knew what we had. But to do it against another team, to go up backs against the wall and nobody flinched, that just shows we really bought in.�

Winning against a ranked and clearly talented Boston College side helps Mizzou’s stature in a bigger-picture sense, too. While dominant results in the first two games of the year were enough to keep the Tigers undefeated and moving upward in polls, those results hadn’t done much to establish Missouri’s place in the national college football psyche.

ESPN’s “College GameDay� pregame show, for instance, traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, this weekend instead of Columbia, Missouri, picking a matchup between Louisiana State and South Carolina over Saturday’s only duel between ranked teams.

“To me, it’s disrespect,� Burden said, “not to have us on the big stage with the big TV cameras. I took that personal. I’m pretty sure everybody else in that locker room took it personal. We ain’t going nowhere. We’re here to stay.�

Ben Frederickson

BenFred: Mizzou can learn two big lessons from win over BC. Both involve Luther Burden.

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Photos: No. 6 Mizzou rallies from early deficit, beats No. 24 Boston College