Happy July 31st, Rock M Nation readers

You ready for fall to start today? Technically, I mean fall camp. You know, the camp that happens in the middle of summer before a football season that starts at the end of summer? Yeah, that one.

Well, it starts today which means that...

IT’S FOOTBALL SEASON!!

While camp kicks off officially later today, the first official media availability of the season was yesterday and our brand spankin’ new beat writer Jaden Lewis was able to attend. You can read his full news and notes here — which include comments from Blake Baker about the defense and Ty’Ron Hopper — but here are some big takeaways IMHO.

Luther Burden is taking no prisoners this season

According to Drinkwitz, true sophomore wide receiver Luther Burden has had a good off-season, transforming himself into a better player than he was before.

“He’s had a really good offseason as far as diet and attention to detail and approach to off-season training and conditioning,” Drinkwitz said. “He’s leaner than he’s ever been. He’s got more muscle mass, he’s probably faster than he’s ever been.”

Haha! Scary!

The offensive line might be... good?

“I think it’s the deepest offensive line that we’ve had,” Drinkwitz said. “There’s probably eight to nine guys that could end up being starters...so watching that unfold would be really fun.”

A good offensive line would be good for my soul, not gonna lie.

The QBs are taking this open competition in stride

[Brady Cook will] have to fight off Garcia and Horn but while there’s competition, the three quarterbacks have formed a tight bond within the room.

“I can’t say enough about all of them,” Horn said. “It’s not just Brady and Jake, I mean there’s all sorts of guys in there and we all kind of bond together in the quarterback room and there great so just to be able to build off each other and learn off of everybody’s mistakes.”

That’s fun. I’ll bet they have fun film screenings together!

But the news and notes isn’t the only preseason coverage we’ve got on the site! Sam gave us something like a state of the program on Saturday, and Jaden also wrote about the possibility of Mizzou using 2 or 3 QBs in the first few weeks of the season, which is a nice way to kick off QB and RB preview week at Rock M Nation! We’ll have a boatload of content for the next month, so check back every dad-gum day to keep up with what’s happening in CoMo!

Other publication preseason coverage:

• Dave Matter writes about the start of preseason practice for the Post Dispatch
• Chris Kwiecinski writes about the camp competitions that could define the next month at the Tribune
• Here’s some social media stuff through x dot com or whatever it’s called now

Yesterday at Rock M

• In which Jaden pitches us a 3-man QB rotation for the first 3-4 weeks. I’m in favor!
• In which Drinkwitz, Blake Baker and many players speak during the first official media availability of camp

More Links:

• Good guy Mitch Morse, loading for the 2023 NFL season.

• Just a couple of Tigers tearing it up for the USA at the World University Games!

• If you’re looking to sign up for ESPN+, Rock M Nation now has an affiliate link: click Here for ESPN+ Now!
• If you’re looking to sign up for a new streaming service, you can try FuboTV: click HERE for FuboTV access — FuboTV now has ESPN, CBS, FS1 and more sports channels.
  (** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links.**)