Much of the fabric that wove this season’s edition of Mizzou football contained resilience, and it certainly traveled to Nashville.

The Tigers found themselves either trailing or tied for the most of Monday’s Music City Bowl against Iowa. But Iowa’s successes were almost always followed by Mizzou answering right back with success of its own. The biggest Hawkeye lead of the game (10) was swiftly vanquished by a Josh Manning touchdown late in the third quarter.

Sure enough, Mizzou pulled a win out of defeat’s jaws, as the sound of Music City was one of sweet victory for Eli Drinkwitz’s crew. The Tigers defeated the Hawkeyes 27-24 which, coincidentally, was the score of the last time these two teams met in the 2010 Insight Bowl, which went to Iowa. This time around, it was the team from the Show-Me State who claimed a postseason win.

“It’s nice to go out with a win,” Brady Cook said. “I look back, 2021, 2022. That’s not fun leaving the bowl site and going out with a loss. Not at all. You think about it for a long time. That sits with you for a long time,”

“I definitely didn’t want that to be the case with my last game in a Tiger uniform.”

One of the first things Drinkwitz did during the postgame press conference was read a quote from Henry David Thoreau. While the action was unexpected, the quote certainly pertained to Mizzou.

“All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil,” Thoreau said. “The fight to the finish spirit is the one characteristic we must possess if we are to face the future as finishers.”

“There’s a lot of people that start things in life that don’t finish,” Drinkwitz continued. “If you’re going to be a person of significance, if you’re going to be the best at whatever you do, you’ve got to have a fight-to-the-finish spirit.”

It’s arguable that no one has been better at finishing games over the past two season than Mizzou, who sported a 9-1 record in one-possession games dating back to 2023. With Iowa attempting a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter, that spirit showed up once more. Brendan Sullivan was stuffed on a fourth-down quarterback sneak. Iowa had no timeouts remaining, and Brady Cook knelt out the clock to elated cheers from the Mizzou faithful in-attendance.

“How about that fourth-and-one stop?” Drinkwitz said. “Just incredible.”

Iowa was without its star running back, Kaleb Johnson, as he opted out of the contest with a presumptive NFL future in store. But there wasn’t much of a drop-off in production at all, as Kamari Moulton and Jaizun Patterson combined for 173 rushing yards on 23 carries.

Early in the fourth quarter, it seemed as if the Tigers found the spark they needed to take the lead. Toriano Pride Jr. intercepted Brendan Sullivan just shy of midfield. It was just the third MU interception since Week 4 and the first since Week 10.

Enter Blake Craig, who struggled with consistency all season long. Following the interception, he drilled a 51-yard kick that tied the score at 21. The kick broke a Music City Bowl record…which he proceeded to break on the next drive, nailing a 56-yard kick to put Mizzou ahead 27-24.

“To be honest, I black out when I go out for kicks,” Craig said, to which Drinkwitz responded “Well, that explains a lot.”

Iowa threw some early haymakers, as its often-glacial offense melted in the Tennessee sun early on. After Iowa forced a punt on Mizzou’s opening drive, the Hawkeyes marched right down the field, with a six-yard jet sweep by Terrell Washington Jr. capping off a seven-play, 80-yard touchdown drive. But the Tigers responded with an efficient touchdown drive of their own, going 85 yards in 10 plays. Cook picked up 87 total yards, including an eight-yard dot to Theo Wease Jr. for a touchdown.

After Cook was tackled on a carry, he appeared to have slightly re-aggravated an ankle injury that’d hampered him for much of this season. However, just like he almost always had, he continued to play an ultimately led Mizzou to victory.

“Have you ever seen the movie Tombstone when Doc Holliday is laying and acting all sick, and then he gets up, and he’s like, “Yeah, I may not have been quite as injured as I appeared,” Drinkwitz said. “That’s pretty much Brady’s entire story.”

The score wasn’t even for very long, however, as Kaden Wetjen took the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. The Hawkeyes dominated on special teams, as Marquis Johnson was clobbered on his first two kick returns that went for short gains.

However, Johnson would go onto register one of the most productive receiving outing of his career, catching seven passes for 122 yards and the aforementioned touchdown. With Luther Burden III opting out and Wease Jr. exiting the game with an injury, Johnson took on a much bigger role, and he played it awfully well.

“He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do, and now, it was his opportunity,” Drinkwitz said. “In the last four games, we needed some big-time plays down the field…Brady put the ball on him, and he went up and made some spectacular catches.”

As momentum went back up for Iowa, so did Mizzou’s offensive efficiency. This time around, the Tigers needed just seven plays to go 75 yards, as Marquis Johnson hauled in a lob pass for a touchdown. Both offenses then cooled, trading punts before Iowa embarked on an eventual 11-play, 90-yard touchdown drive. Moulton barreled into the end zone with 49 seconds left, giving Iowa a 21-14 lead it would carry into halftime.

The Hawkeyes averaged 7.5 yards per play over the first two quarters, a number they hadn’t reached over a full game since Sept. 28, 2019 (!). Iowa experienced unprecedented efficiency on offense; unfortunately for Kirk Ferentz’s crew, it stalled when their team needed it the most. That included Mizzou’s defensive line, which had struggled for much of the game, overpowering Iowa’s offensive line to stuff Sullivan on fourth-and-two.

The star of the unit that helped seal a victory was Johnny Walker Jr. He sacked Sullivan twice, bringing his total to 9.5 on the season. One of just a handful of players remaining from Drinkwitz’s first season

“I hope we left behind a great brotherhood,” Walker Jr. said. “Now, I just hope the guys know what a winning team is.”

After the game, Drinkwitz revealed that Walker entered the game with an injury.

“I thought he wouldn’t play. In fact, I told him if it was my son, I wouldn’t let him play,” Drinkwitz said. “But he said “no, I want to play, and we’ll get it fixed afterwards’.”

“You just don’t have that this much anymore.”

In his final game donning Black & Gold, Cook racked up 200 total yards by halftime — 140 through the air, 60 on the ground. He would finish with 287 passing yards and two touchdowns along with 54 rushing yards. From both a statistical and empirical standpoint, Monday was arguably the closest Cook had looked to an elite dual-threat quarterback since the Buffalo game, where he passed for 228 yards and ran for 62 more along with a pair of rushing scores.

After the game, a reflective Drinkwitz entailed more thanks to Cook for all that he’d contributed to the program since his arrival in 2020.

“It’s been a hell of a journey,” Drinkwitz said. “I’ll always be indebted to him for what he’s done for my family and what he’s done for this program. But journeys aren’t meant to be together forever.”

The Tigers achieved their second consecutive campaign of at least 10 wins for just the third time in program history (2007-08, 2013-14). While MU didn’t achieve the dreams it’d set out to achieve prior to the season, the Tigers still ended 2024 on a high note.

As many of the leaders from the past two seasons depart, the onus to carry on the success lays solely on those who will be back in Columbia next season.

“They’re tearing down the north end zone because of these guys,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s awesome right now what we’ve got going, and it’s up to these guys and ourselves, our coaches, to work our butts off every single day to not let them down.”