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Transcript

Eli ±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýGood morning, all, and welcome to this week's Mizzou chat. We're just two days away from the return of the Border War. I took a long walk around the MU campus this morning to see how prep for the game is coming along... crews are building the SEC Nation set on one of the quads, and the K on one sign was crossed out with tape. Seems to me those are signs of preparedness. Now for your questions!

Tom O: Just have to comment on last week game when I saw Horn would start the second half I felt the so called competition for starting quarterback was rigged based on the prior Cook/ Horn so called competition. But Horn unfortunate injury put that to rest. I would point out Cousin Shane has Bo ranked the number 7 quarterback in the SEC after the first games were played.Hope he can stathere or improve. I was more disappointed in our kicker injury than Horn from an importance standpoint. Your thoughts?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýYeah, the decision that Horn would've played the second half sealed it for me. That's just not a competition against an opponent like Central Arkansas. I see some other questions in the queue about it, so we'll discuss that decision, but the point is largely moot given the injury.

If Pribula can play like the 7th best quarterback in the SEC, Mizzou will be in great shape. This team isn't built to need an upper tier QB — and it would be unfair to expect him to be that. If he can be in the upper half of SEC QBs, though, that's a big plus. 

You're right to view Blake Craig's season-ending injury as more of a blow to MU than Horn's. For one, Drinkwitz hasn't ruled out Horn for the season. Don't take that to mean he'll be playing a ton in November or anything like that, but that's the official word out of the program. But regardless, the team that attempted the most field goals of any FBS program last season losing its kicker is a big deal — and bigger than losing its backup quarterback. Maybe Robert Meyer is a great kicker. Maybe he's serviceable. Maybe he's not. Whichever it is will shape how the Mizzou offense can operate for the rest (really, all) of this season.

¸é³Ü²õ²õ:ÌýGood morning, Eli. I assume Matt Zollers is now the back up quarterback. What are his strengths. Mobility? Arm?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýYes, Zollers is now the backup quarterback for Mizzou. His biggest strength is his arm. He's thrown 60-yard passes before, so he can absolutely uncork one when needed. What isn't clear — because high school tape means nothing compared to playing SEC defenses and we haven't seen him do that yet — is the accuracy, ability to go through reads or how his mobility looks against this league's defenders. So really, he's an unknown.

´³´Ç³ó²Ô³¢:ÌýGood morning Eli-Too early for you to share your Saturday keys to a MU win? Mine are the two; 1.) Containing the KU QB and keeping him that pocket versus his explosive attributes outside and his ability to make plays; and 2.) The play of our Left side of the O-Line. Can we avoid blind side pressure and allow Beau to get set and make positive yard plays? Pretty simple or am I too simple?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýSeems astute to me. I'd expand on No. 1 to include disciplined coverage from the MU secondary when Daniels gets outside of the pocket — which he will, no matter how much containment is a point of emphasis. I discovered an incredibly telling stat yesterday that I put in my story about what it'll take for Mizzou to stop Daniels: Of the 14 passing touchdowns the Tigers allowed last season (not very many!), 10 came from three games: Boston College, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. The three quarterbacks in those games? Thomas Castellanos, Diego Pavia and LaNorris Sellers — all three mobile quarterbacks. That they burned MU with their arms and not their legs shows where the Tigers' weakness was: coverage breaking down once DBs became focused on the movement of the quarterback, not the receivers working themselves open. 

As Drinkwitz mentioned in his Tuesday presser, Daniels is plenty capable of passing the ball to open receivers. So, silly and simple as it sounds, not gifting him windows to throw when he bounces out of the pocket feels like the key. 

And to your second point, the offensive line will need to be better than it was against Central Arkansas. Pribula took too many hits for an opponent of that caliber. KU's pass rush will be much better. It's not just for this game but for having him healthy all season. That left side needs to come together quickly.

