Missouri QB battle: Eli Drinkwitz sets definitive timeline to name starter

The Missouri Tigers quarterback competition is an ongoing battle. Now, that battle has extended into the week leading up to the start of the regular season and will seemingly go into the regular season.

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz recently met with the media. There, he praised both quarterbacks, Beau Pribula and Sam Horn. He also shared that the timeline for naming a starter was going to come following their Week 1 game on Thursday night.

“I felt like both quarterbacks played really well since the spring,” Eli Drinkwitz said. “I think they both established the leadership with the team as evidenced by both being voted captains. It just didn’t feel like I could make a decision without a little bit more information, and I didn’t want to rush the decision.”

Beau Pribula came to Missouri this offseason. That had been a highly publicized transfer, due to his leaving Penn State amid the College Football Playoff, where he was the backup. At the time, he reportedly also received a $1.5 million NIL deal from Missouri. That came after a career where he completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 424 yards and nine touchdowns to one interception. He also rushed for 571 yards and 10 touchdowns.

For his part, Sam Horn has played in four games at Missouri in the last two seasons. In that very limited time, he’s completed 37.5 percent of his passes for 54 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also has nine rushing yards.

I think the decision of the starting quarterback, for me personally, is something that I’m going to have a lot of conviction about. I felt like both of those guys, like I said, played winning football throughout camp,” Drinkwitz said. “And I had a lot of confidence that both can execute at a high level. So, really, the only other thing to measure was to put them in live competition. Nowadays, I’m never going to do that in practice, just because the nature of college football now on the investments that we have in these positions. So, the ability to play live football on Thursday night, the ability to watch these guys prepare, to see how they handle the preparation, I felt life was the best course of action, and that decision, I’ve done that before, worked out pretty good.”

Missouri is set to open the season on Thursday, August 28th, against Central Arkansas. It’s a game where both quarterbacks are going to play, and based on that play, one or the other is going to take over the starting job.

When asked about what he’s looking to say, Drinkwitz replied, “I don’t feel the need to share that with anybody.” Instead, he wants to see them playing live snaps of football. At the same time, he also gave a firm “no” when asked if there was a chance the competition would go into Week 2.