Luther Burden will play vs. Tennessee on Saturday
Missouri fans, prepare to celebrate. On Friday, On3’s Matt Zenitz provided a pivotal update on wide receiver Luther Burden III’s status ahead of the Tigers’ matchup with Tennessee this weekend.
“Missouri star wide receiver Luther Burden, whose status has been in question heading into the Tigers’ top-15 matchup against Tennessee, is set to play against the Vols,” Zenitz wrote. “Burden is third in the SEC with 958 receiving yards.”
Prior to the announcement, Burden had been classified as questionable due to an injury he suffered last week during Missouri’s loss to Georgia. Burden has 64 receptions for 958 yards and seven touchdowns this season.
Burden and his fellow Tigers will go head-to-head against Tennessee at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
Others not as lucky as Luther Burden
Although Burden escaped serious injury, Missouri isn’t off the hook. The Tigers’ injury report dealt a significant blow to the team’s hopes on Tuesday when head coach Eli Drinkwitz revealed one season-ending injury, as well as a few others that could impact key players.
Linebacker Chad Bailey will miss the rest of the season, while Burden and quarterback Brady Cook both appeared on the injury report.
“Chad has had a reoccurrence of that injury that he had in the summer,” Drinkwitz said. “We’re going to do what’s best interest of him, so he’ll be out the remainder of the season. He’s going to continue to help our team as best he can with being in meetings and helping coach the linebackers, serving them with leadership and captaincy.
“But he’ll be out the rest of the year. He’s going to go get a second opinion on what’s the next step for him. Hopefully, we can get him healthy enough to pursue his dream of playing at the next level.”
Bailey played in five games after missing time at the beginning of the season. He tallied 17 tackles, a tackle for a loss, a sack, a forced fumble and a pass breakup. The Tigers will have to move on without him. Bailey’s injury was only the tip of the iceberg for Mizzou.
“Realus George will be questionable this week,” he said. “He got dinged up on the second to last play. Luther Burden will be questionable this week. Theo Wease would be probable, Brady Cook will be probable. Cody Schrader will be probable. Ennis Rakestraw will be probable. All those guys are dealing with different things that they’ve kind of battled through.”
On3’s Andrew Graham also contributed to this article.