Everything Mizzou Players Said at SEC Media Days

On individual goals:

"I'm just trying to be a better man for my team, try to be the best leader I can be and just lead us in that direction and just make the team come together as one, and be the team to do it."

On being a team captain and leader:

"Just looks like another year just leading the guys. It's not just me. It's Cayden, it's Dom, it's all def row, all ambush. We're all working together to strive for a common goal. I'm obviously blessed to be in this position and I'm grateful for it."

On what gives Rodriguez goosebumps:

"The National Anthem definitely gives me goosebumps. And I would say whenever they play that AD/DC."

On the recently renovated north end zone:

"It's going to be great. I'm excited. The noise is going to be trapped in there now. When they play "Mr. Brightside," I'm sure everybody will hear it now around town. It's going to be great. Fans are going to a lot of it. We'll definitely be excited for it."

On Josiah Trotter's lasting impact:

"Yeah, Trott was a great person, a great player. He was always there for us. We worked together. We strive together. We sharpened each other's tools. I mean, it's just like another day, just take another step. And I'm just grateful for the opportunity that he left behind him for us to come and do what he did."

On having nine conference games:

"It's going to be great. It's going to be tough. But that's what we signed up for. We play the game of football that we love. I mean, like me personally, I like playing competitive games. It makes me be more into it. And I feel like when you play a competitive team, you play to the standard. So it's going to be great."

On Ahmad Hardy's presence:

"Yeah, Ahmad's always in there. I mean, he's in there from the morning to we're done working out. He's always working out, getting rehab. He's supporting the team. When we do stadiums, he's out there with us. We're doing Tiger shut-outs (phonetic) he's out there with us. I mean, even outside of football, like, we go eat, we went to dinner the other day went to this Mexican spot there with Santana. And Ahmad, we went there had a good time, had some food and then we're just always kicking it and building that camaraderie."

On defensive players that could step up into potential starting roles:

"I've seen Darris Smith make a big jump, Marquis Gracial. I've seen Jeremiah Beasley make a big jump. Roz has made a big jump even though he just got here. Santana Banner's made a big jump. Trajen Greco made a big jump. I mean, I could just keep naming them the whole def row, all in all, has been working hard and we're excited for the season and fall camp."

Part of Rodriguez' game he's excited for:

"I'm most excited for the physicality part of my game. I feel like, coming from a wrestling background, and I have the opportunity to showcase that this year being physical at the point of attack. I'm excited for that."

On hosting Texas A&M for the second straight season:

"I mean, it was a difficult game. I mean, we're excited. We're really excited to host them. We have a great home schedule this game. We play two teams from Texas and some more teams at home. We'll have that field rocking especially with the new end zone finished up. And we're excited, and I know the fans can't wait."

On playing in Lawrence, Kansas against rival Jayhawks.

"I've never been in Kansas. So I'm going to be excited to go over there for that game. Our game we had last year was great. I mean, it was a great atmosphere. It was great competition. And I'm just excited to go over there and see what it is like in Kansas to play them at home. Excited for that."

On what people don't know about head coach Eli Drinkwitz:

"What do they not know about him? Hmm. He's pretty open. You see him. He's pretty funny. He makes some jokes. He's serious at times when he needs to be. And he'll check the team and lead us in the right direction all the time. But I'm sure -- he always says -- we always compete. We have a basketball hoop in the team room. Every time before we have a meeting, he'll call offense or defense to go shoot some hoops. Sometimes it will be coaches. And some of them coaches cannot shoot. But it is what it is."

On Drinkwitz' joking manner:

"I don't even know if I could say the best one I'm aware of. But, I mean, anything you could think of, he probably said it in that team room. I mean, I can't. It's so funny, though. But let me think of one. Yeah, no."

On practicing against quarterback Austin Simmons:

"Yeah, it's a different throwing motion for sure. But at the end of the day, you're still reading his shoulder, reading his quarterback tilt and seeing where he's going to throw. At the end of the day, he's a great quarterback, and he's been doing great things over there."

On Drinkwitz asking "You're coming back, right?" last year after the Gator Bowl:

"Yeah, that was actually a funny moment after the game. But I'm just excited to be here. I'm excited to be committed to the team. I'm excited that all my teammates know that I'm committed to them and that we have something to prove. STP, we're always competing. So I'm just excited to be out there with the guys and coaches and the staff and compete for one more year."

