Rock Bridge football fits the pieces of the 2026 puzzle together in summer workouts

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

In less than two months time, the Rock Bridge football team will kick off the 2026 campaign, as the Bruins hope that the growth they saw last season will carry them into another playoff run.

Head coach Matt Perkins and company are in midst of summer workouts, as the group works towards game one against Lee's Summit West on Friday, Aug. 28.

"[During the summer], you're always trying to learn the new pieces and how things fit. It's just a giant puzzle, but I think the kids have been working hard, like usual," Perkins said, when asked about how summer work had gone, so far. "You know, the energy's been good, so it's just trying to see what we've got."

Rock Bridge has a bevy of returning stars for the upcoming season, including quarterback Sean Nevills Jr. The rising junior is coming off of his first season as a starter for the Bruins, where he quickly emerged as a playmaker for Coach Perkins. Nevills Jr.'s mix of arm talent and explosiveness with his legs complicated things for opponents all season long. Nevills Jr. finished his sophomore regular-season with 1,073 total yards and 21 touchdowns, 14 of which were through the air and seven on the ground.

The first-year starting quarterback was able to show Mid-Missouri what he's made of in year one, but Coach Perkins said his confidence has grown exponentially, since then.

"I think things are a little bit more natural for him, as you would expect," Perkins said. "[He's got] a little better command and just a little more confidence and, you know, you can't play that position and be timid. I think, you know, asking a 15-year-old to do that is always a challenge and we knew that, but I thought he handled it really well. You know, he's walked into this offseason with just a little bit better glow about him and I think he's going to have a great year."

Although Nevills Jr. is capable of making plenty of plays on his own, Perkins said they have enough offensive weapons that the junior shouldn't feel like he has to.

Over the course of the offseason, the Bruins added some exciting new faces to the roster, in addition to its returning talent. As a result, in 2026, Rock Bridge will mix some of its tried and true offensive talents with some new looks.

"[We have] some new faces," Perkins said. "You know, Kingston, Jefferson coming over, he's a guy that we kind of thought was going to be on the field for us last year and he was hurt, but we expect big things from him at receiver. We've added a kid named Nick Timbrook that's, you know, a three-sport athlete before this year, an All-State soccer kid, All-State basketball kid and a track demon. So, all he's done has just been incredibly difficult to defend all summer and I think that we didn't know what kind of learning curve with him, but he's he's been amazing. You know, bringing back Will Bliss, our leading touchdown guy not named [Sean Nevills Jr.] from a year ago, and just the ability for him to take the top off the ball. I think we've got amazing team speed."

Coach Perkins is also very excited about the addition of a guy named Eli Morgensen, who he says they've been crafting their offense around, this summer.

"I think he's about to just have a really big year...We're calling him our athlete position, but he's a little bit of a hybrid. He's going to play some running backs and receiver, but just trying to get the ball to him," Perkins said.

In front of those guys, the Bruins are working with a young, but talented, offensive line. Perkins pointed to a couple of guys coming in at 6-foot-7 to 6-foot-8 and around 300 pounds, saying they will be big up front, which will prove crucial in competing in against Class 6 talent.

Defensively, Rock Bridge is returning quite a few key pieces from that unit that limited opponents to just 16 points per game in the 2025 campaign, including linebackers Quintin Lea and Andrew Williams, defensive tackle Jonathan Ibeawuchi and quite a few others.

That's a group that holds its consistency, year-in and year-out, which Perkins said all comes down to the culture built by both players and the coaching staff.

"I think you got to give credit to the kids. You know, they're just hungry and they want to be good. But, then throw some credit to the coaching staff over there. You know, Coach Alvis, Coach Jones, both those two guys have been kind of a staple for them," Perkins said. "Basically, we're going to we're going to line up, we're going to align to what we're looking at and we're going to play really fast and kids kind of took that to heart the last few years, and they've been really good."

The Bruins will look to build on the experience they gained from the 2025 campaign, when the group went 5-5 overall with a quarterfinal exit in the district tournament. Despite that first-round exit, Coach Perkins has built a program that knows what winning looks like, as the team won back-to-back district championships in 2023 and 2024.

Now, the 2026 Bruins are working towards starting their own journey.