{"id":821790,"date":"2026-03-19T20:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821790\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:23:15","slug":"missouri-names-austin-simmons-starting-quarterback-for-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821790\/","title":{"rendered":"Missouri names Austin Simmons starting quarterback for 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Missouri<\/a> is naming Ole Miss<\/a> transfer Austin Simmons<\/a> its starting quarterback for the 2026 season, the program announced Thursday. The Tigers wrapped up their 15-practice spring ball schedule on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Tigers added Simmons in January\u2019s portal window following Beau Pribula\u2019s<\/a> exit after one season. Simmons separated himself from sophomore Matt Zollers<\/a> in spring ball, enough to earn the nod heading into the summer. <\/p>\n

Missouri opens the 2026 season on Sept. 5 at Memorial Stadium against Arkansas-Pine Bluff<\/a>. The Tigers visit Kansas<\/a> in Week 2 for the Border War and open SEC play at Mississippi State<\/a> on Sept. 26. <\/p>\n

Simmons has two seasons of eligibility remaining. He began the 2025 season as Ole Miss\u2019 starting quarterback, but injured his left ankle in a 30-23 win over Kentucky in early September. He was replaced by Trinidad Chambliss<\/a> the next week against Arkansas, who started the remainder of the season and led the Rebels to the College Football Playoff semifinals. <\/p>\n

Simmons attempted just 20 passes in four games following his injury against Kentucky. He\u2019s thrown for 1,026 career yards with six touchdowns to go with 85 rushing yards and a score. Simmons backed up Jaxson Dart<\/a> in 2024, highlighted by leading Ole Miss on a scoring drive in a win over Georgia. <\/p>\n

Over the past three seasons, Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss are the only three schools that have been members of the SEC all three years and have won more games than Missouri (29). Missouri has gone at least .500 overall in regular-season play in each of head coach Eli Drinkwitz\u2019s<\/a> six seasons and has qualified for a bowl game all six seasons. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think (Austin Simmons is) very competitive in nature,\u201d Drinkwitz said<\/a> in February. \u201cI think he\u2019s got natural talent as a quarterback, obviously. Very good arm talent, decision-maker. Has the ability to run. Obviously, hasn\u2019t played a ton of football because of the injury last year, but when he has gotten his opportunity, he\u2019s played at a really high level and high clip.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Missouri is naming Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons its starting quarterback for the 2026 season, the program announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5975,72935,7,114033,49,48,65393],"class_list":["post-821790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-austin-simmons-23-moore-haven-junior-senior","tag-eli-drinkwitz-01-alma","tag-football","tag-matt-zollers-25-spring-ford","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-trinidad-chambliss-21-forest-hills-northern"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116257712302661511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}