Things are already tough for Eli Drinkwitz’s Missouri Tigers. Courtesy? Drinkwitz’s boys are part of the SEC conference. As the head coach shared, “At the end of the day, man, the SEC’s rigor is its week-in and week-out. Every week, you’re going against somebody getting drafted, and that’s not the case in other leagues.” 

Coming from a coach who led the Tigers to a combined 21-5 record over the past two seasons, it’s indeed a big concern. But what’s robbing Drinkwitz of sleep right now is, he has yet to find the best fit candidate to pass on his QB1 torch between Beau Pribula and Sam Horn. While Tigers fans were expecting the head coach to name the starting quarterback before they hit the gridiron this season, it turns out that they might need more patience.

On August 20, ESPN senior writer, Chris Low, tweeted, “Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz has told the team he plans to play both Beau Pribula and Sam Horn at QB in the opener against Central Arkansas, sources tell ESPN, and Drinkwitz wants the competition to continue from there so that he can evaluate both in game action.” Drinkwitz is now running with a heavy burden. After all, he will have to pick between Pribula and Horn to place on the driver’s wheel. But who cares?

Drinkwitz is the head coach; he got to make the call, and he better make no blunder by finalizing the name in a hurry. On August 19, ABC17news’ Nathalie Jones tweeted, “Eli Drinkwitz feels very locked in to what he’s going to do (as far as starters) at each position, other than QB He tells me that Beau Pribula and Sam Horn’s effort & play in #Mizzou fall camp will make that a difficult decision. He says he’ll come up with a plan/decision in 24 hours.” For so long, Drinkwitz and the Tigers were under the assumption that the fall camp would be enough to differentiate between his two options. 

But poor Drinkwitz! During the fall camp, both Pribula and Horn did not leave any stone unturned. More than this, “they both essentially looked pretty much the exact same, had the same struggles, and stuff like that.” Now, what’s the only option left for Drinkwitz? To play both of them in the Tigers’ season opener against Central Arkansas, which shouldn’t present much of a challenge. But in any way, Drinkwitz is not that lucky to go tension-free.

On one hand, he has Horn, who has not completed a pass since 2023. That’s mainly because of his UCL surgery. On the other hand, Pribula racked up 571 yards and 10 touchdowns during his two-year stint at Penn State, coming off with a 66.1% completion rate. Looks like the pressure is getting too much for Drinkwitz to handle.

Insomnia hits Eli Drinkwitz over the looming quarterback battle

Initially, Wednesday, August 20, was supposed to be the Decision Day to fix the looming quarterback dilemma. But now that Drinkwitz has pushed it further, what’s going through him? In an interview, the head coach shared, “(I) wish it was easy and that there would be something definite that you could point at and say, ‘Hey this was the reason why.’”

He added, “But that’s not gonna be the case. We’ll figure it out from there. That’s what they pay me to do: They pay me to make tough decisions.” Among Pribula and Horn, Drinkwitz must be more concerned about the Penn State transfer. After all, the Missouri head coach paid $1.5 million to swap Pribula from James Franklin’s squad. But for him, a big concern looms. We have seen how Drinkwitz does not put much focus on who got the better stats. 

To him, the equation is pretty simple. Drinkwitz runs a quarterback quality check based on two criteria. First, quarterbacks who can get us in the end zone. Second, consistent decision-making. He is okay with the quarterbacks making mistakes. But what sets them apart is how often the mistakes are repeated. While the hype is all about Pribula, Mizzou insider Kylee Hansen addressed the elephant in the room. 

On the TexAgs podcast, she asked, “They both essentially looked pretty much the exact same, had the same struggles, and stuff like that. But one of the biggest questions with Beau is, can he pass?” After all, the ceiling for Beau Pribula is quite high in Eli Drinkwitz’s squad. Thanks to the former quarterback Brady Cook. Pribula walks into the Mizzou squad after logging 38 passing attempts across 13 games, completing 26 of them, which brings his completion percentage to 74.3%. For now, Tigers fans are stuck playing the waiting game until Drinkwitz crowns a QB1.