Mizzou football lands its portal quarterback
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Mizzou football has signed its transfer portal quarterback.
Former Ole Miss QB Austin Simmons has already made it official in Columbia, signing a deal with the Tigers, as first reported by 247Sports' Matt Zenitz and Chris Hummer. Simmons has since confirmed the news on his social media accounts. That move comes after he entered the transfer portal on Jan. 2 with a no-contact tag, in the midst of his team's College Football Playoff (CFP) run.
The Rebels will be playing Miami in the semifinal round of the CFP, led by starting quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. However, Ole Miss started the year with Simmons as the starter, before suffered an ankle injury in Week 2 against Kentucky. That injury created an opening for Chambliss to step in and take charge of the offense.
Simmons will now join head coach Eli Drinkwitz's team two with two year of eligibility left, after spending his first three years in Oxford and redshirting in the 2023 season. The expectation is that he will bring some competition into a room that already holds what Coach Drinkwitz called the 'future of the program,' in freshman quarterback Matt Zollers.
Over the course of the 2024 and 2025 campaigns, the former Ole Miss quarterback appeared in 17 games for the Rebels, completing 60 percent of his passes for 1,026 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions. In the last two season, Simmons started in two games, where he threw for a combined 576 yards and three scores, as well as four interceptions against both Georgia State and Kentucky.
Despite losing his starting job to Chambliss, he did pop up in six more games through the rest of the Rebels' regular-season run.
Simmons is now the fourth transfer portal addition for Coach Drink. You can take a look at the full list of additions below.
- Cornerback Jahlil Florence
- Wide receiver Caleb Goodie
- Linebacker Robert Woodyard Jr.
- Quarterback Austin Simmons
Simmons, a Florida native, will join a room that holds not only Zollers, but returning quarterbacks Sam Horn and Brett Brown, as well as incoming freshman Gavin Sidwar. As of now, there is no word on what Horn will do with his future, after being drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers ahead of the 2025 season.
