Missouri football coach Eliah Drinkwitz turned to philosophy to discuss the Tigers’ quarterback competition.
Going into the offseason, Drinkwitz knew he had to replace three-year starter Brady Cook and he had a few options to do it.
There was returning backup Drew Pyne who led the Tigers to a win against Oklahoma in Cook’s absence last season, or another returning backup in Sam Horn who has been recovering from Tommy John surgery after getting hurt at the start of the 2024 baseball season.
Then Drinkwitz brought in transfer junior Beau Pribula from Penn State and incoming true freshman Matt Zollers.
And going into the spring, Drinkwitz wanted his message on the competition to be very clear.
“I told every quarterback that we would not name a starting quarterback coming out of spring,” Drinkwitz said. “It didn’t feel like it was fair to those guys to put that pressure on them, especially with, you know, Matt and Beau being new. But I also knew that the spring would be important to tell us where the competitionw as by the end of spring and who had kind of emerged as the leaders of that competition.”
Drinkwitz specifically named Zollers as impressing him during camp as an early enrollee coming off a serious injury suffered in high school
But the top two became clear pretty quickly after Drinkwitz was able to begin spring practice in February.
“It was clear to us after probably the first week and a half of spring that the competition is between Beau and Sam,” Drinkwitz said. “And those two guys will be the primary two pushing to be the starting quarterback.”
And that distinction of the competition being down to two players had the consequence of leading to Pyne hitting the transfer portal for the third time in his career as he found a new home at Bowling Green after previously playing at Notre Dame and Arizona State before his year in Columbia.
But Drinkwitz said he will remain thankful for Pyne’s time with the Tigers.
“Drew was an excellent teammate, was an outstanding individual, a guy who embraced his role, exhibited what it meant to have an elite edge for us, brought energy every day, detailed in his work, was gritty when we really needed it and was consistent every single day in his approach,” Drinkwitz said. “I told him when we talked about his situation, it’s gonna be hard to top the last pass you threw being a touchdown to Theo Wease to win the Oklahoma game. … Wish him absolutely the best, it was his desire and dream to really want to play in a more meaningful role and certainly, that’s understandable and that’s what the portal is all about.”
So the Tigers are left with the expected contenders to replace Cook.
The former four-star recruit who has been behind Cook for the past three seasons and the incoming junior who was mainly used as a gadget runner in specialty packages at Penn State. Neither of whom have started a football game in years.
But Drinkwitz isn’t worried about the moment being too big for either.
“What’s the old saying, when the student’s ready, the teacher will appear,” Drinkwitz said. “That’s kind of how (it is with) the quarterback position, the team is going to know who the starting quarterback is when everybody’s following him. … Both played in a lot of ball games. It’s not going to be too big of a moment, Sam is going to get up on a mound and pitch with every baseball scout from the major leagues out there watching, so the moment, to me, it’s about can they learn from the mistakes they’ve made?”
And through his first opportunity to see the pair compete for the starting role, Drinkwitz said he has been happy with the ability to learn from those mistakes.
He said the run-heavy production from Pribula hasn’t been all the transfer has shown so far.
“Beau was every bit what we expected,” Drinkwitz said. “And in fact, I think he was a better passer than anticipated. I remember practice No. 3, he went out there and lit the defense up … in a team period and I think he had four touchdowns on that day and was named offensive player of the day.”
But Horn didn’t let that day go unanswered.
“The very next practice, Sam came back and battled back and was named offensive player of the day, I think he had three touchdowns,” Drinkwitz said.
And as the Tigers move into the slower summer portion of workouts and into fall camp, the competition will continue until one of the two step up and claim the job as their own. But until then, Drinkwitz is just enjoying the show.
“It was awesome to watch the back and forth of those guys,” Drinkwitz said. “I knew Beau would have a little bit of a, you know, still learning the offense, but I was impressed with how much he’s already understanding it, doing it, grabbing a hold of it. Excellent leader, very dynamic with his feet. Sound, solid decision maker. And so, very excited about those two guys continuing to lead. And I told them, from this point on, everything’s judged. How they approach walkthroughs, how they approach the team and the team meetings, how they handle themselves in workouts, all of it is going to help determine who becomes the next starting quarterback.”
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