Days Like These: Part Three of an In-Depth Series on Mizzou QB Drew Lock
7/13/2018 5:00:00 AM | Football
How a difficult freshman season set the stage for Lock's record-breaking career
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Everyone seems to have a song with a link to their life. For Missouri quarterback Drew Lock, it's Jason Aldean's "Days Like These."
If you wanted a soundtrack for Lock's first season of college football, though, John Lennon's "Nobody Told Me" would be a more appropriate choice.
He was a member of the prestigious 2014 Elite 11 quarterback camp, a high school superstar from Lee's Summit, Mo., with a rocket right arm and an advanced ability to run an offense.
"Everyone could see right away that he was going to be something special," said Connor McGovern, a senior offensive lineman during Lock's freshman season and current member of the Denver Broncos.
The only things standing in the way of him starting as a freshman was a possible redshirt and a junior returning starter named Maty Mauk.
Lock had enormous potential, but Mauk had the edge in experience. It's difficult dislodging a player who took his team to the SEC Conference championship game the year before.
"Drew knew he was the best quarterback on the roster," recalled current MU coach Barry Odom, who was the Tigers' defensive coordinator in 2015. "But he needed to adjust to the workload of college football."
Lock described the first half of his freshman season as being in a "cloud" and said he wasn't putting in enough work to be successful. Meanwhile, Mauk was enjoying college a little too much. His behavior was unpredictable and his play inconsistent. Gary Pinkel, in his final season as MU's coach, made a big decision: Lock wouldn't start, but he would see action in each of Missouri's first four games.
"I still have regrets about pulling the redshirt, but we needed him," Pinkel said.
Lock's debut came in the fourth quarter of the season opener against Southeast Missouri State. His first big play was a 78-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Hunt. It was the first of many touchdown passes in his career. He completed 6 of 10 passes for 138 yards and the long TD. The future had arrived on Faurot Field.
Mauk continued to start games as the Tigers began the season with a 3-0 record and a No. 25 ranking. Next on the schedule was a trip to Lexington for a clash with Kentucky.
They suffered a 21-13 defeat. Mauk completed only 50 percent of his passes, and whispers of a QB switch grew louder. Would Pinkel make a decision to replace him as the starter? In a way, Mauk made the decision for him.
On Sept. 29, Mauk was suspended for violating team policies. Steve Spurrier and his South Carolina squad were on their way to Columbia the following Saturday. Ready or not, 18-year old Lock would make his first career start.
Lock looked natural as he connected on 21 of 28 passes — most of them safe and short — including two touchdowns and no interceptions. The Tigers topped the Gamecocks 24-10. "Growing up, my dad and I always talked about the SEC being the best football conference," Lock said. "I remember walking out of the stadium with him just beaming. We had just beat Steve Spurrier and I had won my first start in the SEC!"
Then the smiling stopped.
"It's like we cashed in all our lucky chips in 2014 in order to get to the SEC championship." McGovern said. "Suddenly, everything was going wrong. It's like we were trying to move a boulder up a hill and we were stuck at the base."
In his second start, a 21-3 loss to Florida that began a three-game stretch in which Missouri didn't score a touchdown, an offensive line breakdown led to Lock being crunched by two Gators.
"I had never been hit that hard," Lock recalled. "I just kept blinking and blinking. I couldn't focus."
McGovern was concerned, "He kept yelling, 'I can't see! I can't see!'"
"It was scary," added Evan Boehm, who was a senior center on that team and now plays for the Arizona Cardinals. "But after a few moments he shook it off. We started back to call the next play, and I chuckled, 'Welcome to the SEC.'"
Missouri used hand signals to send in offensive plays, and Lock struggled to capture them in their entirety. It was lot for him to absorb.
"We tried helping him with the checks at the line," said Boehm.
McGovern added: "Hand signals were very complicated. We needed to simplify for everyone."
There were a lot of moving parts during a four-game losing stretch. Injuries decimated the offensive line, once seen as the team's overall strength.
"We had to play guys that just weren't ready," said Sean Culkin, a tight end on that team and now a member of the Los Angeles Chargers. "They didn't have enough reps and experience. It's tough to build consistency when we had so many starters out. There was no flow or familiarity."
The problems weren't all physical.
"The younger players hadn't dealt with adversity and thought we just showed up and won," McGovern said. "They didn't know all the extra hours we put in to be successful. No one really knew how to handle it. I could have done a better job of leading by example."
The season went from quietly disappointing to chaotic a few days after the fourth straight loss, a 31-13 home defeat to Mississippi State. On the week Nov. 7, social issues were gaining attention on campus and affecting the whole state. It was a major distraction to a team that was already off-balance. Missouri was scheduled to play Brigham Young University on Saturday.
On the day before the game, though, news broke that Pinkel was planning to resign. Before the trip to Kansas City, the coach revealed to the team his reason for stepping down — he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer. An inspired Missouri team pulled together for one night and beat BYU 20-16 to improve its record to 5-5.
But even the next day, Lock knew the victory over the Cougars wasn't a sign of a late-season resurgence. All the injuries and confusion weren't magically fixed with one emotional win.
"I was the senior captain, but he was the quarterback," Boehm said. "I told him: 'You are the leader of this offense. You have to get on guys when they mess up. I've got your back.'"
But it was hard for a freshman who was messing up his fair share to call others out. Lock felt so out of sorts that before the next week's game against Tennessee, an assistant coach found him sitting alone in a hallway of the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex.
"You okay Drew?"
Lifting his head up from his hands Locked looked dazed, "I am so lost. I'm supposed to lead these guys, but we are not on the same page. I'm seeing defenses I've never seen before. I don't know what to do."
The Tigers lost to the Vols 19-8. The next week was even worse. In a cold rain in Fayetteville, Ark., the Razorbacks handed Missouri its seventh loss of the season in Pinkel's last game as coach. Lock completed 9 of 27 passes for 83 yards. He wondered if it might be his last game at Missouri, too.
"I was really concerned towards of the end of that season," said his father, Andy Lock. "His coach was leaving. Drew wasn't playing well and the team couldn't get any momentum. It was tough for him and us. I mean, we thought, what's next?"
Nobody knew what was next. In a season that started with so much promise for Missouri and it's can't-miss quarterback, it was ending with uncertainty. It was strange to say the least.
Strange days indeed.
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Days Like These is the third of a multi-part series about Drew Lock's journey from Lee's Summit, to starting at Mizzou as a freshman and ultimately resetting the SEC's single season passing TD mark a year ago. Keep checking MUTigers.com for updates in the series. Below is a feature that ran on Drew's deep connections to Mizzou last fall.
Mizzou Football will open the 2018 season on Sept. 1, 2018, against UT Martin at Memorial Stadium. Fans wishing to purchase season tickets can do so at MUTigers.com/FBTix or by calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS. For all the latest on Mizzou Football, stay tuned to MUTigers.com or follow the team on social media (@MizzouFootball on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook).
