Beau Pribula injury update: Eli Drinkwitz provides full medical diagnosis for Missouri quarterback

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz revealed the medical diagnosis for quarterback Beau Pribula, who suffered a gruesome injury in the second half of a loss at Vanderbilt. It’s not as bad as initially feared.

Pribula’s legs were twisted under him on a tackle near the goal line. He immediately needed medical assistance, and he was ultimately carted off the field, then placed into a wheelchair.

“Beau Pribula has a non-fractured, dislocated ankle, which only occurs in about 1% of ankle injuries,” Drinkwitz said on Wednesday on an SEC teleconference call. “It’s considered a taekwondo type injury. So his path to recovery is TBD, to be determined. We’re doing everything we can. There is no surgery and there is no broken bones, but there was a dislocation that had to be corrected.

“We’re working toward recovery then. Don’t know what his timeline for recovery would be.”

Beau Pribula has been the team’s starting quarterback since early in the season, following an injury to Sam Horn, who competed for the job throughout fall camp. He has been quite good.

Pribula has thrown for 1,685 yards and 11 touchdowns, against seven interceptions. He had also run for 220 yards and five scores.

Up next with Beau Pribula out is backup Matt Zollers. He was the one who entered the Vanderbilt game after Pribula left on Saturday.

Drinkwitz broke down the process of getting him ready to play. Not a whole lot changes.

“We just get him the work in practice that he needs,” Drinkwitz said. “I think one of the best things we do is develop our players in our program, whether we’re talking about Monday Night Football, whether we’re talking about Free Spot throughout fall camp, whether we’re talking about making sure he’s getting reps during the practice week. I think that’s why he performed as well as he did. So this week it’ll be continuing to do that with him and Brett Brown.”

With Beau Pribula sidelined for much of the second half, Drinkwitz had a chance to evaluate Zollers a bit in live game action. He was encouraged.

So far this season, Zollers is 20-of-29 passing for 213 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He will get a lot more work down the stretch.

“Yeah obviously pretty disappointed in the outcome of the Vanderbilt game,” Drinkwitz said. “All three phases had opportunities in the third quarter to assert ourselves, and we didn’t. That’s on me. I’ve got to do a better job getting our team to seize the moment and whether that’s through coaching decisions or whatever, we’ve just got to be better there.

“I thought Matt did an excellent job in the game. Outside of the one turnover, which ultimately is on me for putting him in that situation, he did everything he could. Gave us a chance, last throw hits the goal line. It was I don’t know how many inches short of the goal line. So played confident, played well and continued to work. Again, like I said one of the best things we do in our program is it’s a developmental program and get people opportunities to improve. And he’s done an excellent job in working those reps. We’ll see those dividends, whether it’s now or in the future, we’ll see the dividends of the seeds that we’ve sown in the reps.”