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COLUMBIA, Mo. — After going nigh on two decades without one, quarterback battles are in vogue for Missouri football. A relatively clear lineage that ran from Brad Smith to Chase Daniel to Blaine Gabbert to James Franklin to Maty Mauk to Drew Lock has seen much more competition since Eli Drinkwitz became the Tigers’ coach ahead of the 2020 season.

Now, heading into his sixth season at Mizzou, he’s staging the fourth quarterback competition of his MU tenure. Penn State transfer Beau Pribula is battling perennial piece of potential Sam Horn for the QB1 title.

And with that battle coming down to a high-profile transfer and a two-sport athlete, it’s unique.

“Right now, it’s a little bit different just because you’ve got one of them who’s playing baseball and the other one who’s able to be around more,� Drinkwitz told the Post-Dispatch. “I think there’s some things there.�

That kind of framing almost makes it sound like there’s not much of a competition, or at least that the baseball player, Horn, faces an uphill fight. It’s not like Pribula would’ve left his backup gig on playoff-level Penn State if he thought he was moving to another No. 2 spot, either.

Still, Drinkwitz has been adamant both are in the mix for the quarterback job and that the competition will extend at least into preseason camp.

“Sam is still (around), he was at weights this morning, working out with the guys,� Drinkwitz said. “It’s really about getting the identity of the offense and the installations right now. And then once we get into fall camp, it’s going to be about who makes the fewest mistakes and who doesn’t repeat the mistakes.�

How the quarterback battle plays out is not just one of the defining storylines of the preseason for the Tigers. Its stakes are such that the results of the competition will greatly influence Mizzou’s 2025 season. After all, this is the starting quarterback we’re talking about.

MU’s last quarterback competition, in 2023, preceded the program’s best season in recent memory. Brady Cook won the right to retain the job he’d secured in 2022, fending off Horn and Jake Garcia to do so.

The way that battle ended, though, came with some oddities that seemed to temporarily ding Cook’s stock. Preseason camp made it fairly obvious that Garcia was not up to the level of Cook and Horn, bringing the field down to two. Declining to name a starter after camp, Drinkwitz chose to play both of his finalists in the ’23 season opener, giving each a half of action.

That game, observers might recall, hardly gave them the same kind of shot, though. Cook received many more opportunities during the first half while Horn was mostly handing off the ball to drain the clock in the second. Yet when the SEC Network interviewed Drinkwitz on the field afterward, he seemed to have seen enough.

“Brady scored 28,� Drinkwitz said. “And Sam scored seven. So, that’s my initial thoughts. We will go back and look at the tape and see what it was. But, at the end of the day, we are judged on who gets the team in the end zone the most.�

Cook was named the starter shortly thereafter, then infamously booed two games later.

In that vein, the timeline — as opposed to just the outcome — could also matter when it comes to this season’s quarterback competition.

Cook had won the starting job for the first time, in 2022, just nine days into fall camp. Drinkwitz picked him over Jack Abraham, Tyler Macon and Horn, perhaps earlier than he’d planned.

“I just felt like for us offensively, for this team to take the next step, let’s solidify who our quarterback was (and) eliminate the questions and the indecision,� Drinkwitz said at the time. “That’s what they pay me to do. They pay me to make decisions and so we made it.�

That was a contrast from his tone in 2020, when MU’s new coach refused to provide any clues as to whether it would be Shawn Robinson or Connor Bazelak under center for his first game in charge.

“Maybe it’s tomorrow. Maybe it’s six weeks from now. I don’t really know,� Drinkwitz had said that preseason. “So, we’re not in any rush. Those things usually reveal themselves pretty easily. So we’ll figure it out. And I’ll just break the news for you all now: I ain’t announcing it. So, don’t worry about it week one. We ain’t telling nobody. Everybody is going to have to guess. It’s going to have to be used as an advantage for us.�

So what’ll it be this time around? A quick call? A half each in the season opener?

Opening the season against Central Arkansas gives the Tigers the kind of training wheels necessary to play both quarterbacks in Game 1, if Drinkwitz wants to. But if the gap between Pribula and Horn — whether in talent, focus on football or a combination of the two factors — is significant, it could arguably be more beneficial to drop the competitive charade as quickly as Pribula’s practice performances can justify it.

The players have a say in the situation, naturally, and were pushing each other during spring ball. During one spring practice, Pribula threw four touchdowns in one drill period, earning player of the day honors. The next day, Horn tossed three touchdowns in a drill to earn the title.

But when it comes to the who and when of the quarterback battle, it’ll be Drinkwitz’s call to make. Whether it happens differently from previous QB competitions remains to be seen.