On the opening day of the transfer portal, Mizzou was active locking in visits and extending offers. One of the names linked to the Tigers was Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons, who by most reports, is almost sure to land with Missouri. But his arrival to Columbia creates a unique problem for Eli Drinkwitz and company.
As Eli Hoff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pointed out, Simmons is a left-handed quarterback, making his blind side the right instead of left.
This has surely been pointed out already and I just haven’t seen it, but it clicked for me this morning re: #Mizzou and the rest of this portal cycle.
— Eli Hoff (@byEliHoff) January 3, 2026
Austin Simmons is a lefty quarterback. That makes right tackle more important as a position of need…
So while the Tigers received some goods news with the return of left tackle Cayden Green, they'll now need to decide if Green moves over, or a big name portal addition fills the now important void.
The Tigers have to fix a unique problem with the potential addition of Simmons
So while the loss of Keagen Trost was always going to be tough to replace, that loss is now even more amplified by the left arm of Austin Simmons.
So what are the options for Mizzou? They could move Green over to the right side, simultaneously creating a need then at left tackle. Or they could go to the portal for a hopefully elite right tackle. One of the names Mizzou fans have been clamoring for is Michigan transfer Andrew Sprague, who could follow his former offensive coordinator Chip Lindsay to Missouri.
It's certainly a unique problem to have, and one that the Tigers would've been better equipped to deal with this past season. But with Trost heading to the NFL, Mizzou's list of needs just got bigger, and right tackle may now be their biggest need behind secondary help.