2017: Missouri Tigers’ 5 best performers of fall sports

2. Drew Lock

When you do more of something than Peyton Manning, notice is inevitable. Lock set a single-season record for touchdown passes in SEC history with 44. While I still have my doubts about how good of a pro quarterback he will be, there is no doubt that this season will be in the record books for some time.

Lock had some standout games, particularly at the end of the season. In the Battle Line Rivalry at Arkansas, he threw five touchdowns to lead Mizzou to a 48-45 victory. His 448 yards were only his third-highest total of the season, but arguably the most impressive, as the other two performances with more yards were against Idaho and Missouri State.

The opener against Missouri State saw Lock set career highs in yards with 521 and touchdowns with seven. But I’d argue his best performance of the season was at Georgia in the middle of the season. He threw for four touchdowns and kept the Tigers in it between the hedges for most of the game, before the Dawgs pulled away.

Considering that Georgia came ever so close to winning the national championship, I would say that performance speaks more to me than did the thrashings over inferior opponents or raking up stats against teams with lame duck coaches like Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas.

However, Lock put up real stinkers against South Carolina, Purdue and Texas. In those games, he threw for two touchdowns with five interceptions and had a completion percentage below 53% in each game.

Lock still has to be more consistent if he wants to succeed at the next level. That said, he put on a show this fall. Let’s hope he continues to improve and finds success under new offensive coordinator Derek Dooley.