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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Picture this: Beau Pribula seated in the passenger seat of an upscale car, with Eli Drinkwitz driving. Pribula, available in the transfer portal and visiting Missouri, had thrown for Drinkwitz and the rest of the coaching staff to observe earlier that day.

They talked football and probably a little bit of business, too. Pribula took a rapid-fire string of visits, so there was a lot to for him to soak up, a lot for the coach to pitch when it comes to the Mizzou program. After chatting in the car for a little longer outside the hotel, Drinkwitz dropped off the player he hoped could become his next starting quarterback.

It was the wrong hotel.

“The only thing on my mind at that moment,” Pribula told the Post-Dispatch, “was, ‘I really need to go to the bathroom.’ I had to pee pretty bad. Soon as he’s done talking, I got out of the car, I was like, ‘Where’s the nearest bathroom?’ I walk in there and blink. This place looks a little different than the hotel I’m staying in. Whatever, I went to the bathroom. Next thing you know, he’s calling me: ‘Hey, I dropped you off at the wrong one.’”

Drinkwitz came back and drove Pribula to the correct hotel. He still got his quarterback, so no harm was done.

“I’m not sure what he thinks about my intelligence level,” Drinkwitz said, “but it was good enough to get him to play for us.”

Now, Pribula is battling with returner Sam Horn to start as MU’s quarterback this season. Through the first two practices of fall camp, the competition seems fairly neck and neck. True to Drinkwitz’s promise that they’d split first-team opportunities early on, Pribula was the first quarterback out for drills Tuesday after Horn was on Monday.

Pribula is, technically speaking, the most experienced quarterback on Missouri’s roster. But in the grand scheme of college football, he’s more of an unknown.

Penn State, where Pribula spent his first three seasons, used him mostly as a situational runner to give a play a different look from starter Drew Allar. Across his time with the Nittany Lions, Pribula ran the ball 94 times for 571 yards and 10 touchdowns. Through the air, for comparison, he only attempted 56 passes, completing 37 for 424 yards and nine touchdowns.

And of those passes, just 18 have gone to targets 10 or more yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus’ tracking.

Pribula, the runner, is a known commodity. Pribula, the passer, less so. The Post-Dispatch asked him Sunday, the first time the Tigers’ newest quarterback met with the media, whether he feels he’s been able to showcase all he’s able to do as a QB.

“It’s a good question,” Pribula said. “A lot of the time that I went in at Penn State, it was usually a run, unless (it was) when Drew got hurt and I had to be the full-time quarterback and the entire playbook was open for me at my disposal. I think there’s definitely opportunity for me to, hopefully, be in a role where I can run and throw.”

If Mizzou’s Kirby Moore-designed offense looks like it has during his first two seasons as offensive coordinator, the quarterback run will be a staple. Both designed runs, read plays and scrambles made previous starter Brady Cook a productive runner.

Given that Pribula has to this point mostly made a name for himself with what he’s able to do on the ground, he’d seemingly have a leg up in that category when it comes to the MU quarterback competition. Does he feel like he surprises people, then, with his arm?

“I guess so,” Pribula said. “They didn’t get the opportunity to see me throw as much just because I would come in and run, usually. Maybe it would surprise people, but hopefully moving forward, it doesn’t as much.”

For their part, his new coaches have frequently praised his arm. Not that they would publicly share any other sentiment, but they’re believers in what he can do through the air.

“He made some great throws on some intermediate throws within spring ball,” Moore said. “So he can throw the football.”

“When you watch the tape, there’s not an inability for Beau to throw — he just didn’t quite have the opportunities,” Drinkwitz said. “I would say after this spring, I’m as confident as ever that Beau is a very talented passer. I don’t have any reservations about that.”

Getting Pribula to Columbia in the first place was the result of an emotional exit from Penn State for the quarterback.

He grew up in York, Pennsylvania, and committed to the Nittany Lions as a sophomore in high school — there were no doubts in his mind about where he wanted to play college football. With eligibility to play in 2025 and 2026, he thought he would start there when Allar went on to the NFL draft.

Except shortly before the start of last season’s College Football Playoff, Allar’s trajectory changed, and he looked headed back for one year of college, which would’ve meant another year in a backup role for Pribula.

He entered the transfer portal to find a starting job and in doing so needed to leave the Nittany Lions just as they were beginning their postseason. Penn State coach James Franklin backed Pribula’s decision, rightly pointing out the impossibility of a college football calendar that requires portal entrants to take early visits while teams are still in the playoff.

If the nature of his transfer wore on Pribula, it hasn’t been evident through the start of his first preseason at Missouri. He seems upbeat, competitive and matter-of-fact when it comes to talking about the decision.

“I played in a lot of fun games there, had some good experiences,” Pribula said. “But when Drew decided to forego the draft — I liked Penn State, I love Penn State, but at the same time, I love playing football too. Just the opportunity to play football is something that I really wanted to do.”