Drinkwitz shares update on Missouri Tigers’ QB competition ahead of training camp

The Missouri Tigers football team will see a handful of position battles play out during preseason camp, including at left tackle and cornerback.

But the competition garnering the most outside attention lies at the quarterback position, where Penn State transfer Beau Pribula and redshirt junior Sam Horn appear to be the leading contenders for the starting job.

MU coach Eli Drinkwitz, however, said observers should not overlook a true freshman in the race.

“I don’t necessarily think Matt (Zollers) out of it just yet,” Drinkwitz said Sunday. “He’s going to have to really come in and come on in fall camp. But that’s not been unheard of.”

The coach said there’s no timetable guiding when the decision will be made. Early on, Pribula and Horn — who on Sunday signed with the L.A. Dodgers for a reported $497,500 as a 17-round MLB Draft pick (but intends to play for MU this fall) — will “get the lion’s share” of the practice reps, Drinkwitz said.

“When the quarterback’s ready, he’ll show himself to the team. I think we’ll all know who it is,” Drinkwitz said. “And when that is, we’ll tell you. I don’t plan on waiting to announce because of a perceived advantage. Neither one of them played that much football.

“If it’s undecided, then we’ll let them go into games and play as long as they need to.”

Most of Drinkwitz’s years at Missouri have featured a quarterback competition during fall camp, as Brady Cook entering last season as the surefire starter was a rarity in recent memory.

Drinkwitz mentioned how this year’s competition is similar to the one before the 2020 season, which featured a battle between then-redshirt junior transfer Shawn Robinson and then-redshirt freshman Connor Bazelak. Robinson started the Tigers’ first two games, but Bazelak was named the new starter ahead of the third contest.

It’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, though. Before transferring to Mizzou in early 2019, Robinson had started seven games at quarterback for TCU the previous fall, throwing for 1,334 yards, nine touchdowns and eight interceptions before going down with a shoulder injury that ended his season.

This year’s quarterbacks have even less experience.

While Pribula has some production under his belt — 94 rush attempts and 56 pass attempts with the Nittany Lions — he never started a game. Horn has seen the field far less, attempting a mere eight passes for the Tigers across the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

“Without these guys having as much experience on tape, we’re going to have to throw them in a lot of different scenarios and situations and see who comes out on top,” Drinkwitz said.

On paper, Pribula has the advantage in that regard.

When Penn State starting quarterback Drew Allar went down with a lower-body injury in the first half of the Nittany Lions’ game against Wisconsin last season, Pribula filled in for the rest of the game. With Penn State trailing at halftime, Pribula helped lead a 28-13 comeback win, completing 11 of 13 passes and gaining 126 total yards — 98 through the air and 28 on the ground.

In the 2023 Peach Bowl against Ole Miss, Pribula gained 12 yards on an option keeper before throwing a 48-yard touchdown pass to Nicholas Singleton late in the second quarter.

One thing Pribula didn’t do much of last year, however, was throw deep.

Pro Football Focus credits him with just two passes of over 20 air yards, with one of them being the touchdown to Singleton. Horn has also thrown just one pass of over 20 air yards, which was a 31-yard completion to Mekhi Miller against South Dakota in 2023.

It’s an area Mizzou in which struggled last season: After Brady Cook went 29-for-62 on passes of 20 or more air yards in 2023, he was just 16 of 49 in the 2024 campaign.

But when asked about how Mizzou can improve its downfield passing, Drinkwitz didn’t seem keen on comparing Cook to any of this year’s crop of QBs, who either specialize in extending plays with their legs, lack experience or both.

“I don’t necessarily know that fixing last year’s issues are going to play into this year because the quarterbacks are a lot different,” Drinkwitz said.

What is clear are the type of characteristics Drinkwitz expects out of the quarterbacks. He outlined five requirements to play the position at Mizzou: toughness, preparation, decision-making, accuracy and leadership. He was also blunt with them in other ways.

“I told them straight up, ‘One bad day is not going to decide the competition, but two might. There’s going to have to be a consistency of your approach and, if you’ve had bad days, then that may put you in a position where you’re behind the 8-ball,’” Drinkwitz said.

Like many other schools in previous years, the quarterback battle could define Mizzou football’s 2025 season. Regarding a question about what keeps him up at night, he said that it’s telling someone that they won’t be the starting quarterback.

But, before he said that, he entailed a more positive outlook on the battle, even mentioning a couple of former superstar quarterbacks he coached at NC State and Boise State that, according to Drinkwitz, don’t quite stack up to Mizzou’s 2025 group in one aspect.

“I hope this doesn’t offend Ryan Finley or Brett Rypien, but this is the most talented quarterback group I’ve ever been in,” Drinkwitz said. “I’m really, really excited about the competition.”

Copyright 2025 Columbia Missourian.