COLUMBIA, MO. • This was the only way for the game to end. As the final seconds ticked off the Faurot Field scoreboard, James Franklin was in complete control of the football game. He had the ball wrapped firmly in his arms and there was little Texas Tech could do to get it.

When it mattered most in the defining moments of Mizzou's 31-27 come-from-behind victory over the Red Raiders, Franklin owned this football game in every way you can imagine. He was rumbling into heavy traffic one minute. Then the next time you glanced down to the field, you saw him calmly dropping back like a classic pocket passer, firing perfect spirals deep down field.

In a game that began cloaked in controversy because of the forced absence of head coach Gary Pinkel, then teetered on the brink of an upset for three quarters against a hapless Tech squad that was coming off a 60-point defeat, Franklin made sure that Senior Day ended on the proper note. It was the kind of game that symbolized why the sophomore could be the best quarterback on the Mizzou evolutionary tree.

With 324 yards of total offense, two touchdown runs and two touchdown passes — with 161 yards and two touchdowns coming in the fourth quarter — this was one of those defining-moment games for the 6-foot-2, 225-pound native of Corinth, Texas. It was the kind of game that reminds you of all the special things he can do with a football in his hands and makes you shudder to think of what lies ahead.

He is not as quite fast as Brad Smith, but he is fast enough. He is not quite as accurate a short passer as Chase Daniel, nor does he have quite the cannon of an arm that Blaine Gabbert owns. But what makes Franklin such a fascinating talent is that he is the first of the Mizzou quarterbacks who has a good assortment of all their gifts, which could make him the fourth consecutive Tigers QB to reach the NFL.

"When you recruit a quarterback, they're all not going to be Chase or Blaine or Brad," offensive coordinator David Yost said. "But when we recruited James we knew he knew how to run the football and we knew he could throw the football. ... But you could say, 'Oh, he's not as good as this was with Chase, or he's not as good as that was with Blaine or Brad.' But the thing with James is he does all those things that the three of them could do."

On Saturday, Franklin did it all. He rushed 20 times for 152 yards and two touchdowns while completing 13 of 20 passes for 172 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. After an agonizingly slow start that saw the Tigers fall behind 14-0 in the first quarter, Franklin began to exert himself. His signature as a quarterback who can run is that he doesn't like to slide.

"James runs the ball viciously," running back De'Vion Moore said. "He will hit you. That's the edge to his game."

But early in the game, instead of powering through a tackler, Franklin admitted that he uncharacteristically ducked under a hit.

"I didn't really feel good about that either," Franklin said. "One of (the Tech defenders) said, 'Aw man, are you chickening out?' And he didn't say 'chicken' either. He used some other (vulgar) words. ... Well, after that I decided that I wanted to compete and make plays because we were down and I wanted to win."

What happened next was, as Franklin put it, "definitely exciting." He threw for a touchdown in the second quarter to cut the lead to 14-7. On the Tigers' only possession of the third quarter, he ran twice for 20 yards, went three for three passing and threw a perfect fade route to tight end Michael Egnew to cut Tech's lead to 20-17.

But it was all a prelude to his brilliant fourth quarter when he rescued the Tigers from the embarrassment of losing at home to a team that had just lost three consecutive games by an average margin of 20 points, including a 66-6 loss last week at home against Oklahoma State.

Trailing 27-17 to start the fourth quarter, Missouri came back mainly because of Franklin. On the first drive of the fourth quarter, Franklin ran twice for 11 yards and completed a beautiful 32-yard deep seem route to Wes Kemp, then threw a 7-yard touchdown to a diving Marcus Lucas that looked like a laser coming out of his hand to cut it to 27-24.

With 6:06 left, Franklin and the Mizzou offense got the ball back but were forced to begin the drive on their own 11-yard line because of an illegal block penalty on a punt return. And just before Franklin left the sidelines, he heard these words on the headset from Yost. "I told him, 'Hey, you're going to carry the football.'"

Yost could have gone even further by saying, "Hey, you're going to carry the entire fate of our team on your shoulders," because that's exactly what Franklin did.

On eight of the 10 plays, Franklin made something happen. He ran for 6 yards. He completed a 13-yard pass to Lucas, then a 22-yard pass to Lucas. He ran for 19 yards. He ran for 1 yard. He ran for 4 yards. In between, Kendial Lawrence rushed for 15 yards on two carries. But with 2:41 remaining and the ball on the Tech 9-yard line, Franklin took a snap out of the shotgun, veered to his right and outran everyone to the end zone to complete a 10-play, 89-yard drive that gave the Tigers their only lead of the game at 31-27. His fourth quarter stats looked like this: five of eight passing for 85 yards and one touchdown; nine rushing attempts, 76 yards and one touchdown.

"I think they saw the rest of the game that I didn't slide," Franklin said with a big smile.

Here's the thing that fascinates me the most about Franklin. He's still green and growing. Yost says that they don't use as many of those short precision routes that were a staple of the offense during the Daniel years because Franklin hasn't yet developed the gift for those touch passes, and Franklin still has a tendency to use his running ability as a fail-safe during crucial moments rather than having the unwavering confidence that his arm can beat opponents in big moments, too.

But in that fourth quarter, Franklin beat Tech with his arm and his legs in several do-or-die moments. And that, said his teammate Moore, is what is going to make the next two years in Columbia so much fun.

"When you think about it," Moore said. "He still has some growing to do and that's scary. When he figures it all out, whew. He's going to be a guy to be reckoned with."