Here's what Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz said about plan to use multiple QBs in opener

Columbia Daily Tribune
Eli Drinkwitz will flip his cards when the action is settled.
The Mizzou football coach has a plan for how he wants to use his quarterbacks in the Tigers’ opening game against South Dakota on Thursday at Memorial Stadium — he knows what MU’s first play call of the game will be, too — but he’s keeping schtum until then.
“I want to be as forthright on information as we can, but I'm never going to put our program in jeopardy or give away competitive advantages,” Drinkwitz said Friday. “So I've already said that multiple quarterbacks are gonna play. ... You can either buy a ticket and see it firsthand, or you can catch it on the X (Twitter) feed. But I'm not going to preview it early for anybody. It’s called the art of suspense.”
Well, it was worth a shot.
What the fourth-year head coach did discuss, however, is how the Tigers got here and how it might play out.
On Saturday, Aug. 18, Drinkwitz said that the Tigers are planning to play multiple quarterbacks against the Coyotes.
Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz, left, talks with quarterback Brady Cook during the Tigers' spring game in March.
Some of what the coach has since said — “the reality of it is no quarterback took themselves out of the race,” for instance — might suggest that incumbent starter Brady Cook and redshirt freshman Sam Horn won’t be the only signal callers to take the field Thursday and beyond. Miami transfer Jake Garcia would be the main contender for a third-party vote.
Whether it’s two or more, the decision hasn’t come without deliberation and discussions.
Over the offseason, Drinkwitz said that he had conversations with other coaches about running with more than one QB into the season to see how it had “played out.” Michigan is among the teams to see success with it, claiming a Big Ten championship and going 13-1 last season while rotating between Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy.
With tongue ever so slightly more in cheek, Drinkwitz said he watched the ‘Untold: Swamp Kings’ documentary that recently released on Netflix about the 2006 national championship-winning Florida Gators team, mentioning that if they could use more than one quarterback, why not his team?
College football has changed since then. It’s changed since not long before the documentary first aired.
Missouri’s current dilemma could just be a sign of the times.
The transfer portal has played its part, he said, with movement in and out of programs changing rosters at a higher rate than ever.
“I think it's the nature of the influx of players coming in out of your programs,” he said. “And, you know, there's just a lot of really good quarterbacks now.”
Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz reacts during the second half of the Tigers' game against Georgia on Saturday at Faurot Field.
The question then stands: In what order and for how long will the contending quarterbacks play in Game 1?
First half Cook, second half Horn? Rotating quarters? One until the game is out of sight?
There was no definite from Drinkwitz answer to that, other than not wanting it to get too disjointed or for each drive to become a make-or-break situation.
“I think the biggest thing is to allow our quarterbacks to play with a rhythm so they’re not feeling like after every play that they could potentially be pulled, or after every series,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s a plan in place to do that.”
There’s also the unanswered question of how long this will last.
There’s been no indication that this system will span the season. Eventually, it’s assumed that one player will secure the role and take the majority of snaps.
“We’ll carry on the competition, and whoever finds it in the game when they’re live is going to give themselves the best opportunity to continue to be our starting quarterback,” Drinkwitz said.
The prolonged waiting period to find out who that may be isn’t making Drinkwitz nervous, he said. He said he was aware that various media sites and fans may call for a definitive decision, but stood firm in the coaching staff’s plan of action.
“I think for us and our team,” he said, “this is the right decision, the right plan of attack for us.”