Simmons debuts tonight as Missouri opens season without Hardy, Green
Austin Simmons makes his first start under center tonight against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, but Ahmad Hardy and all-SEC left tackle Cayden Green are both out for the opener.
Simmons debuts tonight, and camp spent its first three days fixing last year's red zone
Missouri opens the year tonight at Faurot Field against Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Thursday, September 3 at 7:00 PM, SEC Network), and the quarterback change Drinkwitz announced back in March is finally live: Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons gets his first start under center. Simmons completed 60% of his passes for 4 touchdowns against 5 interceptions in limited action last season before a left ankle injury ended his year, and Drinkwitz's read on him now is about restraint as much as arm talent. "We don't need to be out here just willy-nilly trying to put balls in tight windows and potentially throwing interceptions. We need him to know when it's time to cut it loose and when it's time to take the checkdown," the coach said, adding that Simmons "has done an excellent job of that throughout camp," per Field Level Media.
That patience matters because last season ended in fits and starts — a 49-27 win over Mississippi State on November 16 sandwiched between a 17-38 loss to Texas A&M and a 6-17 loss at Oklahoma, then a 31-17 win at Arkansas before a 7-13 loss to Virginia closed out the Gator Bowl on December 28. Missouri opens this season at 0-0, ranked No. 25 nationally. Camp went straight at the biggest hole in that finish: the Tigers scored touchdowns on just 63% of their red-zone trips in 2025, fifth-worst in the SEC, so Drinkwitz had his team working almost exclusively in the red zone through the first three practices of camp. "Red zone success is one of the biggest indicators in this league on winning and losing," he said, per the Columbia Missourian.
There's a strange footnote developing in real time, too. Beau Pribula, the quarterback who transferred through Missouri before landing at Virginia, torched NC State for 127 yards and 2 touchdowns through the air plus 80 more on the ground in his Cavaliers debut, as detailed in Beau Pribula's Virginia Debut Is Shredding NC State — a reminder of how thin the margin was in that bowl loss.
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Covers' aggregated injury table lists running back Ahmad Hardy as Questionable with a leg injury, hedging only that "it has yet to be determined" whether he suits up tonight. Pete Thamel has gone further, reporting Hardy hasn't practiced for the Tigers as of August 22 and pegging his return for mid-September as he continues rehabbing the gunshot wound he suffered at a Mississippi concert over the offseason. Drinkwitz has been blunt about it — "He's just not going to be able to be ready for that first game," the coach said, while crediting the effort behind the scenes: "Ahmad has been here every day, worked really hard, facing the adversity of not responding the way he wants to," per ABC17News. Backup Jamal Roberts, who put up 753 yards and 6 touchdowns last season, carries the primary load against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Covers also lists a "C. Green" at guard as Out with an undisclosed injury, and Drinkwitz confirmed it's actually starting left tackle Cayden Green — a preseason All-SEC and AP All-American pick — who will sit out the opener. "Cayden Green will miss the opener. That's what it is right now, I'm not going to give a medical report on it. We're going to do what's best for him," Drinkwitz said, per Yahoo Sports. Sophomore Jack Lange, a 6-foot-8 backup Drinkwitz says has "done an excellent job" taking first-team reps, is expected to start in his place, with converted tight end Whit Hafer also seeing time — meaning tonight doubles as Lange's first real look on the big stage.
A walk-on lineman just earned his scholarship in front of the team
Buried between the countdown graphics and gear posts, Missouri's own account put up the kind of clip that actually stops a scroll: "Earned it. @domgiudice56," tagging offensive lineman Dominick Giudice with a video the day before fall camp wrapped. It has all the shape of a scholarship reveal — the two-word caption, the tag, the media — for a 6-foot-4, 312-pound senior who has been grinding in the trenches for a program that just spent camp obsessing over red-zone push.
It is exactly the kind of moment that never shows up in a box score or an injury table, and it is also the best thing Missouri's own feed put out all week. No scholarship count or roster move confirms it beyond the post itself, but that has always been the point of days like this one — a lineman who has been at Missouri long enough to know what "earned it" means, getting told so on camera in front of everybody.
A Friday night in Lawrence is already waiting behind tonight's opener
Missouri turns around fast — the Tigers are on September 11 at Kansas next, a program still sitting at 0-0 itself after finishing last season with a 21-31 loss to Utah. The line opened with Missouri favored by 6.5 points, a number that says this one is expected to be tighter than tonight's tune-up, and the total opened at 52.5, a middling number that isn't projecting a shootout in either direction.
It's Missouri's first true road test of the year, at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, and it will say a lot more about where this team actually stands than a SWAC opener can. For now, the only job in front of Drinkwitz's group is getting through tonight against Arkansas-Pine Bluff with Simmons upright and Lange surviving his first look at left tackle.