Missouri football officially names starting quarterback for 2026 season

If fall camp quarterback intrigue is your thing, you’re out of luck.

Austin Simmons has been named Mizzou’s QB1.

Missouri football officially announced Thursday that Simmons, who is a left-handed transfer from Ole Miss, will be the Tigers’ starting quarterback in the 2026 season. The news comes as Mizzou wraps up its spring camp practices this week.

More: 5 things to know about Missouri football QB target Austin Simmons

Seventh-year head coach Eli Drinkwitz said at the start of spring that he was planning to let his room of quarterbacks compete for the job. 

That meant Simmons was going toe-to-toe with returning sophomore Matt Zollers and UConn transfer and college veteran Nick Evers for the job.

Drinkwitz met with the media Wednesday, and when asked about the quarterbacks he did not indicate that a starting announcement was close.

“It’s been different, because it’s not only a quarterback battle, it’s also understanding and learning a new offense, right?” Drinkwitz said. “So, there’s been good days and bad days, not quite as much consistency as you’d like, but I really feel like all the quarterbacks have made (progress) in the last four practices. I think they’ve done a really good job taking that message that the coaches asked, which is, ‘be smart but not conservative, know when to push the ball down the field, when not to put ball in jeopardy.’ And they’ve done a really good job.”

Unlike previous years when there was a competition in Columbia, Missouri is not letting this battle roll into the fall.

QB1 @austnsimmons X #TheMizzouWaypic.twitter.com/gx2WDgN3t7

— Mizzou Football (@MizzouFootball) March 19, 2026

Last season, the Tigers let Beau Pribula and Sam Horn compete into the first week of the season before an injury to Horn made Pribula the starter. Brady Cook competed for the job with various players in both 2022 and 2023. In 2024, Cook, as a third-year starter, was not made to compete for QB1 honors. Before that, Connor Bazelak was the returning starter in 2021 after taking over for Shawn Robinson midseason in 2020

That makes this the first time in the Drinkwitz era that the Tigers have named a starting quarterback in the spring.

Simmons was widely expected to be the Rebels’ starting quarterback in the 2025 season under former head coach Lane Kiffin, and that was his role with the team for the first two weeks of the season. But, one of the stories of the college football season emerged in his backup.

The transfer picked up an ankle injury in Ole Miss’ win over Kentucky in Week 2, which saw him limited in September. Trinidid Chambliss, who joined Mississippi from Division-II Ferris State, took over the starting gig.

Simmons turned 20 years old this past November but has been in college for three full seasons. That’s because he reclassified from the 2025 class to sign with the Rebels in the 2023 class.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound southpaw made two starts for Ole Miss over three seasons but has appeared in 17 total games. 

He has completed 60% of his pass attempts (64-of-107) over his career for 1,026 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions.

In his two starts in 2025, which came against Georgia State and Kentucky, he went 33-of-55 (60%) for 288 yards per game, three touchdown passes and four interceptions.

It is quite likely that Mizzou will roll with Zollers, who started three games as a true freshman, as Simmons’ backup, but that has not officially been announced. Evers, who has spent time at UConn, Oklahoma and Wisconsin in his career, will compete for backup duties but is more likely to be Mizzou’s emergency option. 

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football names QB Austin Simmons as 2026 starter