COLUMBIA, Mo. — One Mississippi, two Mississippi, throw.
That’s been the rhythm for Missouri quarterback Brady Cook so far this season. Through three games, the third-year starter is getting the ball out of his hands quicker than in the past, a tendency that’s part schematic trend, part knowledge of the Tigers offense.
Measuring a quarterback’s average time to throw the ball boils down to tenths of seconds — the variation between the Southeastern Conference QBs with the quickest releases and slowest releases is less than a second. But Cook’s faster processing is an early season trend worth watching and something the Tigers have noticed too.
On dropbacks that result in a pass attempt, Cook takes 2.18 seconds on average to release the ball, according to Pro Football Focus — hence the timing at the beginning of this story. That’s the fastest release of any SEC quarterback with at least 50 dropbacks this season.
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Hank Brown, Auburn’s new starter for the moment, had quicker throws during his debut, but he only has 30 dropbacks on the season. Cook is narrowly ahead of Texas’ Quinn Ewers, who had an average time to throw of 2.23 before his injury in the Longhorns’ Week 3 game.
Cook was near the top of the SEC in throw timing last year, too, trailing only Georgia’s Carson Beck, Ewers (included for the sake of continuity despite playing in the Big 12 last season) and Auburn’s Payton Thorne. But in 2023, Cook’s average time to throw was 2.4 seconds.
So what led to him shaving off 0.22 seconds between last season and this season?
“Some of it is by design, some of it is by play concept,†MU coach Eli Drinkwitz said, “some of it’s (that) we’ve emphasized more quick game this year than we probably did last year. Some of it is just a better understanding and reading of defenses, so he’s processing the play faster, he knows where his answers are faster.â€
The numbers support that theory, particularly around play concepts. On throws that come within 2.5 seconds of the snap — an arbitrary but distinct cutoff used in both pro and college football to signal when a quarterback is taking his time in the pocket — Cook is throwing to targets 5.2 yards downfield on average.
That has shortened from 6 yards away last season on the same types of throws, and Cook’s completion percentage has also improved in those situations. It’s not a massive shift, but there is a marginal improvement in Cook’s consistency with quicker, shorter throws.
“I think it’s just really knowing where I’m going pre-snap, understanding the concepts better, really just not holding the ball as long,†Cook said. “If I’m able to identify what the defense is doing and I know the concept like the ball of my hand and I know where the ball needs to go, ideally it comes out very, very quick.â€
When the Mizzou quarterback does take his time in the pocket, he tends to look farther downfield. Cook’s throws coming out 2.5 seconds or longer after the snap have an average target depth of 12.5 yards this season, slightly shorter than last year’s 14.7-yard mark on the same throws.
While deep passing accuracy has been the chief complaint with his play so far in 2024, he’s actually completing more long passes — if you define “long†in a chronological sense, not in proximity to the line of scrimmage: Cook’s completion percentage on throws coming 2.5 seconds or later is up to 55.9% from 53.5%.
There’s another interesting metric to use a stopwatch on when it comes to Cook in the pocket: the average time it takes to sack him. So far, his sacks have occurred 2.6 seconds after the snap, which is the fastest mark in the SEC.
This seems like it could be an anomaly, though. Last season, Cook’s average sack time was 3.4 seconds, and no SEC quarterback had one under 3 seconds. Given that there haven’t been a ton of sacks to measure so far in 2024, those numbers might not have had time to acquire enough of a sample size to be significant.
The same thing may be true of Cook’s release times as well. When the Post-Dispatch asked him about the numbers on Tuesday, the Missouri quarterback suggested the parts of his quicker throws that come from scheme emphases are more volatile.
“Obviously, it’s early — we’ve only played three games,†he said. “Things change and concepts change and prepping for defenses change, so the numbers could change. But at the end of the day, we have gotten the ball out pretty quick.â€
Even if it does, the average times to throw, be sacked and accuracy metrics based on different amounts of time spent in the pocket are an interesting insight into an abstract part of playing quarterback: timing.
“You’re not really thinking about it, but you can just kind of feel it,†Cook said. “Whenever you get the ball in your hands from the snap, it’s kind of like an internal time clock. Whenever it hits that moment, you’re like, ‘OK, I’ve been here a little long, I need to see what’s going on or get out of here.’â€
Former AD’s buyout lowered
Former Missouri athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois will pay a lower buyout to the school than her contract initially required, according to a settlement signed by the former administrator and university leadership.
Because she left Mizzou before the end of her contract, Reed-Francois, now the athletics director at Arizona, will have to pay at most $2 million to her previous employer, according to the agreement. KMIZ-TV first published the signed settlement, which it obtained through an open records request.
That amount is less than the $3 million that was expected to be her buyout when she left MU for Arizona in February, which means UM System leadership evidently gave in to some degree to Reed-Francois’ requests.
Whether she ever asked to lower the amount she owed was not made public, but Arizona’s leadership publicly stated that it would only assist her with $1.5 million of any buyout and expected her to remove or reduce anything owed to Missouri.
Under the terms of the settlement, Arizona could cover $1.5 million of the $2 million Reed-Francois now owes and has done so, according to KMIZ’s report. A third party is not allowed to cover the remaining $500,000 on her behalf.
It may not wind up being $500,000, though. If she pays MU $250,000 by March 31, 2028, the university will call things even. That means her buyout could functionally wind up being $1.75 million in total.
Reed-Francois had signed a contract extension with Mizzou in March 2023, a deal that ran through the end of the 2027-28 academic year. That agreement called for a buyout, based on when she left for Arizona, in the $3 million range.
Should she not pay the amount owed under the settlement, MU would legally be ably to file a breach of contract complaint for $3 million.
Reed-Francois signed the settlement in late June, while UM System Board of Curators Chair Robin Wenneker did so in early July.
Both Reed-Francois and the university agreed to waive any other complaints or legal issues as part of the settlement.