Running back Nathaniel Peat is seeing more and more green, green grass in front of him.
Preseason All-Southeastern Conference second-team linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper has noticed quite a change in who he’s up against over the course of the past year.
Mizzou football needed to address some issues along its offensive line. All too frequently and for all too many reasons — see false start vs. Georgia or Brady Cook’s torn labrum in Manhattan, Kansas — in the 2022 season, the Tigers came undone because of costly mistakes up front.
Are the times a-changin’?
The Tigers’ staff is seeing some encouraging signs.
Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said at the beginning of training camp that there are eight or nine players he could see in the starting five come Aug. 31 against South Dakota — depth that seldom seemed to exist last season.
And the players getting up close and personal with the big men up front have taken notice.
“I’ve seen a lot of holes, that’s what I’ve seen,” Peat said. “I feel like they’ve developed a lot since last year. Javon (Foster), X (Xavier Delgado), Connor (Tollison), then also the new transfers that we’ve added, too. I feel like they’ve developed a lot, and they’ve made a lot of holes. I’ve seen just a big transition from last year to this year, and they’re confident in what the schemes are and what they need to do.”
Added Hopper: “I feel the experience they have together, I feel like they’ve really grown together. I mean, it’s the same guys, … but I feel like that experience, you can tell that they have grown together. They show that on the practice field every day.”
The Tigers appeared to suffer a setback in March, when then-offensive line coach Marcus Johnson departed for a job on former Missouri player and defensive coordinator Ryan Walters’ staff at Purdue. Mizzou quickly hired former Houston assistant Brandon Jones, who then lured Cougars right guard Cam’Ron Johnson to Columbia out of the portal, joining tackle Marcellus Johnson from Eastern Michigan.
But the most intriguing difference might be the progression of two second-year players — Connor Tollison and Armand Membou — who were thrown to the Southeastern Conference’s wolves as true freshmen.
Tollison started all 13 games at center in 2022. He enters this year’s camp competing with Cam’Ron Johnson for the job this fall — a battle that has him relying on his season in the thick of it to help him through.
“It’s big. Just playing in a game, like, there’s nothing like having game experience,” Tollison said Tuesday. “I mean, it makes a world of difference.”
He isn’t relying on the been there, seen that, to pull him through.
The Jackson, Missouri, native’s listed weight is up 18 pounds from last season to 304. Drinkwitz said before training camp that he’d consider playing him at tackle, but Tollison since has taken most, if not all, of the reps with the first team at center during the open periods of practice and has thus far managed to ward off his challengers.
Joining him in looking to make a second-season leap, Membou, who played left guard in high school, found himself starting at tackle halfway through the last campaign as injury woes ransacked the Tigers’ depth.
He has moved one spot inside to the starting role at right guard in camp, but is leaning on those reps in Year 1 to make the difference.
“(My) confidence level has definitely changed, especially starting games in the SEC,” Membou said. “So just having that from last year and knowing that I’ve done it before so I can do it again, it’s definitely going to help me a lot going into the season.”
“It’s really crazy thinking about it, because there’s been so much change,” he added. … “I think I’ve improved a lot as a player, and I’ve still got a lot to improve on in the future, but it is crazy seeing the long way I’ve come.”
There’s still a long way to go.
Before camp, Jones was intrigued to watch redshirt freshman Tristan Wilson and junior EJ Ndoma-Ogar at guard. Valen Ericksson has been taking second-string reps at right tackle after turning Marcus Johnson’s head in the spring. Cam’Ron Johnson is proven at guard and will take a run at center.
After a little more than a week, little is set in stone.
That’s just how Jones wants it.
“It’s one of those deals … it’s just having competitive depth,” Jones said. “You can’t get content, you can’t be complacent. Somebody is right behind you breathing down your neck, so you’re going to perform at a high level that you might not if you didn’t have anybody behind you.”
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