‘I ain’t announcing it’: Don’t expect to know anytime soon who wins Mizzou’s QB battle
Missouri Tigers fans want to know the answer to one burning question: Who’s going to start at quarterback?
Don’t expect to find out anytime soon.
“I ain’t announcing it,” MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz said of the quarterback battle Tuesday. “Don’t worry about it week one. We ain’t telling nobody. Everybody is going to have to guess, and it’s going to be used as an advantage for us. There you go. That’s the announcement today.”
Drinkwitz, who’s guiding the Tigers into his first preseason camp as head coach since his December hire, has a decision on his hands between redshirt juniors Shawn Robinson and Taylor Powell, along with redshirt freshman Connor Bazelak.
While there are plenty of issues to be sorted out up and down the roster — a lot of them on offense — who will line up under center Sept. 26 leads the pack.
Drinkwitz, who coached last season at Appalachian State, said it’s the first time he’s employed a wait-and-see strategy in hopes of “creating a workload for somebody.”
Mizzou faces Alabama in its season opener. Drinkwitz said Tide coach Nick Saban and his assistants will need to pore over film of Washington, TCU, N.C. State, Alabama-Birmingham and Appalachian State to get a semblance of who the Tigers will feature once the season starts. Perhaps they’ll break down MU game film from 2019, a season in which Powell and Bazelak played limited snaps.
“Poor GAs and QCs,” said Drinkwitz, who started his collegiate coaching career with Auburn as one of those quality control coaches.
While it’s the first time he’s resolved to keep everyone guessing, this isn’t the first time Drinkwitz has had a quarterback battle during preseason camp. He oversaw one as the offensive coordinator at Arkansas State in 2013, and did so again in 2015 as Boise State’s offensive coordinator. In 2016 and 2017, when Drinkwitz was at N.C. State, quarterback Ryan Finley battled for the starting gig and earned it both seasons.
“It doesn’t make me nervous,” Drinkwitz said. “Normally in this situation, we normally had a spring to see them. (Monday), them throwing seven-on-seven, that’s the first time I’ve seen them throw seven-on-seven since the third day of spring practice in March. That makes a little bit more intriguing or a little bit more difficult.”
The winner of this summer’s QB showdown at MU will help shape the style of Drinkwitz’s first Tigers offense. When Drinkwitz was at Appalachian State, his offense played a run-first style because he had a future NFL running back and a mobile quarterback. Drinkwitz’s time with the Wolfpack was the opposite, with the coach utilizing Finley’s pro-style arm in a pass-first attack.
The Tigers’ hopefuls feature their own contrast in styles. Robinson, the graduate transfer from TCU and perhaps the eventual starter, is mobile. Powell and Bazelak are passers who won’t typically venture out of the pocket very often.
Drinkwitz said he’s going to take his time picking a No. 1 QB, as he will installing his offense. Considering the fact that there are no senior quarterbacks on this year’s MU roster, if the winner excels in 2020 he could run it right back in 2021.
“All of them are good quarterbacks,” MU running back Larry Rountree III said. “I think the job is going to be determined on who’s more consistent, who can play under pressure. That’s for all of us. ... I’m pretty sure down the road, I don’t make the decision, but I would say right now it’s teeth and teeth right now.”