Who is the New 'Face of the Program' for Mizzou Football?: The Extra Point

With Brady Cook and Luther Burden III out the door, which players are the biggest national stars for the Tigers?

Mississippi State's wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. (3) smiles after scoring a touchdown during the Egg Bowl game against Mississippi at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. | Lauren Witte/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Watch the video below as Missouri football reporter Joey Van Zummeren gives his picks for the players most synonymous with the program entering 2025.

Welcome to Missouri Tigers On SI's "Extra Point," a video series featuring the site's Missouri beat writers. Multiple times a week, the writers provide analysis on a topic concerning the Tigers or the landscape of college sports.

If you drove from St. Louis to Columbia anytime over the last two years, you'd probably see atleast one billboard for Imo's Pizza featuring Luther Burden III or Brady Cook.

If you stopped in a Schnucks on the way there, you'd see Burden on a bag of his signature chips or Cook on a frozen pizza. Maybe you even brewed yourself a cup of the coffee featuring the smiling face of Kristian Williams on the bag to fuel you for the drive.

With all three of those players gone, the Missouri Tigers don't exactly have an established national star entering the upcoming season. Atleast one who has highlights in a Missouri uniform.

Sure, college football fans who pay attention to the transfer portal will know new edge rusher Damon Wilson II, the top-rated edge rusher in the portal. But it's not like he's coming over with a ton of production at Georgia, which has had plenty of other elite edge rushers over the last few seasons.

Quarterbacks Beau Pribula and Sam Horn could grow a name for themselves, just from the territory starting quarterbacks almost automatically earn.

Mississippi State transfer wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. makes the best case for a star already beloved by fans of Missouri and national college football. Unlike Wilson, Pribula or Horn, he has numbers to back his talent up. Amongst all returning receivers in the Southeastern Conference, he had the most yards in 2024 with 932. He also has ties to the St. Louis-area, which played to the benefit of both Cook and Burden.

More than any player though, Eli Drinkwitz has become synonymous with the program. His personality might be an even bigger tell that he's from west Arkansas than his accent. Whether fans like him or not, he generates conversation.

Time will only tell in the 2025 season which player will be able to create the biggest name for themself. What has been proven over the last two seasons for Missouri though is that success for the whole team leads to bigger platforms for individual players.