Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz gives update on Connor Bazelak injury, QB situation
The status of Missouri Tigers starting quarterback Connor Bazelak is unclear following Saturday’s win over Vanderbilt.
Bazelak exited the game with an injury with 6 minutes, 16 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Following the 37-28 victory, Missouri head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said he believes Bazelak, a sophomore, suffered a soft-tissue injury, but everything is still being evaluated.
“I don’t know exactly,” Drinkwitz said.
Bazelak was stumbling and holding his hip before a third down try after taking a hit on the previous play, when he fell to the ground with 6:16 left. He was attended to by trainers and managed to walk off the field on his own.
Drinkwitz put in true freshman Tyler Macon over Brady Cook once Bazelak went down. Macon rushed for 6 yards on third-and-14, setting up kicker Harrison Mevis for a 52-yard field goal.
“We’d been practicing [Macon] in some four-minute offense stuff,” Drinkwitz said “and on that down and distance we were just, you know, I didn’t didn’t want to try to force the ball, was trying just to make it into a manageable field goal range.
“And that was a play that [Macon] had been practicing and executed well, so that’s what we went with. But Brady’s right there too, if it had been a different situation, I probably would have went with Brady, but that was the situation we knew [Macon] was ready to execute.”
Macon also took the snaps under center over Brady on the final drive of the game. Following a 73-yard rush from Tyler Badie, Macon ran 2 yards into the end zone.
“At the end of the game right there, felt like we were going to need some quarterback runs potentially,” Drinkwitz said. “For him to pull it on that last zone read for a touchdown was pretty cool.”
As for next weekend against No. 1 Georgia, Drinkwitz didn’t have an answer as to who will start at quarterback if Bazelak is unavailable.
“I got no idea,” Drinkwitz said. “I’m gonna sip on my Diet Coke and go trick-or-treating and then we’ll figure it out at practice Tuesday, Wednesday.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 7:04 PM.
