Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
1) When last you read these thoughts, Missouri had not taken a quarterback out of the transfer portal. That changed on Friday when former Miami signal caller Jake Garcia committed to Mizzou. Garcia's addition is interesting on a few levels. First, let's just talk about what it means for the QB competition. Garcia and Sam Horn will split reps in spring football (which is probably only about six weeks away). Then Gabarri Johnson will hit campus in June. And at some point before fall camp (I don't know exactly when) Brady Cook should be healthy. It's not realistic to think Johnson is a major part of the conversation this year. So it's really a three-way competition between Garcia, Cook and Horn. There are arguments to be made that all three could have an edge:
Cook--Experience. And if nothing else, Eli Drinkwitz has shown he likes to lean on experience
Horn--He's been the future for a couple years now. He's always been the one that was supposed to be the centerpiece of Drinkwitz's rebuild
Garcia--He's the new guy. You don't bring in transfers for no reason. And he was the highest-rated of the three out of high school.I don't have a clue who will win the job. I just hope we're allowed to see some of spring football to have the first clue what any of them look like.
2) At least one of the three almost certainly won't be on Missouri's roster next season. That's saying nothing bad about any of them and not trying to push any of them out the door. But quarterback is the only position where only one guy plays (and we've learned over the last couple of years, it's going to take something monumental for more than one guy to play). All three want to start. All three can be starters in college (say what you want, but Cook was a middle of the road type SEC starter; he can be a starter for a college football team and even some Power Five teams).
If Cook wins the job: Is Horn willing to wait another year? The interesting thing is Cook even has a year after THIS one. He was only a redshirt sophomore this season.If Horn wins the job: Would Cook be willing to stick around to be the backup? Most guys who have already been a starter and lost their job wouldn't be.
If Horn wins the job, it pretty much means Cook isn't going to start again in his career here barring injury. This is the only scenario where you would think about Garcia leaving because Horn is younger than him, so if Horn's the starter, it might mean Garcia never would be. But he's already transferred once, he'd have to get a waiver to do so again and the NCAA has said it's going to be stingier with waivers. If he wanted to transfer again, Garcia might have to drop down a level.
If Garcia wins the job: Could Missouri lose Cook AND Horn? Same scenario applies for Cook here, but with Horn, this is now a guy who is only one year ahead of him rather than two. If Garcia's your starter, Horn's probably looking at waiting until year four to take over. That seems...doubtful to me.
3) No new players can enter the transfer portal now until May 1, except for those who have already graduated.
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