Drinkwitz on Mizzou's Starting Right Tackle: 'The Opportunity is Wide Open'

Life for Missouri's right tackle in 2026 won't exactly be smooth-sailing. Whoever wins the job will have to face top-tier edge rushers on a weekly basis, blindside block for starting quarterback Austin Simmons and fill the massive shoes left by All-American, NFL Draft Pick Keagen Trost.

For the first few months of the calendar year, it seemed like Arizona State transfer Josh Atkins was the man for the job, given his prior experience as a starter. But after he suffered a leg injury in spring ball and a "setback" in June, according to head coach Eli Drinkwitz, Atkins is set to miss a significant amount of time, and certainly won't be available at the start of the season.

That leaves a few candidates to replace Atkins — and in a way, Trost — which can only mean one thing: there'll be a battle. According to Drinkwitz, no candidate has a serious leg up.

“I mean, there's somebody that's going to run out there first as far as what that is, but the opportunity for everybody to establish their roles is wide open, and we need the consistency of performance before we say anybody's going to be the starter," Drinkwitz said.

Offensive line coach Brandon Jones detailed what he's looking for from the potential winner of the battle in fall camp, which begins Monday.

"The biggest thing is just consistency," Jones told Missouri On SI in a one-on-one interview. "Then ultimately, figuring out who the best five is. That's what fall camp's all about. Obviously, we went through this last year, and you'll see who's kind of separating themselves. And expecting Luke (Work) and Logan (Reichert) really at right tackle to battle, I think that's one of the biggest biggest deals that I'm looking forward to seeing. But I think it's just the day to day consistency on top of just them them improving daily, will kind of determine who's the starter, right tackle."

One of the candidates Jones highlighted, Luke Work, is a third-year offensive lineman fresh off two contributing seasons at Mississippi State, where he played 20 or more snaps in 12 games while playing at every position but center. In 2025, Work posted a pass-blocking grade of 74.3, a run-blocking grade of 60.2 and measures in at 6-foot-6, 315 pounds.

"Luke has a ton of potential, a lot of upside," Jones said. "I think he's game put on some really good muscle on this off season. He played a little bit at Mississippi State. His versatility being able to play guard and tackle, obviously, we're happy he's here so he can play tackle, but he's just worked his butt off."

Drinkwitz would likely agree with Jones, given he proclaimed Work had "as good of an offseason as I've ever seen an offensive lineman have" at SEC Media Days.

The other candidate Jones touched on was redshirt junior Logan Reichert, who's dealt with injuries and hasn't played much durinmg his career at Missouri but possesses all the framework of a potential starter. Reichert measures in at 6'6, and according to Jones, has dropped his weight from about 344 pounds to 335 pounds. Reichert's body isn't the only thing he's improved this offseason, though.

"He's by far one of the strongest kids on the team," Jones said. "He's probably one of the faster kids on the team. He's right at about 335. So he's doing an unbelievable job with his body. Obviously, he's had some setbacks. So just looking forward to seeing him out there and competing. And I think overall, just he's improved significantly —his football IQ, so I'm really proud of him in that regard."

Given comments from Drinkwitz and Jones, Reichert and Work as the two leading candidates seems like a relatively safe bet to make. However, as Drinkwitz previously said, the job is anyones to win — "wide open."

If it's truly wide open, that means a few sleeper candidates could shine in fall camp and earn themselves a look from Jones and Drinkwitz for the position. The winner of the battle could even come from the other side of the depth chart; whomever All-SEC left tackle Cayden Green's backup is.

"There's always the possibility that you know the backup left tackle is performing so well that we have to give him a shot," Drinkwitz said.

The remaining tackles not yet mentioned are: Charleston Southern transfer Colin Sorensen, redshirt freshman Jack Lange, four-star freshman DJ Jones, junior tackle Ryan Jostes, redshirt sophomore Whit Hafer and Kansas State transfer Will Kemna.

Jones is right — the battle for starting right tackle should be one of the most exciting of fall camp, as there's plenty of suitable candidates for the uber-important job.

Make sure to follow along with our content as fall camp begins, as we'll have notebooks and observations from every practice, beginning Monday.

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