Beau Pribula is as intriguing as it gets, and his intrigue only grew in his SEC Media Days absence
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ATLANTA — An enigma, a wild card, an X-factor … pick your poison for Beau Pribula. All are fair words to describe the new Mizzou quarterback.
Months after Pribula’s pre-Playoff departure from Penn State to Mizzou made all the rounds — it was more about the issue with the transfer portal and why a legitimate contributor as a backup quarterback on a title contender was put in that spot — he was a popular topic of discussion during the Tigers’ portion at SEC Media Days. Mind you, Pribula wasn’t in Atlanta. Make of that what you will. Eli Drinkwitz maintained that Pribula and recent MLB Draft-pick Sam Horn will be involved in a quarterback battle.
Consider it all just part of the intrigue with Pribula.
It’s not that Mizzou is hiding Pribula from the world. He did an in-depth interview with Adam Breneman on “The Next Up” podcast, wherein he discussed how wild the transfer portal process was. Ultimately, Pribula picked Mizzou instead of Wisconsin and others because he wanted to have an opportunity to become the starter.
What’s unique was how that evaluation process broke down for a run-first (and almost run-only) quarterback. At Penn State in 2024, Pribula played 187 snaps and attempted just 35 passes in his change-of-pace role behind starter Drew Allar. He played meaningful snaps, but he wasn’t asked to do much at all with his arm. Pribula only had 4 passes that traveled 20 yards. He completed 1 of them, and 2 of them were dropped. Compare that to 38 rushing attempts for 242 yards (6.4 yards/carry) and 4 rushing scores.
The sample size wasn’t that of a typical backup quarterback. It’s why analysts like SEC Network’s Jordan Rodgers are searching for answers with projecting how he’ll fit in the Kirby Moore offense.
“I tell ya what,” Rodgers said, “that is the biggest wild card to me. You watch the tape, you can’t see anything. Not once do I think he had a drop-back pass … every time he was in, it was gimmicky because he was kind of that changeup, running quarterback. He’s got a ton of physical talent. I think his arm is good, but I have no freakin’ clue because you don’t see him in a situation and go, ‘Oh, that’s what it could look like at Missouri.’ You have no idea.”
Drinkwitz, however, maintained that he had an idea about Pribula’s passing prowess when he aggressively pursued him out of the portal.
“I don’t think 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 really have any reservations about that.”
His teammates don’t seem to have any reservations about his throwing abilities, either
Despite the fact that Pribula’s lone game with double-digit passing attempts was when Allar went down with an injury at Wisconsin last year (he completed 11 of 13 in a 2-touchdown victory), the spring showing was promising.
Mizzou center Connor Tollison wasn’t able to take part in spring practice because of a season-ending injury he suffered last year against Oklahoma. He was, however, able to watch Pribula’s reps on film during the spring, so he was able to answer a question that many will wonder about in a post-Brady Cook world.
Are Cook and Pribula similar?
“I don’t know if he’s that similar, honestly,” Tollison said. “He’s unique in his own way. When he goes to run, he’s running. (Cook) would run to throw, and he was a little bit more of a scrambler. When (Pribula) tucks it and runs, he’s gonna go get yards. I think he’s maybe a better passer than people give him credit for … he’s getting to throw it around a bit more, and I don’t think people know that he can do that, but he can.”
Nobody is questioning is whether Pribula can be a force in the ground game. He averaged 6.7 yards/rushing attempt, which ranked No. 6 among Power Conference quarterbacks (min. 30 attempts). To Tollison’s point, Pribula had 30 designed runs compared to 4 scrambles. That’s different than Cook, who had 88 scrambles and 765 scramble yards during his Mizzou career.
It’ll be a different Mizzou offense. After all, Luther Burden III and Theo Wease are off to the NFL. That alone probably would’ve shifted things, Pribula will have the benefit of Mississippi State transfer Kevin Coleman Jr., who had more receiving yards than any returning SEC player.
What’s clear is that Pribula’s competitiveness has already made an impression on his new teammates. Mizzou safety Daylan Carnell said that he’s watched Pribula throwing by himself at the indoor facility during non-practice hours. “I’ve never seen that from a quarterback,” he said. Mizzou defensive lineman Zion Young learned about Pribula’s competitiveness the hard way.
“When he first got here, he had a little quarterback run, Beau took it and tried to put it in my chest,” Young said. “We had no pads. We had on T-shirts. I can imagine how he’s feeling with pads on.”
Well, Young can imagine that. When he was with Michigan State in 2023, he played against Pribula back in 2023. How did it go, you ask?
“Go check the score,” Young said.
(It was a 42-0 Penn State win, and Pribula had a touchdown pass and a touchdown run against Young’s Michigan State defense.)
Whether Pribula can lead those types of efforts as a starter remains to be seen. He’ll have a beneficial schedule to catch the college football world by surprise. Mizzou doesn’t have a road game until Week 8, it doesn’t face a single 10-win team and it has just 1 game in a non-bordering state. For a team that’s riding consecutive 10-win seasons of its own, that’ll be largely overlooked. Perhaps Pribula will also be overlooked in his new home. Drinkwitz would certainly hope so.
When Drinkwitz hosted Pribula on his official visit to Mizzou, he admitted that he did something that could’ve blown the entire recruiting pitch. After they ate dinner, Drinkwitz dropped him off at the wrong hotel. Pribula had to get back in Drinkwitz’s car and drive to the right one.
“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.”
There’s nothing wrong with a roundabout way to a final destination.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
