As injuries stack up at the quarterback position, Mizzou isn't planning on pulling plays out of its arsenal.
Missouri football is moving on to the third quarterback on its preseason depth chart, true freshman Matt Zollers , for the foreseeable future after injuries to Beau Pribula and Sam Horn have left the Tigers in somewhat of a lurch.
Pribula picked up an injury on a fourth-and-goal QB keeper against Vanderbilt this past Saturday. The Penn State transfer who started all eight games for MU was stopped short of the goal line. As Pribula was brought down, Vanderbilt defensive lineman Joshua Singh appeared to have a hold of Pribula's leg at the bottom of a pileup, which seems to be when the injury was sustained.
Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz said Wednesday that Pribula had a "non-fractured dislocated ankle" and that there is currently no timeline for a return. That injury designation does, however, mean it is likely that Pribula will miss the remainder of at least the regular season.
Medical case studies suggest the injury requires 6-9 weeks of immobilization followed by physiotherapy, which would mean Pribula would, at minimum, miss the remainder of the regular season and potentially any postseason game the Tigers play.
Horn was injured in Week 1 on what was his first snap of the season. The redshirt junior and Los Angeles Dodgers signee took a QB draw up the middle for a short gain, but remained on the field after being tackled. He has since had surgery on a fractured tibia in his right leg, which ruled him out for the remainder of the year.
The commonality in the two plays: Both were designed runs for the quarterback.
Some fans have voiced displeasure at the playcall on social media following the injury to Pribula, which has left the Tigers one unfortunate play away from moving to a walk-on at quarterback.
But Drinkwitz, during an SEC Coaches Teleconference appearance Wednesday, has said that he doesn't plan on taking anything off the playsheet moving forward.
"I mean, there's a lot of people who run their quarterback and injuries happen. They're kind of an unfortunate part of the game," Drinkwitz said. "But, you know, we're going to have to do what we need to do to win, and whatever we need to do to win is what we're going to do. And we're not going to put any limitations because of fear on our team. You know, we don't operate in a fear mode. We operate in an aggressive mode."
The and-goal QB keeper has been a staple of the Mizzou playbook since offensive coordinator Kirby Moore arrived in Columbia.
On the play that resulted in his injury, Pribula ran a fake-pitch to Kevin Coleman Jr., who had motioned right, before pulling the ball down and running downhill. That play worked multiple times between Brady Cook and Luther Burden III . Pribula successfully picked up a first down on the same play earlier in the Vanderbilt game.
Pribula's designed-run output was on par, for the most part, with his predecessor at the QB position. Of his 314 total rushing yards so far this season, 133 yards (16.6 yards per game) had come on designed runs and 181 yards were on scrambles.
Per Pro Football Focus, Cook had 14.3 yards per game on designed runs last season and 15.7 yards per game in 2023. In both instances, that was less than half of his total rushing output.
In 2022, when Drinkwitz was calling the plays, Cook rushed for 35.2 yards per game on designed runs, which was nearly two-thirds of his rushing output for that season.
Seven SEC quarterbacks have more yards on designed runs than Pribula this season.
Zollers is best known for his arm and ability as a passer, but the four-star prospect out of Royersford, Pennsylvania, can move out of the pocket. The Tigers never asked him to run any designed plays against Vandy, but he did pick up a first down with a scramble.
Mizzou has an idle week this weekend before a massive home matchup against No. 3-ranked Texas A&M on Saturday, Nov. 8 in Columbia.
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When the Aggies roll into town, the Tigers don't appear to be planning on taking anything out of Zollers' hands — or off his legs.
"I mean, he's had the last eight weeks of opportunities to be the number two and get the reps. And, you know, we do a two-minute drill every Wednesday, and he's gotten every single one of those. We do 'Dirty Show' (typically a scout team defense vs. offense drill) every Tuesday, with noise — he's gotten every one of those for the last eight weeks. So, you know, he's prepared.
"Obviously there's only things that occur in games that he'll learn from, and we don't expect him to be perfect, but we're very excited about his opportunity. I've been adamant about Matt being the future of our program, and he just gets a chance now to step into it early, from an experience standpoint."
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football won't 'operate in fear,' stop calling QB run plays
