Mizzou spring football preview: Offensive line

Missouri football will be looking to make history in 2025 by winning double-digit games for the third straight season and making the College Football Playoff, both of which would be firsts for the program. But the start of those goals begins with spring ball which should be getting underway in the next couple of weeks.

Since Missouri’s last regular season game, there have been several significant changes to the roster from Armand Membou and Luther Burden III announcing their intentions to enter the 2025 NFL Draft as projected first-round picks, to Brady Cook and Johnny Walker having played their final games of their collegiate career as they exhausted their eligibility. 

We will be previewing the storylines and or questions for each position. Next up is the offensive line.

Mizzou went into 2024 retaining eight starters and going into 2025 it’ll be losing eight starters, three of which come from the offensive line. 

Membou is NFL-bound as previously mentioned and left tackle Marcus Bryant and right guard Cam’Ron Johnson exhausted their eligibility. 

This group also lost two key reserves in Mitchell Walters and Drake Heismeyer who each played well when they were called upon last season. 

The Tigers went to the portal and got former West Virginia left tackle Johnny Williams IV, former Michigan interior offensive lineman Dominick Giudice and former Wake Forest right tackle Keagen Trost. They also signed three four-star prospects in Jack Lange, Keiton Jones and Henry Fenuku. 

So, the question is simple. 

Who are the starters?

We did a Way-too-early offensive line depth chart prediction. So, you can read more on who we think might make up the lineup here.

For now, we will just talk about the options. 

Missouri has two starters but it may come with an asterisk. 

Left guard Cayden Green will be returning for his junior season at the one spot he’s played his whole career. Although, no one should be surprised if he’s taking some left tackle snaps during spring ball like he did last spring. 

Green started all 13 games for MU and had a PFF College pass-block grade of 76.7 and a run-block grade of 75.0. He gave up 11 pressures, a sack and four penalties. 

We know Green is going to be a full participant during spring ball. Can the same be said for center Connor Tollison?

He missed the last four games after sustaining a knee injury in the Week 11 matchup versus Oklahoma. The three-year starter is listed on Missouri’s official 2025 spring football roster. Now, he could physically be at spring ball and be doing individual work but will he be able to go for team drills? When will he be fully cleared? Will he be ready to go for fall camp? The start of the season?

In 2024, Tollison allowed 14 pressures, two sacks and one penalty. He also had a pass-block grade of 61.0 and a run-block grade of 74.6. 

Williams and Jayven Richardson are likely the two players who will take a bulk of the left tackle snaps, especially if Green remains at left guard, during spring ball. 

Williams played 284 snaps for the Mountaineers last season and started a couple of games. He had a pass-block grade of 84.5 and a run-block grade of 68.3. He was also penalized just twice and gave up four pressures and one sack. 

Richardson competed for the starting gig during fall camp last year before losing out to Bryant. The former JUCO product is coming in at 6-foot-6 and 315 pounds with a year with the program under his belt, which could be beneficial. 

However, this could be a spot the team tries to attack during the spring portal window. 

At right guard, it’ll largely be a three-man race among Giudice, Tristan Wilson and Logan Reichert. 

Giudice is the most experienced of the trio and played 317 total snaps (250 snaps at center, 63 at left guard and four at right guard) for Michigan across seven games in 2024. He has played snaps at all three interior positions and may be a suitable replacement for Tollison at center if he isn’t ready to go yet. 

Last season, he had a pass-block grade of 71.0 and a run-block grade of 52.9. He also gave up five pressures and no sacks.

Wilson and Reichert have been on the team since 2023 but haven’t really played yet. They’ve kind of been viewed as the prospects in waiting. Well, this is their offseason to make a push to finally earn bigger roles. 

Trost, for now, could be viewed as the favorite to take a lot of first-team reps at right tackle during spring ball. Last season, he had a run-block grade of 69.9 and a pass-block grade of 71,5 in 12 games (11 starts) for the Demon Deacons at the position. He did allow a team-high 19 pressures to go along with two sacks and was penalized four times. 

However, there are a lot of promising options outside of the ones listed above. 

There’s Curtis Peagler, who has been with the team since 2022 but has yet to see action. The same goes for class of 2023 signee Brandon Solis. 

Talan Chandler, Ryan Jostes and Caleb Pyfrom were all three-star signees as part of the class of 2024. They all redshirted last season and will be trying to climb the depth chart. 

Other Previews

Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers 

Tight ends