Mizzou football will begin official practice for the 2025 season on Monday. (Photo: Terrance Williams)

Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

COLUMBIA, MO — The University of Missouri football team will begin training camp practice for the 2025 NCAA season on Monday. The players have all arrived and the coaches are all here too.

The only thing left is for the practices to officially begin.

The first one is set for Monday morning at 11 a.m.

And everybody, especially head coach Eli Drinkwitz is ready to get started.

“Yeah, (I’m) really excited to open fall camp number six,” Drinkwitz said at Missouri’s Football Media Day, which was held at the Mizzou football practice facility on Sunday. “Each and every year is just a little bit different, a little bit more exciting and a little bit more fun. You know, very fortunate for us to be able to carry over our coordinators and our culture staff with with the first floor, and I think that’s really helped us get acclimated with the new players.

“This is the most transfers we’ve been able to bring in since we’ve been here, which I think is kind of the new norm for college football. But I do think continuity has been a little bit of our secret sauce. So again, (I’m) really excited about that.”

The Missouri Tigers football team will begin official practice for the 2025 season on Monday. (Photo: Terrance Williams)

Mizzou will run a series of practices and scrimmages over the 22 days, before it goes into “gameday” mode to get ready for the season opener on August 28 against Central Arkansas.

The new-look Tigers have a lot of questions to answer before then, like who will be on the starting offensive line and who will be in the rotation for the defensive line and linebacker positions.

But no question, heading into camp, will be bigger than who will be Missouri’s starting quarterback this season.

The primary candidates are returning redshirt junior Sam Horn or Penn State transfer Beau Pribula. Most think Pribula will win the job, but Drinkwitz has often talked about how this is a true competition, with no leader set just yet, and that Horn very well could win the job.

“Yeah, we have no timetable on deciding for quarterback,” Drinkwitz said on Sunday. “I was actually just thinking about this. I think this is the fourth year going into the year that we’ve had a quarterback competition, and so we’re familiar with it.

“Hopefully, you know, with that experience comes a little bit more wisdom. But absolutely, you know, when the quarterback’s ready, he’ll show himself to the team. I think we’ll all know who it is and when that is. We’ll tell you. I don’t plan on having, you know, waiting to announce because of a perceived advantage. Neither one of them has played that much football. So there’s not going to be anybody to scout. It’s not going to help you see it one way or the other, and if it’s undecided, then we’ll let it go into the games play, as long as we need to.”

Two-sport star Sam Horn will be competing for Mizzou’s starting QB job this season. (Photo: Terrance Williams)

Horn is also a baseball player, with a 98-MPH fastball, who was taken in the 17th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the MLB Draft a couple of weeks ago. A right-handed phenom, who is also known for having a wicked slider/sweeper pitch, Horn signed a contract with the Dodgers on Sunday.

But the folks at Mizzou, and Horn himself, have been adamant that signing with the Dodgers doesn’t change the two-sport athlete’s plan to win the Mizzou starting QB job this fall.

“I was just happy to get drafted, more than anything,” Horn said. “I didn’t think it was going to happen, but it did so that was the biggest thing.

“At the end of the day, it’s what’s going to be best for the team. And so we’re, we’re working together, but at the same time, it’s a competition. So at the end of the day, we’re working to better ourselves, but we want to better the team in the process.”

True freshman and former high school star Matt Zollers will also figure into the QB competition, but most think he’ll spend his first college year watching and learning to prepare for taking over the job next season or maybe the year after that.

Penn State transfer Beau Pribula will be one of the prime candidates to win the Mizzou starting QB job this season. (Photo: Terrance Williams)

Pribula came in from Penn State as one of the most coveted quarterbacks in the transfer portal. Horn has been at Mizzou for three seasons after coming out of Collins Hill (GA) as the nation’s no. 139 overall prospect in the Class of 2022.

He has thrown just eight college passes after losing the quarterback battle to Brady Cook prior to the 2023 season and missing all of 2024 after his surgery. Many in Horn’s position would have bowed out of the competition and transferred elsewhere by this time. Horn chose not to.

“I love it here,” Pribula said. “I love the coaches. Love these guys that I’ve grown to know really well, and it’s been fun. You know, there’s a lot to learn. It doesn’t matter where you are, you got to learn. And I’ve learned a lot here. And I just, I love Columbia.”

Mizzou has one month to get ready for the season. Kickoff on August 28 is slated for 6:30 p.m., and the game will be televised nationally on the SEC Network.

2025 MIZZOU TIGERS FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

DateTimeAtOpponentLocationTVRadio
August 28, 2025 (Thursday)6:30 pmHomeCentral ArkansasFaurot FieldTiger Radio Network
September 6, 2025 (Saturday)2:30 pmHomeKansasFaurot FieldTiger Radio Network
September 13, 2025 (Saturday)3 pmHomeLouisianaFaurot FieldTiger Radio Network
September 20, 2025 (Saturday)TBDHomeSouth CarolinaFaurot FieldTBDTiger Radio Network
September 27, 2025 (Saturday)TBDHomeMassachusettsFaurot FieldTBDTiger Radio Network
October 11, 2025 (Saturday)11 amHomeAlabamaFaurot FieldTBDTiger Radio Network
October 18, 2025 (Saturday)TBDAwayAuburnAuburn, Ala. / Jordan-Hare StadiumTBDTiger Radio Network
October 25, 2025 (Saturday)TBDAwayVanderbiltNashville, Tenn. / FirstBank StadiumTBDTiger Radio Network
November 8, 2025 (Saturday)TBDHomeTexas A&MFaurot FieldTBDTiger Radio Network
November 15, 2025 (Saturday)TBDHomeMississippi StateFaurot FieldTBDTiger Radio Network
November 22, 2025 (Saturday)11 amAwayOklahomaNorman, Okla. / Memorial StadiumTBDTiger Radio Network
November 29, 2025 (Saturday)TBDAwayArkansasFayetteville, Ark. / Razorback StadiumTBDTiger Radio Network