Mizzou Players React to Beau Pribula Injury

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The regular season-ending injury of quarterback Beau Pribula is a gut-wrencher for the No. 15 Missouri Tigers, especially after a 17-10 loss to No. 10 Vanderbilt.

For the rest of the Missouri roster, the focus shifted to being there for Pribula, while also uplifting the backup, freshman Matt Zollers.

That being said, there was a clear emotional shift when Pribula went down and the medical cart rolled out.

"We just heard the air get sucked out of the stadium a little bit, especially on the sideline," linebacker Josiah Trotter said following the loss. "We were wondering on, we saw the cart go out there. At the end of the day, we got to go to the next play on defense.

Missouri center Connor Tollison went through a similar situation at the end of last season for the Tigers. He went down with a knee injury and didn't return for the remainder of the season, leaving the Tigers without an integral part of their offense.

That made being there for Pribula of extreme importance. The exact situation hit very close to home for Tollisson.

"You never want to see the opportunity to play football stripped away," center Connor Tollison said. "I was in the same situation last year and it was not fun, so I have a lot of heart for him."

There were a few things that shifted into focus after Pribula exited and Zollers went in. One of those was staying focused on the game and being ready to give the team a chance to win, regardless of where someone was playing.

"You just get the air sucked out, but you have to pick it up, go out there and play football and try to make plays," Trotter said.

Next on that list was keeping their young quarterback confident and in check. For the most part, the young signal caller made good decisions and put Missouri in a situation where it could win.

Keeping him calm, especially in a spotlight as bright as the one he was dropped into for the first time in his career, was of extreme importance.

"We want to stay high," safety Daylan Carnell said. "It gives Matt confidence. We didn't want to be down on the sideline and Matt feel like nobody had his back."

Missouri left FirstBank Stadium beat up and battered. Pribula suffered his injury and starting tight end Brett Norfleet was also unable to re-enter the game following an upper-body injury in the second half.

Per head coach Eli Drinkwitz, fighting that adversity and coming together as a group will also be of large importance if the Tigers want to continue to find success.

"There's gonna be a lot of negativity based off of the injuries and all that. They just got to fight," Drinkwitz said. "Fight it. Rally as a coaching staff, as a group. We got to rally together and find a way to keep moving forward. There's still a lot of football left, a lot of opportunities left."

The Tigers now eye down a bye week to get things sorted at the quarterback position, followed by another likely ranked matchup against Texas A&M on Nov. 8.