Mizzou’s transfer stars shined in a win over KU. Turns out, the SEC has a lot of starring transfers

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – Penn State transfer Beau Pribula dropped back to throw, slung a pass to former Mississippi State wide receiver Kevin Coleman Jr. and watched him prance into the end zone for a touchdown – all to the delight of Missouri fans.

Especially given it came in a victory over hated rival Kansas.

Pribula wound up 30 of 39 for 343 yards and three touchdowns in the 42-31 victory on Saturday. Coleman had 10 catches for 126 yards and that touchdown. Oh, and running back Ahmad Hardy – formerly of Louisiana-Monroe – added 112 yards rushing and a touchdown of his own in the latest impressive performance by coach Eli Drinkwitz’s cast of transfer additions.

“He stayed poised, he stayed calm – that’s the captain on our team,” Coleman said of Pribula, the biggest name of the bunch. “That’s the one we look up to as a team to count on. And when you see that guy staying calm, we’ve got no worries.”

It may as well have been the Senior Bowl or the East-West Shrine Game, the way all those players from disparate schools came together on Saturday. But in truth, it was just another day in college football where, like most leagues, high-profile transfers are helping teams such as Missouri thrive even after losing many key players to graduation and the draft.

Pribula is currently second in the SEC in passing to Oklahoma’s John Mateer, who arrived in Norman after three years at Washington State, and immediately injected some firepower into defensive-minded coach Brent Venables’ offense.

Joey Aguilar has Tennessee off to a flying start after arriving from Appalachian State; he has thrown for 535 yards and five scores without an interception in his first two games. Over at Auburn, ex-Oklahoma quarterback Jackson Arnold completed nearly 78% of his passes with three touchdowns and no picks in wins over Baylor and Ball State.

Those are just the transfer quarterbacks, too.

There are a bunch of new arrivals playing big roles at other positions already this season.

Hardy is the SEC’s second-leading rusher behind Kewan Lacy, who transferred from Missouri. Lacy had 28 carries for Mississippi and gained 138 yards in a 30-23 win over Kentucky in its conference opener; he is averaging 4.9 yards per carry.

Not a bad average. But consider Arkansas running back Mike Washington Jr., who is averaging more than 10 yards on his first 18 attempts in helping the Razorbacks to a 2-0 start. He was at Buffalo two years ago and New Mexico State last year.

Dante Dowdell of Kentucky is likewise on his third team in three years, after spending a season each at Oregon and Nebraska. He has run for 185 yards and a touchdown through his first two games with the Wildcats.

The SEC’s leading wide receiver, Harrison Wallace III of Ole Miss, spent last season at Penn State. Texas A&M wide receiver Mario Craver has 13 catches for 236 yards and three scores, one year after catching just 17 for 368 yards at Mississippi State.

In fact, the SEC’s top seven wide receivers in yardage through Week 2 began their careers at another school.

When you combine a top QB transfer with marquee running backs and wide receivers – just like Drinkwitz has done at Missouri this season – the result is predictable. The Tigers rolled through Central Arkansas to begin the season, then took care of Kansas in an emotionally charged rivalry game to break into the AP Top 25 this week.

Forget about rebuilding in the wake of quarterback Brady Cook’s graduation and wide receiver Luther Burden III’s entry in the NFL draft. Not these days. Just like other schools, the Tigers simply used the transfer portal to reload.

“Obviously, Kevin Coleman made some big-time catches and continually does that. But, you know, no panic. I think Beau is really cool, calm, collected,” Drinkwitz said after the win over Kansas, and ahead of Saturday’s game against Louisiana-Lafayette.

“There are going to be a lot of things on tape you’ve got to clean up. He was a little bit finicky in the first half in the pocket. I thought we were moving when we didn’t need to, and we missed some reads. There’s a lot to improve on,” Drinkwitz said. “But in the biggest moments, in the toughest times on fourth down, I mean, he was nails.”