The second Missouri football season of the Eli Drinkwitz era has come and gone. The Tigers started the 2021 campaign slow, losing early swing games at Kentucky and Boston College and getting blown out by Tennessee, but then rallied late to win six games and attain bowl eligibility. After falling to Army on the final play of the Armed Forces Bowl, Mizzou finished the season 6-7.
Now, it's time to take stock of the roster. Missouri, like virtually every other team, has already seen several players enter the transfer portal since the season ended. More attrition is expected. In this series, we'll go position by position to break down which players are expected to return and where the team could stand to add a difference-maker. We start, of course, with the quarterbacks.
2021 Recap
Entering the 2021 season, Connor Bazelak was Missouri's unquestioned starter behind center. The third-year player had taken over the quarterback spot after two games in 2020 and performed well, earning SEC co-freshman of the year honors. Fans hoped for another step forward from Bazelak after a full offseason working with Drinkwitz.
Bazelak got off to a solid start to the season. During Missouri's first three games, he averaged 299 yards per game while throwing nine touchdowns compared to one interception. However, whether it was due to injury or error or both, Bazelak regressed as the season went on. He threw two first-quarter interceptions in each of Missouri's losses to Tennessee or Texas A&M. He got benched for backup Brady Cook late in Missouri's win over South Carolina, then again late in the loss to Arkansas that ended the regular season. The loss in Fayetteville represented the low point of Bazelak's season — and his final start in a Missouri uniform. Bazelak completed just 10 of 26 passes for 65 yards and an interception. Cook took over as the starter for the Armed Forces Bowl and Bazelak entered the transfer portal last week.
Cook played well in his limited opportunities. The St. Louis native completed 27 of 34 passes for 238 yards and a touchdown against Army and also ran for 53 yards and a score. He also completed 14 of 19 passes in Missouri's loss to Georgia, a game Bazelak didn't play due to injury. True freshman Tyler Macon got the start against Athens. He completed six of 13 passes for 74 yards against the Bulldogs.
2022 Outlook
Departing: Connor Bazelak
Returning: Brady Cook, Tyler Macon
With Bazelak out of the picture, Missouri's quarterback room will have combined to make two career starts at the college level, one each by Cook and Macon. Macon flashed the ability that made him a four-star recruit this season, hitting JJ Hester for a 60-yard touchdown on his first college pass (albeit against Southeast Missouri) and rushing for a touchdown against Vanderbilt. However, he struggled a bit with accuracy against Georgia. This season represented Macon's first game experience since 2019, as he missed his senior season of high school during COVID-19, so there's hope that he could take a significant step forward during the offseason. It would likely take that to unseat Cook after his solid performance in the bowl game. On the season, Cook completed 45 of 57 passes for 341 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 92 yards and a score.
Incoming: Sam Horn
There will almost certainly be a third competitor for the starting spot next fall. Drinkwitz has glowed about Horn since he committed to the Tigers last February. Horn, ranked the No. 5 quarterback prospect in the country, led his Collins Hill high school team to an undefeated state championship season in Georgia's Class 7A, only losing a showcase game after the season against Washington power Graham-Kapowsin. There is a lot of optimism about the possibility of Horn being Missouri's quarterback of the future, but it might be a lot to ask for him to take over the starting job as a true freshman. Horn won't arrive on Missouri's campus until June because he wants to play his high school baseball season. Horn also plans to play baseball in college, and there's a chance he might get drafted by an MLB team this spring.
Projected Starter: TBD
The defining question of this offseason — and perhaps of Drinkwitz's tenure at Missouri — will be what he decides to do at quarterback. As a result, we don't expect a decision to be rushed. Look for this to be a true three-way competition until the latter half of fall camp. And following Bazelak's departure, it's not impossible that the staff could look to add another player to the mix via the transfer portal, although it would likely have to be a can't-miss player with only one or two seasons of eligibility remaining.
Spring Practice storyline to watch: Does either Macon or Cook emerge from the spring markedly ahead of the other? The competition for next year's starting spot will begin with the arrival of spring practices. Cook would certainly seem to have a bit of a head start in the quarterback competition because of his extra year in Drinkwitz's system and his performance in the Armed Forces Bowl, but we wouldn't expect the staff to name him as the starter early in the offseason like it did last year with Bazelak.
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