Missouri Tigers' QB Eddie Printz is transferring to Texas State

Last month Eddie Printz announced that he intended to transfer away from the University of Missouri after he completed his business administration degree. He has now announced that his graduate studies towards earning his MBA (plus probably playing a little football, too) will take place at Texas State.

My first thought was that it's a little bit odd for him to be choosing Texas State from a pool of the Bobcats, Hawaii, Troy and Mercer, but perhaps we have a kid who actually gives a crap how good the graduate program is that he studies in whilst playing another year of football.

More important that that, though, is what it means for Tyler Jones. After two consecutive seasons of being the unquestioned starter under center for the Bobcats, he is very likely to have some very stiff competition under center. How can I be so sure that this position is an open competition, you say? Several reasons.

First, there are rumblings around town that Everett Withers is toppling the apple cart and dumping the bad ones out (as many as 10 players are reportedly about to be non-Bobcats). Jones may not be rotten enough to fall out, but he has his critics both on the coaching staff and in the fan base, who reportedly are underwhelmed with his work ethic.

That would not be without reason, either. The late-season fade of this football team was not all that different from Jones' own fading performance.Four games into the season, Jones had completed just over 68% of his passes and was on pace to flirt with 3,000 passing yards and an 18:6 touchdown to interception ratio. Instead, he completed only 53% of his passes the rest of the season, averaging a paltry 190 yards per game and 10 interceptions to only eight touchdowns. It was the work of a guy who stopped giving a damn, and it showed in spades.

Secondly, the Bobcats lost Blaire Sullivan to graduation, but barring any dramatic changes they were heading into spring practice with Jones, Fred Nixon, Blake Pederson, Connor White, and L.G. Williams, plus freshmen Devin Williams and Braeden Kent. That's somewhere between five and seven quarterbacks on the roster before adding Printz's name to the mix. Depth is a great thing to have, but there is absolutely no way that Printz committed to transferring to and utilizing his last year of eligibility for a coaching staff that didn't have serious talks with him about a realistic shot at being the starter.

This could be a big get for the Bobcats, especially if he can quickly pick up the system and hit the ground running. He immediately becomes the most talented quarterback on the roster; this is a guy who had offers from Arkansas, Missouri, Florida State and UCLA among others.

Also of note, that list of teams means that Printz chose to play for Everett Withers over playing for Neal Brown at Troy, which is significant given Brown's reputation as an offensive coach - he was the QB coach at the time Kentucky was recruiting Printz. The same could be said to a lesser extent for Eddie passing on joining Nick Rolovich's squad out in Hawaii - also because that means he picked San Marcos, Texas over Honolulu.

This is a great get for the Bobcats, and it signifies a lot of different positives about the changing culture within the team. As our own Will Butler said, "shit just got real."