Kwiecinski: How Mizzou's Nathaniel Peat can be one of the best stories in college football

On Nathaniel Peat's leg, he has a tattoo that reads: "More Life."
He got that tattoo around his sophomore year when he was at Stanford. It means he's not looking in the past and not looking at what he did. It's a reminder there's always more life to everything.
"There's more life, it's a Jamaican saying," Peat said. "Just going on to new beginnings, just looking forward."
It isn't hyperbole to say Peat had one of the longest offseasons of any player on the Missouri football roster. His arrival at MU was a homecoming, thanks to the recruiting efforts of fellow Rock Bridge alum and Tiger Martez Manuel.
Still, Peat's 2022 season challenged him. He was clearly one of the fastest — if not the fastest — players on the roster, but made just two mistakes: a fumble against Auburn and another against Vanderbilt.
The former was one of the most excruciatingly painful moments of the season. I don't need to remind MU fans or Peat about it. Especially Peat, who has put in nearly a year's worth of work to move past it.
That work has presented itself in a soundly self-confident Peat. One who told reporters he wants to be referred to as Nathaniel instead of Nate, and one who has an air about him that says he's ready for his final year of college football.
A confident Nathaniel Peat could be one of the most significant players for Missouri football this season, as well as one of the best stories across all of college football.
"It was definitely a mindset that I had to instill into myself that what happened last year, happened last year," Peat said. "I'm going to move forward and be better."
Peat's journey to bolster his self-confidence wasn't a simple one.
After the spring game in March, he was asked how the running back room helped him bounce back from the Auburn game. Peat thought for a second and declined to answer the question. He wasn't ready at that moment, and it's understandable.
Peat went from 86 carries in the first seven games of the season to carrying the ball just 14 times in the last five. He did not make an appearance in the win over South Carolina.
Peat said the work he put in to move past the 2022 season as soon as the season was over. He started working toward being a better version of Nathaniel Peat.
At media days, he didn't shy away from talking about the past year. He spoke about what he wanted to accomplish, in the present and in the future.
He was confident.
"I feel a lot more confident in my abilities," Peat said. "I know I did a lot of the small things this year that I feel like I needed to do."
A better version of Nathaniel Peat is simply Peat being the best version of himself possible. That phrase is often overused in sports. In this case, it was a goal Peat needed to accomplish.
Especially when Peat decided to come back. In this day and age of college sports, he could have gone elsewhere. He could've left Missouri and the 2022 season behind.
Instead, he decided to stay.
"It's kind of the reason why I came back," Peat said. "I really enjoy the environment here. I enjoy the coaches, I enjoy the players here. The running back room as well. We are all able to compete and we have a close bond, so it only just felt right just to come back for another year and try to put on for my city and put on for Mizzou because I don't know, it just felt right."
The fact Peat stayed at Missouri is remarkable, and it's not lost on the team. Running backs coach Curtis Luper said Peat faced last season as part of the process of moving past 2022.
"That's what he did first, we looked at it," Luper said. "Then you use it as motivation. You use it to learn from."
As Peat faced last season, and then he learned. There's a chance the confidence he learned could unlock a new version of the 2023 Tigers.
There's a version of Peat that isn't being considered nationwide. After Cody Schrader took over the bulk of the carries, Peat might've become an afterthought. Peat still rushed for over 100 yards against Florida and Auburn, keeping MU in those games. In six games, he rushed for 379 yards on 76 carries. That's about five yards per carry.
No knock against Schrader, but if it was Peat that busted off that big run against Georgia in the second quarter, the play would have gone 64 yards instead of 63. As good as Georgia's defense was last year, it wouldn't have caught Peat on that play.
Peat has game-changing speed. First-year offensive coordinator Kirby Moore has the keys to that vehicle, something MU didn't utilize last season. It would be a full-circle moment.
"That's just part of the process," Luper said. "That's a visible one. There's others that aren't so visible. The process is still the same overcoming those. That's why this sport is the best teacher for life."
Using Peat correctly after everything he overcame in 2022 would provide lethal speed to an offensive that could use a spark. It would also put Peat firmly in the spotlight as one of the best stories in college football.
It wasn't simple, or easy. But Peat has put in the work to earn the chance to be in that spotlight.
"Whether it was at night, in the morning, just being a technician with everything, working like a pro so that I can eventually have a potential or opportunity to next year," Peat said. "Be the, like I said, best Nate Peat I can for this next coming year."