Mizzou football kicks off fall camp
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz's seventh fall camp in Columbia is underway.
On Monday, the Tigers kicked off their preparations for the 2026 season with the first of 15 fall camp practices. You can watch extended highlights of practice, during the media's viewing window, in the video player below.
It marked the first official practice with Ole Miss transfer quarterback Austin Simmons as the starter for this offense. On Sunday, at MU's fall camp kickoff event with local media, Coach Drink said that the redshirt senior, "has a skill set that is different than anybody that I've coached here as far as arm strength and arm talent."
The Tigers will look to use that arm talent to help this offense soar to new heights under first-year offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey. While Mizzou is going to stick to its bread and butter - the run game - Drinkwitz said he is also looking to dial-up the deep threat through the air, this season.
"I mean that's definitely an emphasis," Lindsey said. "We want to be able to run the football downhill., but we also have to create explosives and throw the ball down the field. To do that gives you a higher chance and I think to do it first we got to run the football, like they've done here in the past, and then when we get those opportunities to attack down the field, we have to do it. We've done a better job of that in the spring. I know that was a big emphasis and I like the progress we made. But, as well as it's not just Austin, you know, we have to have the receivers do their part, the line does their part, running backs do their part. It all works together to make it happen."
Of course, success in the run game will fall on the backs of MU's superstar running back tandem of Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts.
Hardy was not practicing, on Monday, as he continues his recovery from a gunshot wound he sustained in a shooting at a concert in early May. The Mississippi native has been medically cleared from that gunshot wound and is now in a return-to-play protocol. On Sunday, Drinkwitz said that Hardy would not be practicing this week, but he will participate in walk-throughs. He said he will provide another update in a couple of weeks.
On the other side of the football, defensive tackle Sterling Webb was spotted at practice, on Monday, after a St. Louis County judge granted him a temporary restraining order so he could have another year of eligibility. He argued that due to the NCAA's new age-based eligibility model of five seasons in five years, he should have one more left.
On Sunday, Coach Eli said the team will, of course, welcome Webb back with open arms. He did emphasize that the defensive tackle will need to acclimate back into things, as the rest of the team has had a full summer of work.
