Missouri football’s main backup quarterback from last season is entering the transfer portal.
Drew Pyne, who appeared in six games for the Tigers in relief of an oft-injured Brady Cook in the 2024 campaign, is entering the transfer portal, a source told the Columbia Daily Tribune on Tuesday. The news was first reported by Pete Nakos of On3. The transfer portal does not reopen to all players until April 16, but since Pyne is a graduate student, he is eligible to enter the portal database at any time.
The quarterback announced he was transferring to Mizzou early in 2024 and joined the team in the summer as the expected backup. But, he was called into action multiple times in his one season with the program with varying degrees of success.
Pyne started Mizzou’s comeback win over Oklahoma in November, throwing three second-half touchdown passes to help the Tigers knock off their former Big 12 rival in Columbia. But the transfer quarterback also threw three interceptions after entering the game during the second quarter of Mizzou’s shutout loss at Alabama.
Now, the former Notre Dame and Arizona State QB is looking for the fourth school of his college career. He has two remaining years of eligibility, but is opting to use those elsewhere.
The move is unlikely to change the scope of Mizzou’s quarterback competition for the 2025 season.
Entering Missouri’s spring camp, which wrapped up March 21, Pyne was viewed as one of three potential contenders for the 2025 starting job, although headline transfer Beau Pribula is the expected frontrunner, and Sam Horn is the main challenger to that assumption.
With Pyne out of the picture, the race is now essentially between two players. Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz said at the beginning of spring camp that he will not name a starter for next season until the fall, and that is likely to still be the case.
It does, however, leave Mizzou without a battle-tested backup. None of Pribula, Horn or true freshman Matt Zollers have ever started a college game.
Pribula was a career backup to Drew Allar at Penn State. Sam Horn competed for the starting job in 2023 but lost a fall camp competition to Cook, before spending the entire 2024 season sidelined as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.
Pyne struggled in his appearance off the bench in Tuscaloosa, but showed he had the ability to knock off an SEC opponent — OU — when the Tigers were in a pinch. While he wasn’t the most mobile, offensive coordinator Kirby Moore could turn to Pyne to run the offense.
If Pribula and Horn do meet expectations and take the No. 1 and 2 rolls, in either order, Zollers is now the likely No. 3 quarterback on the roster. The rookie enrolled early and went through spring camp with the team. Mizzou also has two walk-on quarterbacks on the roster: Brett Brown and Tommy Lock.
It seems unlikely at this point that Missouri will add a quarterback in the spring transfer portal window, which is open April 16-25. Pribula, who transferred into the program from Penn State in December, came with a sizable reported NIL price tag, and another QB with starting potential is likely to eat up even more cash.
With roster limits coming — in the SEC, teams can have 85 scholarship players and 20 walk-ons next season, which is down from 120 total players — Mizzou needs the available spots for other positions, too. The Tigers are more likely to target a defensive tackle, punter or offensive lineman in the portal this spring.
That should narrow the QB race down to two players.
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