Mizzou ‘very excited’ to welcome back former defensive tackle, following court case

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Just days after a St. Louis county judge granted him a temporary restraining order (TRO) for another year of eligibility, Mizzou defensive tackle Sterling Webb is welcomed back to Columbia with open arms.

On Sunday, Tiger football coach Eli Drinkwitz kicked off his first press conference of fall camp by welcoming Webb back to the Tiger roster.

"[We] support him and his journey and in court case. Obviously, this is a unique time and area in college football, and Sterling is doing what he believes is in his best interest," Drinkwitz said. "We always are going to support our student-athletes. It's going to be important to get him back slowly acclimated to our program, and it's going to be important for our team to welcome him back, seeing him as a part of our success and not allowing his return to affect us in a negative way."

This comes after Webb filed a lawsuit in St. Louis County on Tuesday against the NCAA, claiming that he should have one more year of eligibility due to the NCAA's new age-based eligibility model of five seasons in five years.

He played at New Mexico State in both 2022 and 2023 and then transferred to Mizzou for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. So, he still had his fifth year of eligibility intact.

"Obviously, you know, there's a lot of different factors that play into being able to do [bring him back], whether or not it's a roster spot availability, financial availability, flexibility. Would there be a role for that? So, you know, as that idea came up, you know, we wanted to make sure that we were providing the information that we could and support him," Drinkwitz said. "Excited that he was able to get the the TRO and we'll, you know, see what the next process is."

In 2025, Webb played in all 13 games with eight starts. He tallied 20 tackles, nine of which were solo, and 2.5 sacks. He added on six quarterback hurries, as well.