Missouri’s season opener Thursday night against visiting Central Arkansas also will serve as a tryout of sorts for the quarterback position.
Penn State transfer Beau Pribula and holdover backup Sam Horn will split time under center and coach Eli Drinkwitz said one of them will be the starter for the September 6 visit from Kansas.
“I feel like both of them need to play football,” Drinkwitz said. “I think they both demonstrate the ability of toughness, preparation, decision-making, accuracy and leadership in a practice setting, but that doesn’t mean they’ve done it in a game setting for us.
“And I know both of them have played college football before, but they haven’t played it in this situation before.”
Pribula was a backup to Drew Allar last year for Penn State, while Horn was QB2 behind two-year starter Brady Cook in Columbia. Horn was thought to have a chance to beat out Cook in 2023, but Cook grabbed the job in a season-opening rout of South Dakota and never let it go.
The Tigers are coming off a 10-3 season that climaxed with a Music City Bowl victory over Iowa. They will have one of the top offensive linemen in the Southeastern Conference in guard Cayden Green, a preseason first-team selection by the league’s coaches.
Meanwhile, Central Arkansas is coming off a 6-6 season that saw it go into November at 6-2 before losing its last four games. The Bears went 3-5 in the United Athletic Conference, an FCS league entering its third year.
Central Arkansas is led offensively by two standout linemen – 6-foot-4, 325-pound Will Diggins and 6-5, 320-pound Jamal Mull. Diggins was named a preseason FCS All-American in July.
“Will Diggins has been a starter since the day he stepped on campus for us,” said coach Nathan Brown. “He needs to have a big year for us to succeed on offense.”
The Bears boasted the 14th-best total offense last year in FCS, but they allowed 35.5 points per game in their season-ending four-game skid.
This will be the first meeting of these programs.
