Mizzou football set to kickoff spring camp to lay foundation for 2026 season

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz is set to kickoff his sixth spring camp at the helm of Tiger football, as the team's first practice will come on Friday morning.

On Thursday, Coach Drink and a couple of his returning starters addressed the local media, ahead of camp that will come with a lot of new faces. Drinkwitz emphasized how important it is the build the foundation for fall in the next few weeks.

"We've got a lot of new faces, not only on the football team, but also on the staff, and so getting everybody together, seeing where we're at and moving towards the direction of playing football games," he said. "You know, for us, our goals for spring are pretty clear and identified and defined for us, number one is individual player development. Let's see where these players are and see how much better we can make them. [Number two,] lay the foundation of our schemes offense, defense and special teams. What are we going to do, what are our strengths and what are we going to be really good at and then develop team toughness, and resiliency. You know, for us, we defined a tough team as a team that can stop the run, run the ball and cover kick. We want to emphasize those things here in spring football and then have that mental fortitude to sustain excellence, even in the face of adversity."

You can watch the full press conference with Drinkwitz in the video player below.

As Coach Drinkwitz mentioned, he made some key additions to his staff, following that 2025 campaign. Perhaps the two biggest hires came in the form of two new coordinators: offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and special teams coordinator John Papuchis.

Lindsey is set for his first spring camp in Columbia, after helping rebuild the Michigan offense in 2025. He has 28 years of coaching experience under his belt and has also helped develop quite a few big-name quarterbacks in his time, including Drake Maye and Jarrett Stidham.

"You know, Chip and I have never really worked together, but we know of each other. We've crossed some of the same paths and I felt like, you know, he has a lot of experience in this league. He's been through these battles and wars. He's coached at a really high level in a lot of different places and I felt like he has a low ego, high output. Obviously, he has a history of quarterback development. He's got plenty of pelts on the wall from the quarterbacks that he's developed in the offensive schemes that he's had. So, to be able to bring him in, combine him with the staff that we have, bringing in some other voices from the outside with Alex [Atkins] and Garrett [Riley], I thought has been a really good addition and look forward to seeing what they do offensively," Drinkwitz said.

Papuchis also comes to Columbia with quite a bit of experience, most recently working at Florida State for the last six seasons as the special teams coordinator, as well as the defensive end and linebackers coach.

In his time in Tallahassee, his special teams units produced multiple First Team All-America caliber talents. That's a welcome idea for Tiger fans, who saw the Mizzou special teams unit face quite a few struggles in 2025, including a season-ending injury to kicker Blake Craig, poor punting and coverage lapses.

"He's got new ideas and new ways that we will approach special teams. You know, a lot of the fundamental things are similar to what we've done, but the schematics are different. So, it'll be a new voice. Him and Jonathan Rutledge, you know, as as Brock [Olivo] went off to join the Dolphins and Erik [Link] went in a new direction. You know, it gives us an opportunity to bring fresh ideas into our program," Drinkwitz said.

Outside of the coaching staff, there are quite a few new faces fans will need to learn on the roster, as well.

One of the most exciting additions of the offseason came in former Ole Miss quarterback Austin Simmons, who will join this roster in time for a competition with returner Matt Zollers. Simmons spent his first three years of college in Oxford, redshirting in the 2023 season.

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 seasons, 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.

"I think he's very competitive in nature. I think he's got natural talent as a quarterback. Obviously, a very good arm talent, decision-make, has the ability to run. [He], obviously, hasn't played a ton of football because of the injury last year, but when he has got his opportunity he has played at a really high level, a high clip," Drinkwitz said.

Coach Eli said he doesn't have a ton of experience working with left-handed quarterbacks, like Simmons, but added that he believes left-handed guys tend to be pretty talented at this level, with all the bias they've had to overcome.

"It will affect some of the crux beliefs that the quarterback that coaches have about quarterbacks, like you don't ever boot to the off hand of the of the quarterback, so we might have to be conscientious of that," he said. "I think there is some conscientious things that I've challenged both Garrett [Riley] and Chip [Lindsey] to make sure we're aware of in our scripting, to make sure that that we're not putting our quarterback in a negative spot. Bu, other than that, he's got to go play some football. I'm sure he's been battling that stigmatism his whole life of being the lefty."

Mizzou added quite a bit of production for the quarterbacks to work with in 2026, grabbing four wide receivers out of the portal: Ole Miss transfer Cayden Lee, Cincinnati transfer Caleb Goodie, Florida transfer Naeshaun Montgomery and Minnesota transfer Kenric Lanier II.

However, on the offensive side of the football, the Tigers are returning an important core of starters. The lethal running back duo of Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts are back for another year, freshman phenom receiver Donovan Olugbode is back for 2026, as well as tight ends Brett Norfleet and Jude James and offensive linemen Cayden Green, Dominick Giudice and Curtis Peagler.

With that kind of continuity, Coach Eli will look to those guys to take on a leadership role, beginning in spring camp.

"You know, last year's season didn't turn out how we wanted to. So, we want have a better season this year and also, you know, we got a lot of new transfers, so we trying to build a brotherhood and become one," Hardy said.

You can watch the full press conference with Hardy in the video player below.

On the defensive side of the ball, Mizzou lost roughly 13 starters to graduation and the transfer portal. So, needless to say, the Tigers will focus on coming together on that side of the ball in spring camp.

"The goal this spring is really to establish the identity of, not only the football team, but specifically for my unit, ['Death Row Defense']," returning safety Santana Banner said. "You know, communicating and playing fast and physical football, so that's what we're going to try to establish."

You can watch the full press conference with Banner in the video player below.

On special teams, Drinkwitz brought on former Florida State kicker Brunno Reus and former Tennessee State punter Mark Shenouda in the offseason. However, all eyes will be on kicker Blake Craig, as he looks to return to the field after suffering a season-ending ACL tear in the first game of the 2025 season.

Drinkwitz said it's going to be important for Craig to not try to do too much, all at once.

"There is a protocol, from a doctor standpoint, in what he can and can't do. He won't have a lot of kickoff responsibility, in fact, probably won't have any until June," Drinkwitz said. "He is able to get some field goals and we are adjusting our field goal formation with Coach [Papuchis], as our special teams coordinator. So, there will need to be some work in that role, which he'll be able to do...We won't be asking him to kick a lot of long yardage stuff until we're 100 percent sure that his leg is full go."

With all the turnover that colleges season in the age of the transfer portal, leadership has become more important than ever. Drinkwitz said he felt like last season they waited too long to allow leadership to emerge, instead of setting who the leaders would be. In response to that, MU has already named captains for spring ball. You can find a full list of those captains below.

• Offensive lineman Cayden Green
• Offensive lineman Dominick Giudice
• Linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez

"Those guys have been guys who who have played at a high level for us, demonstrate an elite edge in the first floor and they do demonstrate what it means to live by the core values that we have," Coach Eli said. "Those guys are establishing that these are the standards that we have, these are the expectations of how you operate in this building at a high level."

Mizzou will put its first practice in the books on Friday morning.