Cole Cubelic is 'worried' about Missouri's quarterback situation

Missouri is entering an interesting situation in 2023, head coach Eli Drinkwitz‘s fourth year leading the program. Drinkwitz has brought the team to three straight bowl games — the first time since the Tigers joined the SEC — but Missouri hasn’t finished with a winning record during any of those three seasons.

But the team has talent. But Missouri’s talent comes with questions, especially at the quarterback position.

College football analyst Cole Cubelic was the first guest on Andy Staples new podcast on the On3 Network, and the two opened up their conversation about the Tigers and Drinkwitz. Staples mentioned how he feels like Drinkwitz isn’t confident in his offense yet from his discussion with him today.

Cubelic agreed.

“I’m not either,” Cubelic said. “I think with what Blake Baker did last year, it’s easy to be confident in the defense. You have a big-boy SEC defensive tackle. You have a real-deal SEC inside linebacker. Normally you wouldn’t think Missouri would be able to plug and go with those spots. They’ve been able to overcome those losses recently. The back end I think it’s gonna be fine. You lose one of your team leaders at safety but the rest pretty much intact. Then the way Blake calls it, I think is just fantastic. I’m worried about quarterback. Part of that is we’re able to usually generate an opinion coming out of spring, we didn’t really see even what they might have to offer.”

Missouri has a lot of different options in the quarterback room in incumbent starter Brady Cook, Miami transfer Jake Garcia, Juco transfer Dylan Laible and 2022 four-star recruit Sam Horn.

Cook threw for 2,724 passing yards and rushed for 585 more yards during the 2022 season. He had 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions on the year, which was first one as the starting quarterback.

The offense will be led by offensive coordinator Kirby Moore, who was hired from Fresno State in the offseason.

“I hired Kirby Moore, who has a similar offensive vision and philosophy as I do,” Drinkwitz said Monday at SEC Media Days. “Low ego, high output guy who’s got the great understanding of the pass game and play action. He’s an absolute grinder. Loves to watch tape, tremendous teacher.

“Low ego, high-input kind of guy. Look forward to looking with him and the rest of the offensive staff to put our players in position to be successful. I tell him all the time if we can average just one more touchdown a game, we’re going to be really happy at the end of the season. We’re in that constant quest to find one more touchdown.”