Mizzou Tigers haven’t named a starting QB. Here’s how Connor Bazelak, Brady Cook feel
There is uncertainty about who will start at quarterback for Missouri against Florida this Saturday after head coach Eliah Drinwkitz took out starter Connor Bazelak and replaced him with redshirt freshman Brady Cook in the fourth quarter of last week’s game.
Bazelak had just thrown his second interception and Drinkwitz critiqued his decision making following the Tigers’ 31-28 win over South Carolina. Drinkwitz said the move to Cook was made with a quarterback run play in mind, but he also mentioned the turnover. And on Tuesday, the head coach wouldn’t name a QB1.
Still, Bazelak seemed confident in his role as the Tigers’ starter when he talked to the media on Wednesday.
“I’m good,” Bazelak said. “Shoot 5-5, two games left. The main goal is just get another win, get to a bowl game. But yeah, I’m doing fine.”
The redshirt sophomore simply responded “no” when asked if there was any difference this week in feeling like this was his team and if his approach has changed.
But there have been concerns about the 10 interceptions Bazelak has thrown this season, eight of which have come in the five SEC games he’s appeared in. Limiting turnovers was a topic mentioned quite frequently by Drinkwitz earlier in the week.
“I think some of them are just trying to press and force the ball, move the ball down the field,” Bazelak said when asked about the interceptions. “I like throwing the ball down the field and pushing the ball, so sometimes I like to do it a little too much and get myself in trouble.”
Both Bazelak and Cook mentioned that Mizzou entered last Saturday’s game with some quarterback run plays installed for the redshirt freshman. Cook said he wasn’t surprised that he was subbed into the game because of that.
“We all knew that Connor was still not 100% healthy,” Cook said on Wednesday. “So if we needed the quarterback run, and we had a couple plays installed that I would go out for if we needed that. So yeah, that was in the plan.”
Added Bazelak: “[Drinkwitz] put him in because he needed someone to run and I wasn’t very mobile, I wasn’t gonna be able to do the things that Brady could do obviously running last week. So it was good.”
Regarding his injury status, Bazelak said he is healthy enough to play but is still a bit limited mobility wise.
Both quarterbacks also said nothing changes about their preparation this week and that there is no animosity between them, even with no starter named publicly.
“There’s no difference. We’ve been competing for a while,” Cook said. “We compete and make each other better and we’ve grown close from that. And so, that’s not going to change this week just because the competition may be a little bit more intense, that’s not going to change.”
Though it remains to be seen which, one of the two will be leading the Tigers when they take on Florida at 3 p.m. Saturday on Faurot Field.
