Curtis Luper knows a special running back when he sees one. He knows what real toughness and grit are all about. The 57-year-old Texan spent five years in the Army after playing at Oklahoma State.
In Stillwater, he was in arguably the most talented running back group in college football history. He was a teammate of Barry Sanders in 1988 when the future Pro Football Hall of Famer ran for 2,628 yards and had 3,248 all-purpose yards en route to winning the Heisman Trophy. Luper also was a classmate of another future Hall of Famer, Thurman Thomas.
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Luper, however, has never seen a story quite like the one playing out in his running back group right now at Missouri, which is No. 9 in the country and the surprise of the SEC. The Tigers are being led by a former walk-on running back who transferred in from Division II and has shocked the rest of the conference.
Cody Schrader is a 5-foot-9, 216-pound former no-star recruit from St. Louis who last week became the first running back in SEC history to rush for more than 200 yards and gain more than 100 yards receiving in a single game in a 36-7 rout of No. 13 Tennessee.
Schrader leads the SEC in rushing with 1,124 yards — almost 200 more than anyone else. Last week, an NFL scout asked Luper if the Mizzou back reminds him of anyone.
“I’ll be honest with you,” said Luper, Missouri’s running backs coach. “He’s got a little Thurman Thomas in him. He’s really tough. He’s smart. Can do everything. Has great vision. Is deceptive in how he runs. He is decisive, quicker than people think he is and faster than people think he is. He’ll make a cut and go get vertical. He’s built low to the ground, and he’ll run right through anybody.
“Thurman was a freakin’ warrior. Only Thurman Thomas could play in Buffalo. They didn’t have indoors (practice facilities) in the ’90s. We couldn’t live off Lake Erie. Cody’s like that.”
Luper said that decisiveness is critical for running backs in a league as athletic as the SEC: “Unless you’re (former Alabama running back turned first-round draft pick) Jahmyr Gibbs, you can’t sit back there and hesitate and pause and make it work in this league.”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt Cody can play in the NFL. He’ll help a team. He can play special teams. He covered punts last Saturday and made a tackle.”
Schrader spent four seasons at Truman State and was the 2021 Great Lakes Valley Conference co-Offensive Player of the Year after leading Division II with 2,074 rushing yards and finishing with 24 touchdowns. In high school, he ran for 99 touchdowns and almost 7,000 yards and set the program record for most tackles in a career.
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Still, Schrader had no offers for big-time college football or anywhere in Division I.
“People struggle to say this in the right way and it’s one of those taboo things, but he is a white running back,” Luper said. “Whether you want to say he gets discriminated against or overlooked, however you want to say it, but he ended up saying, ‘I wanna bet on myself,’ and he walked on at Mizzou. He did it himself.”
Luper said Schrader was seventh on the depth chart and had a good but not great spring after arriving in 2022. When Schrader got an opportunity in the Tigers’ spring game, Luper recalled Schrader had like eight carries in a row and got about 70 yards. He worked his way into the starting role last season and led the Tigers with 746 yards and nine touchdowns behind an inexperienced offensive line. He also had with 19 catches.
This year, Mizzou’s offensive line has improved dramatically, and Schrader has emerged as a force in the toughest conference in college football.
Schrader has continued to wow the Tigers’ coaches with his resolve. In December, Mizzou was prepping to play Wake Forest in the Gasparilla Bowl and had a 3 p.m. practice on a Saturday right after Schrader had graduation at 2 p.m. He wanted to bail on it so he could attend practice, but the coaches talked him out of that.
Still, he asked the coaches to send him the day’s practice script, and later that night, the coaches had a recruiting dinner. It was the coldest weekend of the year at that point, and one of the coaches noticed someone dressed out in full pads on the field by himself for more than an hour, going through the Tigers’ entire practice script.
Luper got a picture of it that he sent in a group text with all seven of his running backs with the following message: “This is why Cody Schrader beat you out. He’s willing to do what you guys won’t even think of doing.”
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Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said he realized the coaches had something special in the former walk-on in early October against LSU when Schrader ran for three touchdowns and more than 100 yards.
“On that Wednesday, he had pulled his quad, and we didn’t even think he’d be able to play,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s his mindset and toughness and his talent that make him such a tough out. He’s willing to lay it on the line. He kinda runs like Adrian Peterson in that he really wants to punish people.”
Luper said Schrader is the most “conscientious kid I’ve ever had.” He said it’s also why after the Tigers play SEC heavyweights like Georgia and Tennessee, he notices rival players walking across the field after the game wanting to shake Schrader’s hand: “That respect is earned.”
(Top photo: Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
