Johnny Walker Jr. saw the right number but picked the wrong guy.

Sitting on the sideline during Missouri football’s game against Auburn on Saturday — Missouri, at that point, still down two scores — Walker watched a player wearing No. 12 on his jersey hurtle past him.

His first thought: “Where is Drey (Norwood) going?”

That’s good instincts from the MU defensive end and team captain. Norwood had, after all, been the only Missouri player wearing No. 12 on — or near — Faurot Field for quite some time.

But there was a flaw in his logic. Norwood, a mainstay at cornerback for Mizzou, wasn’t heading anywhere but back to the field, as the timing coincided closely with a third-quarter MU field goal that cut the deficit to 11 points.

Even as it began to dawn on Walker, it felt far-fetched.

“Then I heard the crowd start cheering,” Walker said. “I said, ‘There's no way Brady is back out here.”

It was, of course, Missouri’s other No. 12.

It was Brady Cook.

“It was unbelievable to me,” Walker said. “I can’t believe he came back out.”

You’re not the only one, Johnny.

Mizzou’s players and in-game coaches, it seems, were just as in the dark as everyone else inside Memorial Stadium on Saturday. The common consensus: Nobody expected to see No. 12 back on the field to stage the comeback that led to Missouri’s 21-17 win over Auburn.

Not even Cook’s head coach.

Eli Drinkwitz, talking to Mike Kelly on his weekly radio show "Tiger Talk" on Tuesday, said he had been informed by Missouri’s director of sports medicine Zach Parker earlier in the game that it was “not looking good” and that Cook was going for an X-Ray.

Parker returned later with more bad news: High-ankle sprain; day is done.

So, Drinkwitz went to the headset and informed his coordinators it was backup quarterback Drew Pyne’s game.

Later, and perhaps some poor timing, Parker came back with a third update.

“Zach comes up to me and says, ‘Hey, Brady's trying to give it a go. We're going to see what he can do in the weight room,’” Drinkwitz said. “And I was like, ‘whatever, man. OK. I got bigger fish to fry. We just muffed a punt.’ So, I wasn't even thinking about it.”

And then there was a fourth update.

“And then we scored (a third-quarter field goal), and (Parker) comes back and says, ‘Hey, Brady's good to go,’” Drinkwitz said. “And I'm like, ‘what? … Where's he at?’ He's like, ‘he's over there talking to the quarterbacks.’ I went and grabbed (Cook) and said, ‘Hey, man, are you good?’ And he's like, ‘Yeah, I'm good. Let's go win.’ And I was like, ‘alright.’ So I got on the headset, said, ‘Hey, Brady's back.’ And they're all like, ‘What?’ Nobody had any idea. So we put him back in there.

“And then the legend of Brady Cook was born.”

Cook’s story will live a long time in the hallways of the Missouri facility. The details are remarkable. Walker referred to it as “like a movie.”

The Tribune chronicled the Hollywood-worthy story after Saturday’s game — from Cook’s departure to his return to the victory fireworks — in as much detail as the assembled media could garner.

More: Missouri football QB Brady Cook: From hospital to win over Auburn in one crazy afternoon

Here’s the quick version:

Cook suffered what he called a “hip-drop tackle” on the first drive of the game from Auburn defensive end Jalen McLeod. After attempting to tough it out for a few plays, Cook collapsed on a clearly hurt ankle as he dropped into the pocket on the 10th offensive play of the game.

He went to the sideline and quickly departed into the south end zone tunnel. Sideline reports emerged that Cook was in the locker room getting taped up and was anticipated to soon return. That didn’t happen, and then a team spokesperson told reporters that the QB’s return was “unlikely.”

It was most certainly that.

But Cook did it anyway, late in the third quarter. The quarterback spent a significant time in the hospital getting an MRI. Once out, he went with trainers to the team’s indoor practice facility, which is a stone’s throw from the stadium’s south end zone. At one point, his pads were off and he thought his day was done.

But a fix finally hit, and he sprinted out of the south end zone and began to fervently prowl the Missouri sideline, awaiting his return.

Nobody expected that sight.

Not Missouri’s star wide receiver, Luther Burden III, who said he was sitting with his position group when he first clocked Cook was back.

“I didn't expect him back,” Burden said. “But it was a blessing to see him back out there.”

Not Cook’s blindside blocker, who had spent most of the afternoon attempting to keep Pyne clean.

“Man, he came up to the whole O-line and was like dapping us up,” left tackle Marcus Bryant said. “And (he) was like, ‘We’re not losing this game.’ We were bought in.”

Certainly not defensive end Eddie Kelly Jr., who, like Norwood and Walker, was preparing to head back onto the field when Cook returned.

“I (didn’t) even notice,” Kelly said postgame Saturday. “I was too locked into the game. … But we’re happy that he came back and gave us the extra push that we needed to finish off.”

Cook appears to have suffered a high-ankle sprain. Those frequently take multiple weeks to recover from. Cook returned and led a game-winning drive within a couple of hours.

Still, his status for Mizzou’s next game, which comes against Alabama on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, is up in the air.

More: Kickoff time, TV slot decided for Missouri football at Alabama. Here’s when Tigers play Tide

Drinkwitz said Tuesday that he did not expect the quarterback to participate in their team practice that day, but that he was expecting Cook to be in attendance. There was no way to check, as the team, for the first time this season, closed the entirety of its Tuesday practice to the media.

Cook is expected to appear in Missouri’s midweek availability report, with the first report publishing at approximately 7 p.m. Wednesday.

He managed to return once, and the Memorial Stadium crowd rose and roared. The QB made his teammates do double-takes.

You wouldn’t put it past him to put on his pads in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

“Obviously, the crowd got pumped. We got pumped,” Walker said. … “I mean, it was an unreal experience. I've never seen nothing like that on a football (field) before. Leaving the hospital, coming back to the field? That's crazy to me.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Stories from the Missouri football sideline about Brady Cook's return