Mizzou Has Confidence in Matt Zollers to Fill In After 'Fearless' Debut

The Hail Mary falling short was a gut punch for Missouri. But the fact that the Tigers even got in position to attempt that last-ditch effort was a credit to Zollers. He wasn't perfect on the drive, sometimes overreacting to pressure.

But he did complete a pass of 14 on a fourth-and-10 early in the drive, then completed another pass of 18 to move Missouri across midifeld.

That poise and execution on a cruicial drive is why Missouri has confidence in Zollers. When he had to step in, there was zero doubt on the sideline, according to his teammates.

We didn't want to be down on the sideline and Matt feel like nobody had his back. So we tried to keep the energy high to rally behind Matt.

"It's not a really a surprise to me," defensive back Daylan Carnell said of Zollers. "He prepped like he's a starter every week. All through camp, we've seen his arm talent the way he could do so it really nothing surprised me today. I know he probably think he could have did better, but he did pretty good for his first action being against a top-10 team."

Zollers has been Missouri's backup since Week 1 of the season when redshirt junior Sam Horn suffered a season-ending tibia injury in the season opener. Zollers was able to quickly earn the trust of his teammates by impressing all the way back in spring practices when he first arrived.

"Just seeing all those things he's able to do in practice from spring ball, the way he progressed all the fall camp, the way he was in the season, staying ready and progressing," linebacker Josiah Trotter said of how Zollers established trust with the team. "So, we didn't have any doubt that Zollers was going to be able to come in and just give us a different type of spark, be able to make some plays for us."

He validated his teammate's trust instantly in Week 1, completing all three of his pass attempts for 58 yards and a touchdown.

"I feel a lot of confidence in (Zollers being the backup at the time) especially after him being able to go in and perform he did," Drinkwitz said. "Make no mistake about it, Matt Zollers is the future of the QB position here."

But doing it against a FCS school or in practice is not comparable to being able to perform in a top-15 matchup with clear postseason implications. But Zollers' teammates saw the lights were still not too bright for him.

"Courage, fearlessness," center Connor Tollison said of what he saw from Zollers. "He did everything he could when his number was called."