Mizzou Football 'Breakout' Candidate Daeden Hopkins Details his Offseason

By the end of his 2025 freshman season, defensive end Daeden Hopkins had emerged as a clear breakout candidate for Missouri football. After logging 31 total snaps across three nonconference games, Hopkins sat until Missouri's matchup against Mississippi State, where he logged four tackles and one sack in 21 snaps.

His future became so promising that head coach Eli Drinkwitz opted to have Hopkins redshirt and sit out the final three games of the season in order to maximize the length his time with the Tigers. Hopkins, a four-star prospect and No. 2 player in the state of Missouri in the class of 2025, has made the most of his anticipated offseason, gaining valuable experience he didn't have entering his freshman season.

“I definitely say I'm a lot more experienced," Hopkins said in a one-on-one interview with Missouri On SI. "I'm gonna just put my head down and work."

In a one-on-one interview with Missouri Tigers On SI, Hopkins said he now weight "around 253, 254 (pounds)," which would be about a 16 or 17-pound weight gain from the 237 pounds he was last listed at on Missouri's roste r. He believes the weight will help him improve in the run-stuffing department.

"As far as like football wise, I think my run stops gotten much better," Hopkins said. "Obviously, pass rush, still working on that a lot."

"Langden Kitchen, Daeden Hopkins, Darris Smith — any one of those three players could have a breakout type season," Missouri edge coach Brian Early told Missouri On SI. "It's more strength in numbers when you look at that room than than it is on paper. Looking at having an outstanding single player like Zion (Young) may have been you know preseason last year."

Hopkins being listed as a breakout candidate by Early makes sense, given his status as one of just three returners in the edge room, joining Kitchen and Smith. A breakout from Hopkins would be much welcomed, as the Tigers are working to replace lost production from the aforementioned Young and Damon Wilson II, who combined for 65 tackles and 15.5 sacks in 2025.

Hopkins detailed an aspect of Young that he was working toward applying to himself, and it makes all too much sense, if you've got the slightest idea of Young's personality.

“I'd probably say try and be more energetic," Hopkins said. "I feel like the more amped up you are, the more you know ready you're to go hit something.”

Hopkins won't have to bring the energy himself, though — he cited juco transfer Demarcus Johnson and returning sophomore Jason Dowell as other high-energy members of the defensive line. The defensive line as a whole, which features two incoming freshmen, seven transfers and nine returners, is leaning on each other to prepare for the season.

"We've got a lot of experience, but we've also you know got some younger guys, too," Hopkins said. "So I'd say probably just just taking it one step at a time. Feeling each other out, kind of just seeing how we all work. I'd say just building that trust in each other so we can go out there and dominate on Saturdays."

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