Eli Drinkwitz confirms Missouri will play multiple quarterbacks in Week 1

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz has a plan in place for the quarterback position. But he wasn’t going to give anything away during his press conference last Friday.

All he wanted to let the media and fans know is that there will be multiple players under center for its game Thursday versus South Dakota.

“I want to be as forthright on information as we can but I’m never going to put our program in jeopardy or give away competitive advantages,” Drinkwitz said. “I’ve already said that multiple quarterbacks are going to play. How we do that. And what we do there is going to be information that we’ll give and you can either buy a ticket and see it firsthand or you can catch it on the X feed. But I’m not going to preview it early for anybody. It’s called the art of suspense. We’re trying to sell tickets man.”

The Missouri quarterback competition is believed to have three quarterbacks with Brady Cook, Jake Garcia and Sam Horn.

The way Missouri’s schedule plays out is that it can afford to take some risks with a Week 1 game versus an FCS opponent. But the Tigers may like to have some more secure answers with a Week 2 matchup versus last year’s Big 12 champion Kansas State.

“I think the biggest thing is to allow our quarterbacks to play with a rhythm so they’re not feeling like after every play, they could potentially be pulled, or after every series,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s a plan in place to do that. They all have a game plan that they’re going to execute. I think our offensive coordinator and offensive staff have done an excellent job with the plan and know what players are comfortable with and what opportunities we’re going to give them. But I don’t think there’s anybody that’s really nervous like, oh my gosh, when this quarterbacks in, it’s gonna be this. It’s not like we’re gonna run the triple option or Wing T with with one quarterback and spread no huddle with the other one.”

Cook was the starting quarterback for the team last year, playing in all 13 games. He had a 65% completion percentage with 2,724 passing yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Horn was a backup quarterback for the team last season, which was his true freshman season. He played in one game as he took a redshirt for the season.

Garcia is a transfer from Miami. He was a top-10 quarterback in the 2020 recruiting class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

While no quarterback has officially won the job, Cook has been named a captain for the season.

“The reality of it is no quarterback took themselves out of the race,” Drinktwitz said. “All of our guys played so consistent and were smart, disciplined decision makers. Multiple guys were offensive player of the day throwing multiple touchdowns and doing the things that we asked him…It’s not like I could sit there and say, well I like you more than the other one so you’re going to be our guy. It’s like, okay, we’ll carry on the competition and whoever defines it in the game when they’re live is going to give themselves the best opportunity to continue to be our starting quarterback.”