It might be a play on words to say, but there’s no playing around when saying it: Drew Lock is the favorite, but he is not a lock to be Missouri’s starting quarterback in 2016.

And if the sophomore emerges, as expected, from the Tigers’ quarterback scrum with the job, the pressure won’t be off. In fact, it’ll be then when the heat will really be cranked up.

The 6-3 in-state signal-caller from Lee’s Summit, Mo., was thrust into the starting role and the spotlight last fall after junior Maty Mauk was suspended for a violation of team policies. Mauk is gone again, this time for good in late January, long after Lock had suffered the bumps, bruises and losses of last fall while trying to pick up the pieces for a Missouri team that wasn’t talented enough around him anyway.

After Barry Odom was hired as the Tigers’ new coach in December, he gave Mauk one more chance, but Mauk couldn’t keep himself out of trouble, so suddenly it was Lock’s time, even if he wasn’t ready to play and win quite yet. Lock was the first Missouri true freshman to start at quarterback since Corby Jones in 1995, and he did have his moments, going 21 of 28 with two touchdowns in a 24-10 victory over South Carolina in his starting debut.

The shine quickly came off though. The Tigers lost their next four games and six of their last seven, all with Lock at the helm, finishing 5-7 overall, 1-7 in the SEC. The Tigers’ point totals during those last six losses: 3, 6, 3, 13, 8 and 3. And Lock’s ordinary stats: 129 of 263 for 1,332 yards, only four touchdowns and eight interceptions.

Not nearly good enough then. And not nearly good enough to guarantee that Lock will be the guy this fall, although he should be able to win the job if he navigates the offseason properly.

In the Missouri football preview at rockmnation.com, Oscar Gamble wrote: “Drew Lock struggled as a true freshman but still has all the promising attributes you want from a starting quarterback.”

With Lock seemingly the heir apparent this season, Eddie Printz decided to transfer to Texas State. But redshirt sophomore Marvin Zanders decided to stick around and push Lock this offseason. Zanders considered transferring but stayed, but the Jacksonville product who is an extraordinary athlete told rockmnation.com: “I’m from Florida, so I like to compete.”

And compete he will, along with sophomore pocket-passer-type Jack Lowary and Micah Wilson, who Gamble expects will redshirt. Ultimately, Gamble expects Lock to win the job, with the versatile Zanders “getting situational play.”

Lock’s ability to turn the page on last year and start fresh should be helped by having a new coaching staff to work under, with Odom taking over from Gary Pinkel and Josh Heupel being hired as the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Heupel has experienced the greatest heights in college football, having led Oklahoma to a national championship in 2000, and Lock can seemingly only benefit after his rough debut under the starting glare last fall.

Heupel and Lock, who began spring practice last month taking the first-team snaps with Missouri’s remodeled offense, were actually almost brought together at Oklahoma. Heupel took a recruiting trip to Lee’s Summit two years ago to check out Lock while he was the co-offensive coordinator for the Sooners. But the marriage never materialized as Heupel was fired in early 2015 and Lock stuck to his pledge to attend Missouri.

“We talked every week,” Lock told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of Heupel’s original interest in him while he was at Oklahoma.

Now their paths have finally crossed, in Columbia. Heupel will have the chance to work with the guy he wanted to bring to Norman, and Lock will have another chance, it appears, to effectively lead the Tigers offense. But this time he’ll have a new playbook to work with and a few different voices to play for.

Lock hopes it will all produce a different outcome than last fall, when he admitted he struggled reading defenses. This is providing, of course, he wins that starting job.

“I felt like (the coaches) went pretty easy on me last year,” he told the paper, “because I got thrown in there.”

That cruel baptism is over, mercifully, for Lock, and a few other things are different now, too. Lock said his sore throwing shoulder, an injury sustained last November, has fully healed, and he’s gained about 20 pounds as a result of healthier eating, staying away from junk food and consuming a lot of chicken. Lock is reportedly up to 220 pounds from his listed weight of 205.

He is ready to show a new version of himself this fall after being battered in the aftermath of Mauk’s exit. But he will have to earn it. After the first spring practice last month, Heupel called the quarterback situation “an open competition,” and while Odom acknowledged that Lock obviously has more playing time, he kept his words measured and fair.

“If you look at just experience then I would say so,” Odom told the Post-Dispatch, alluding to Lock’s time under center last fall. “I want all three of those guys to feel like they’re competing because they’ve got to.”

Odom was presumably also referring to Zanders and Lowary, who are making Lock work for a position he struggled in last fall, for everyone to see.

Gamble wrote about Lock, circa 2015: “His arm allowed him to make some daring throws, particularly out-routes and passes into tight windows, something he flashed during fall camp. But too often, his reads were slow and predictable — whether that’s on last year’s scheme or the player will be determined this year.”

Lock will indeed have a chance to show if all the benefits to this second go-around will help him win games: having a year under his belt; knowing the job is his by design and not default; and having an entire offseason to learn an offense run by a former national championship quarterback who’s had his eye on Lock for a few years.

And, yes, better play in front of him from a younger but more talented offensive line would surely help, too. Lock hopes the differences on the field from last year are apparent for Missouri, just with the same guy calling the signals, of course.

“Yes. I sure hope so,” he told the paper.