HEAD COACH: Eli Drinkwich (11-12, third year)

2021 RECORD: 6-7 overall, 3-5 in SEC East

RETURNING STARTERS: Offense – 4; Defense – 7; Special Teams – 1

PLAYERS TO WATCH: RB Nathaniel Peat, WR Luther Burden, WR Dominic Lovett, LT Javon Foster, DE Isaiah McGuire, DE Trajan Jeffcoat, LB Ty’Ron Hopper, S Martez Manuel, DB Kris Abrams-Draine, K Harrison Mevis

VERSUS GEORGIA: Oct. 1, TBA

Who will Missouri settle on at quarterback?

There’s a reason Missouri made a pitch for former Georgia quarterback JT Daniels before the latter settled on West Virginia.

Brady Coke and Tyler Macon each started one game each last year for the Tigers, but neither played well enough for head coach Eli Drinkwich to keep from hitting up the transfer portal in an effort to find someone else.

Drinkwich did finally land grad transfer Jack Abraham, who comes to Columbia from Mississippi State and will be playing his seventh year of college ball.

Abraham started his college career at Louisiana Tech in 2016 before then transferring to Northwest Mississippi Community College. After throwing for 2,949 yards and 23 touchdowns during the 2017 season, Abraham landed at Southern Mississippi. He won the starting job, and in 2018, he led the nation in completion percentage at 73.1. The following season, he passed for 3,496 yards and 19 touchdowns in 13 games, although he also threw 15 interceptions. In 2020, Abraham missed five of Southern Miss’s 10 games due to injury. In all, across three seasons at Southern Miss, Abraham completed 69.3 percent of his passes and threw for 41 touchdowns and 29 picks.

Abraham later transferred to Mississippi State, but never played due to post-concussion syndrome. He was ultimately granted a seventh year of eligibility by the NCAA and on April 8 was cleared to return to the football field.

The Tigers also have four-star freshman Sam Horn, assuming he does not play professional baseball following the upcoming Major League draft.

"I could not stay status quo and only have two quarterbacks with experience on the roster, and so I needed to have somebody else,” Drinkwitz said. “That was something we had to have . . . I had to put ourselves in a position for our team to be successful with contingency plans.”

The good news for Missouri’s offense is that whoever plays quarterback will have a talented group of receivers with which to work with, included touted freshman Luther Burden, along with returnee Tauskie Dove (38 catches for 576 yards).

Will a third defensive coordinator in three years make a difference?

In Blake Baker, Missouri will have its third defensive coordinator in three seasons and his main charge will be to improve a run defense that was worst in the SEC.

How ugly was it?

The Tigers gave up an average of 229 yards per game, just over 34 more than the league’s 13th-worst rush defense, Vanderbilt.

Missouri should be able to get after the quarterback, with Trajan Jeffcoat (3.5) and Isaiah McGuire (six sacks) forming one of the better pass-rushing duos in the conference.

However, Baker has plenty of work to do after the Tigers finished last or next to last in the league in total defense, scoring defense and pass defense efficiency along with their problems stopping the run.

How will Missouri replace Tyler Baddie?

Finding a starting quarterback will not be Drinkwich’s only pressing preseason chore. The Tigers also lose SEC rushing leader Tyler Baddie, who rushed for 1,604 yards and 14 touchdowns. Replacing him will not be easy.

Missouri did bring in Stanford transfer Nathaniel Peat, who enjoyed a strong spring. But expecting Peat to fill Baddie’s sizeable cleats all by himself might be asking a lot.