Missouri Tigers QB hits transfer portal. He was backup for Brady Cook in 2024
Missouri Tigers quarterback Drew Pyne has entered the NCAA transfer portal, according to multiple media reports, including from On3.
Pyne, a graduate student, will head to his fourth school after one year in Columbia.
Pyne joined Mizzou as the backup to longtime Tigers QB Brady Cook and appeared in six games with two starts (due to a Cook injury). Most notably, Pyne led the Tigers in their wild fourth-quarter comeback win over Oklahoma, with Zion Young’s scoop-and-score fumble return with 22 seconds left giving Mizzou the win.
The performance came just one week after Pyne threw three interceptions and posted just 42 passing yards in the Tigers’ 34-0 loss at Alabama.
“I just can’t say how proud I am of Drew Pyne,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said following the Oklahoma win. “I feel like I’m up here all the time having to defend my quarterback, which is not great. But for all the crap that he’s taken on Twitter and X, and to come out here and ignore the noise … he goes out there and delivers in the (biggest) moments in the fourth quarter after fans have been booing. He just goes out there and delivers.”
Pyne leaves Columbia with 391 passing yards as a Tiger and three touchdowns.
This spring, Pyne was expected to be part of a three-man competition for the starting job, with Sam Horn’s return from Tommy John surgery and Penn State transfer Beau Pribula’s arrival in Columbia.
The former four-star recruit from New Canaan, Connecticut, started his career at Notre Dame and earned the starting nod in 2022 after the original starting QB, Tyler Buchner, suffered a regular-season-ending injury in the second game of the season.
Pyne posted an 8-2 record as a starter for the Fighting Irish, but entered the transfer portal at the conclusion of the season and did not participate in Notre Dame’s Gator Bowl win that season.
He transferred to Arizona State for the 2023 season but only appeared in two games before returning to Notre Dame to finish his degree and ultimately transfer to Mizzou for his MBA upon graduation.
