No Timetable: Eliah Drinkwitz updates QB battle
After losing three-year starter Brady Cook, the Missouri Tigers are entering fall camp with a true quarterback competition.
Missouri will spend the next couple of weeks deciding if redshirt junior Sam Horn or redshirt junior Beau Pribula will be the first to take snaps in Week 1’s matchup with Central Arkansas on Aug. 28.
“We have no timetable on deciding at quarterback,” Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “… I don’t plan on waiting to announce because of a perceived advantage.”
Horn has been with the program the past three years and was part of a competition for the starting job in 2023 alongside Cook.
That competition ran into the Tigers’ Week 1 matchup with South Dakota, with Horn playing the second half.
He was expected to get the second half of the Week 2 game against Middle Tennessee. But with the game closer than expected, Drinkwitz left Cook in and the rest is history.
Now, as a redshirt junior coming off a missed year recovering from Tommy John surgery, Horn is once again a true contender for the role.
“Each one of them has their own strengths as a player,” Drinkwitz said. “… but they do have the ability to extend plays with their feet and run the football.”
Pribula joined the Tigers in the winter transfer portal after spending his first three seasons at Penn State.
The redshirt junior never started for the Nittany Lions. But he did play a gadget role the past two seasons and performed well in relief of starter Drew Allar against Wisconsin. Allar went down with an injury and Pribula completed 11-of-13 passes for 98 yards and a score, while leading a 28-13 win.
“We’ll build the offense around what is best for us to score points,” Drinkwitz said.
Drinkwitz added that true freshman Matt Zollers isn’t fully out of the competition. But Horn and Pribula separated themselves in spring camp and through the summer.
The team’s first practice is Monday and the competition will play out across the next couple of weeks.