Mizzou Makes Big Changes to Offensive Line for Week 3 of Fall Camp

Monday's practice revealed there might be even more unpredictability along the line than initially thought.

Oct 12, 2024; Amherst, Massachusetts, USA; Missouri Tigers offensive lineman Cayden Green (70) in action during the second half against the Massachusetts Minutemen at Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images | Eric Canha-Imagn Images

COLUMBIA — The Missouri Tigers offensive linemen played a game of musical chairs at Monday's practice, changing all but two of the starters in the first-team reps in a tempo drill. Now the question becomes who will land a starting spot on the depth chart first.

It's a series of changes head coach Eli Drinkwitz had hinted at Saturday.

"Next week, we'll make a change and we're going to see if we got a different starting five next week to see what it looks like," Drinkwitz said to the media.

In the periods of practice open to the media Monday, Missouri ran a no-huddle drill, giving a rare good look of the starting lineups. Though the depth charts for the skill positions might be more flexible in a no-huddle situation, the ones for the offensive line would presumably be consistent with those ran during any other situation.

At left tackle, Cayden Green took over. Those snaps had been going to redshirt junior Jayven Richardson for the majority of fall camp. Meanwhile, Richardson was taking the second-team reps there.

Missouri tried Green out at left tackle in the spring of 2024 after he first transferred over from Oklahoma. He was moved to left guard once Missouri landed Marcus Bryant from SMU in the spring window of the transfer portal.

Green moving over to left tackle seemed like a realistic possibility in the spring. It would put Missouri's best offensive lineman at the most-important position on the line.

But the coaching staff wasn't too open to the idea back in March.

"I know he is a little bit more comfortable inside, so just trying to get him settled in there, just not moving a strength or returning piece," offensive line coach Brandon Jones said in a press conference.

Notes and video from each Missouri practice so far:July 28 |July 29|July 30 |August 1|August 2|August 3|August 6| August 7| August 11

But, depending on Green's versatility, putting the preseason All-American at tackle could be a safer bet if Missouri is feeling unsure about both Richardson and Williams. Though Green has only taken 38 collegiate snaps at left tackle (all during his debut with Oklahoma), he could be less of a question mark than Williams or Richardson. Williams took 239 snaps at left tackle for West Virginia last year, and Richardson filled in as a backup there on 57 snaps for Missouri last year.

Because of this uncertainty, Drinkwitz labeled the left tackle battle as the most-important decision to make ahead of the season., even more so than the starting quarterback.

“That probably is the bigger competition that we've got to get settled, because you got your five people operating on the same page," Drinkwitz said ahead of practices.

With Green at left tackle, Dominick Giudice was at Green's usual spot of left guard. Giudice has mostly been at right guard through fall camp. But, he did take snaps at all three spots of the interior of the offensive line in his time at Michigan, so could have the versatility to slide over.

Taking Giudice's usual spot of right guard was redshirt junior Curtis Peagler, a former three-star prospect who has only appeared in 36 snaps so far in his career. The most interesting part about Peagler's inclusion there was the fact that he was in over Florida State transfer Jaylen Early, who took 117 snaps there for Florida State last year. He started in six games across the offensive line in his time at Florida State.

What seems to be most secure along the offensive line at this point is that Green, Giudice, Tollison and Trost will be starters. Trost and Tollison will be at right tackle and center respectively — those were the only two constants in Monday's practice compared to the rest of fall camp. But Green and Giudice could be considered nomads as of now.

Their movement is likely more indicative of how the coaching staff feels about the other options at left tackle and right guard, rather than wanting to challenge Green or Giudice specifically.

These decisions certainly shouldn't be taken as definitive changes though. For now, it could just be a testing of different combinations, or even a way of sending a message to the previous starters. Even though the season opener is just over two weeks away, there's no other time the coaching staff will have to test out different lineups. These lineups could change again tomorrow, or even in the drills the media isn't even allowed to view.

Nonetheless, the second-team lineup also included some telling choices.

Three of the players on the second-team lineup were predictable; Richardson at left tackle, Tristan Wilson at center and Logan Reichert at right guard.

But the other two spots were interesting. Not because of the players, but because of where those players were lining up.

Early, who seemed to have a chance to compete for the right guard spot at the start of camp, was instead at left guard. Then, Williams was at right tackle.

The coaching staff made an intentional choice to have Williams train on the left side in the fall, instead of the right side to start fall camp. However, he did train on the right side through all of the spring practices. Early showed this versatility at Florida State, but at the start of fall camp, it seemed as if he was in any competition for playing time, it would be against Giudice at right guard.

These positional alignments in the second-team could be because Missouri didn't run this tempo drill with a third lineup, but still wanted to get better looks at Early and Williams.

The fact that there was uncertainty on the offensive line, especially at left tackle, was obvious through all of fall camp so far. But Monday's practice revealed there might be even more unpredictability than expected.