¶Ù°ä³Ò:ÌýEli: Give me your best theory as to why Drink has now twice held a fake QB "competition." It's obvious that Pribula was the guy based on the plan to give him the whole first half, which, barring catastrophe, would have ensured that Horn would get maybe a series or two with first teamers and license to throw. After that, it would be handoffs. So, not a fair fight. It's fine the Beau is ED's guy. He looked great, but why all of this nonsense again?

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýBeats me. Truly. Maybe it was to make Kansas have to prepare for both. Maybe Drinkwitz just wanted Pribula to "win" it in a game. I really can't think of a great reason to extend the charade. I think it hurt Cook's standing with the fan base more than it helped him in '23. That probably won't be true this season, but that's more because of the injury than anything else. 

I guess this is one of those things that separates coach psyche from beat writer psyche. I understand the merits of the competition, and Horn was good enough to deserve a shot. It was reasonably close for a little while. When I watched the scrimmage about halfway through fall camp, I came away thinking that it would be Pribula's job but that I understood why Horn was still in the mix. 60-40 in Pribula's favor was as close as I ever thought it was. 

Whenever the next QB battle is, fans probably won't buy into it or believe it. Can you blame them? Maybe this turns into the coach who cried QB competition. It's a gamble that it works out and produces wins. Pribula's performance against Central Arkansas was a positive first step toward that, but it was UCA. And it's not like there's any other option besides him now. Aside from the injury, it was set up for a needlessly weird end to the battle.

¶Ù°ä³Ò:ÌýI agree that the fake competition hurt Cook vis a vis the fans, but it's seems really disrespectful to Horn to have done this twice to him. On a different note, the thing that convinced me that Pribula is legit was his accuracy on those out patterns. To me, accuracy is more important than arm strength (within reason). Those were tough throws no matter the competition, and he put the ball exactly where it needed to be multiple times.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýOne of the things Kirby Moore praised with Pribula when I talked to him before the start of camp was his accuracy on the intermediate throws — those 10 to 20-yarders. That definitely showed up against UCA. The deep passes to Johnson showed Pribula can air it out every once in a while. Effective or not, that's just never going to appear more than a few times a game. Being able to hit crossers and outs that are still downfield but in a more reasonable range is a much more sustainable bread and butter for an offense. Certainly an encouraging start in that realm. 

²Ñ±«³Ò°¿³¢¶Ù:Ìýwas very impressed with Josiah Trotter and it seems to me he might be the perfect player to set as a spy to contain Daniels. That requires that the rest of the defensive backfield will have to cover the Kansas receiving corp. I think Trotter may be the next great linebacker from Mizzou, a position that has the same history as the DE's. Thanks for your solid coverage on Missouri sports.

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýTrotter absolutely has that potential, and the linebacker room is just as deep as the D-ends are this season. I'll add to your point by saying Khalil Jacobs could also be a really important cog in defending Daniels. Jacobs can move so well that I see usage for him both as a blitzer and as someone who's a "spy" or just tasked with keeping an eye on Daniels.

´³´Ç³ó²Ô³¢:ÌýHow loud can the Fans get Saturday? Let's show the SEC Network we were worth their trip!

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI suspect quite loud. I'm excited just to wander around for a bit before heading up to the press box to see this fanbase at its peak. 

¶Ù°ä³Ò:ÌýAs many have noted, the one worrisome part of the UCA game was the line play, specifically pass blocking on the left side. So, a question and an observation: 1) How much of Green's struggles were communication based vs physically being beaten? 2) Over the past few years, it feels like the line has often started slowly and gotten much better as the season progressed. So, while the mistakes make me nervous, I do feel confident that the unit will gel based on history,

±á´Ç´Ú´Ú:ÌýI'd say almost exclusively communication. The snaps where someone made it through the line unblocked seemed to be an assignment thing vs. a getting beat thing. So I'd be pretty confident in those issues being buttoned-up soon. We know Cayden Green's a very competent blocker, so it'd be very unexpected if real blocking issues arose. It seems like it's more the chemistry that's still coming together, which makes sense. 

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