OXFORD, Miss. — There was no happy return for Austin Simmons in the Grove.
No. 13-ranked Missouri football was battered 31-3 by No. 10/9 Ole Miss on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, as Trinidad Chambliss — the player who replaced Simmons as the Rebels’ starting quarterback last season — threw for 241 yards and three touchdowns.
Simmons spent three seasons in Oxford and started the first two games of the 2025 season in Lane Kiffin’s offense. He sustained an ankle injury in Week 2 and never got his job back.
Here’s how he performed in his return to Ole Miss:
Mizzou QB Austin Simmons stats vs Ole Miss
Simmons was 25-of-44 passing (56.8%) for 339 yards, zero touchdowns and a garbage time interception.
The lefty quarterback, for the first time in his Missouri career, did not throw a touchdown pass.
Austin Simmons’ best
It wasn’t Simmons’ fault that the Tigers didn’t put up points in the first half. In fact, the QB put the Tigers in position to keep moving the chains and score.
A penalty derailed Mizzou’s first red zone drive. A curious decision to not go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line led to an empty red zone possession when Blake Craig yanked a chip-shot field goal wide.
Simmons made the plays to get Mizzou into scoring range and stay competitive. A third-and-13 throw to Cayden Lee. Chunk play passes to Donovan Olugbode and Caleb Goodie Jr. His arm was accurate more often than not.
But Mizzou, and its QB, lacked the finishing touch.
Austin Simmons’ worst
It became abundantly clear that Mizzou was going to make Simmons try and claw the team out of a big deficit with his left arm.
The QB had drive-extending plays. He didn’t have drive-finishing plays.
There are fair critiques about some of the play-calling, the discipline, the pass-protection, the run-blocking — you name it, and it’s probably true. Responsibility for the shocker on Oxford lies all over.
But Mizzou is flying out of Oxford with three points. Some of that blame has to go to Simmons. He missed receivers on deep balls that could have made this game competitive early. He was poor under pressure.
The Rebels did an excellent job locking up the likes of Cayden Lee and Donovan Olugbode after some early success, and once that happened the offense was nowhere to be found.
Grade: C-
Mizzou’s offensive shortcomings don’t all fall on Simmons’ shoulders.
But the QB isn’t blameless.
Penalties, and more importantly the timing of some of the penalties, hurt. The Tigers were oddly averse to running the football early in the game and became too reliant on Simmons’ arm.
The quarterback also didn’t have the game-changing plays that Chambliss did. The Rebels were lethal in scoring range. Chambliss made sure Ole Miss left with 7 with on-the-money throws. Missouri needed one of Simmons’ deep shots to connect, and the trickle-down effect put the Tigers behind the eight ball.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri QB Austin Simmons stats, grade from losing return to Ole Miss