Heading into the 2026 off-season, Mizzou has already taken a some major blows to their roster. Over 15 players are heading to new schools leaving Coach Eli Drinkwitz to retool for the next season.
One position that has been impacted detrimentally is quarterback. Sam Horn's career is over, as he is moving on to pursue his MLB future after never putting it all together on the football field. Starting quarterback Beau Pribula has decided to enter the portal with much speculation that he will be reuniting with former coach James Franklin at Virginia Tech. So that leaves just Matt Zollers as the only legitimate option to take snaps for the 2026 season.
In today's game, every team needs two sound options at quarterback for injury or development reasons. With Zollers seeing action his freshman year and showing his inexperience at times, the writing was on the wall that Drinkwitz needed to pursue acquiring another option. The transfer portal opened January 2nd and Drinkwitz has already found his guy.
Ole Miss backup Austin Simmons has entered the portal, and immediately stated he has a no contact tag in place. On3 reports that Simmons only has one school listed as a fit—the Missouri Tigers.
Sources tell @On3sports that Missouri is the only school to watch in this recruitment.
— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos) January 2, 2026
Intel: https://t.co/LhhJBNIaFW https://t.co/oYKmmKOoFq
Mizzou is already the favorite for a top portal quarterback
In a very deep and competitive market, quarterbacks are being targeted first and foremost, with many of the same schools battling to land an adequate starter. It is notable that Simmons, who was the Rebels starting quarterback to start the season, has entered with no schools being considered other than Mizzou. Simmons is currently in the semifinals with Ole Miss beating Georgia in the Sugar Bowl 37-34. He plans to finish out the playoff run before doing any official visits or commitments.
Most players have their hand forced and leave their prior schools during this process, but not Simmons. He is highly praised for his character and work ethic at Ole Miss and continues to display this even as the backup option to Trindad Chambliss.
It is not guaranteed Simmons will be the starting quarterback, like it was for Beau Pribula transferring in, as Simmons has just 107 career pass attempts. But one thing is for sure that Mizzou addressed a serious need early, and are acquiring a potential superstar in the making.