On going out of state to Missouri:

"Staying in state wasn't a big -- like, it wasn't big for me. I just wanted to go where I fit the best, where I felt the most wanted, the most needed, where I felt most comfortable, the coaching staff, and most importantly how the locker room felt with all the guys there as I was a recruit. And I think I made the right choice. We have something great going on in CoMo. And the locker room is great. We're all building team chemistry, being good, having cookouts, competitions, playing pickleball, even though we just started that. We're having a good time out there."

Cayden Green

On Ahmad Hardy getting cleared to practice:

"Oh, that's awesome. I didn't know that. So that's pretty exciting. But, yeah, I mean, it will be nice getting him back with Mal. And, you know, that 1-2 punch it will continue."

On the importance of being from Lee's Summit North:

"Oh, yeah, it's awesome, getting to play in front of, like, the home crowd two hours away from the house, that's awesome. You dream of that as a kid."

On what Green is looking forward to:

"Just getting to play with the guys one last time. That will be awesome. That was an opportunity I couldn't really pass up. So that will be awesome."

On the offensive line as a unit:

"Yeah, I'm excited. I don't think anybody in the country has outworked us. So I'm excited to see the fruits of that labor, because we're getting it in every day. There's never a day that goes by we're not doing something to get better."

On Missouri's history of strong running backs:

"Yeah, I definitely think it makes our job a little easier. A lot of teams, they're so worried about the run. It kind of makes throwing the ball easier. We've got two backs that make guys miss. So that definitely makes stuff easier. You get beat every once in a while, you know you've got a guy back there that's going to break a tackle or two -- takes two, three guys to bring them down. So it makes our job a little easier."

On what Austin Simmons brings to the table and if him being left-handed changes things for the line:

"Austin, he's great. He really likes his O line. We hang out all the time. He takes us out to eat. He hosts us. He's a great leader, great energy. As far as us, I don't think it changes much for us. Our mentality, every play, we go in to win every play. I don't think it changes much for us, but he's been a great addition to the team."

On being able to be coached in two different positions:

"Yeah, I think it's very important. I got my position moved probably about two weeks before the season last year. If I wasn't training multiple positions that would have been a lot rougher transition. So I think it's very important and even for the next level, they don't carry very many guys on the NFL roster, so you've got to be able to do more than one thing."

On Drinkwitz saying Green will be "the best [left tackle] in the country:"

"Well, I mean, I appreciate Coach for believing in me. He always believes in me. And yeah, I appreciate him for keeping me on the left side."

On blocking the strong side with a left-handed Simmons:

"Yeah, like I said, I mean, it doesn't make much of a difference. My job's still the same. My job is to win, regardless of who's back there, regardless of where I'm at on the line. So it's pretty much the same thing for me."

On games coming down to running the ball to win:

"Yeah, absolutely. It's pretty demoralizing for defenses when you're getting five, six, seven yards a carry and there's nothing anybody can really do about it."

On pregame rituals or superstitions:

"I don't. I try to get a fast twitch in before every game. Other than that, I'm ready to go after that."

On the SEC road experience:

"Oh, man, I don't know if I've had a single bad experience on the road. Like all those stadiums are really loud. The fans are crazy. I think the loudest stadium I played at was probably Jordan-Hare last year, we went to Auburn and played in that overtime. My ears were ringing after it. I don't think I've had a bad road experience."

On going to Georgia and Ole Miss:

"I haven't been to Georgia, Ole Miss. We've been to Mississippi State. Yeah, probably just those two, so I'm excited to see what those two are like."

On inspiring the younger players:

"I hope that they can take notes of how we work, and how every day there's something you can be doing to improve. I hope they carry that on next year."

On playing in Lawrence, Kansas:

"Yeah, I'm expecting it to be rocking. Our stadium wasn't finished last year either when we played them. So that game was still rocking for us. So I expect the same thing for them. We're playing on a Friday night. I don't think anybody else is playing that night, so it should be really fun."

On possible improvements before going to the next level:

"This year, I'm looking to improve on my hands. I feel like if I can improve on my hands, that will elevate my game a lot more. So that's been a big emphasis this offseason."

Jamal Roberts

On coming back to Missouri:

"My reason why I wanted to come back, I just had no reason to leave. I was home at Mizzou, and I started there and I wanted to finish there. And I'm just looking to have another good season that I had last year, not dwelling on last year, but having a better season than I had last year."

On a team fans are excited to see at home:

"I know on this year's schedule, everybody's going to want to come see Mizzou versus Texas for sure."

On potentially taking a bigger leadership role:

"Just being where my feet is, just stepping up and just pouring into the guys that's younger than me and some of the transfer guys, showing them the Mizzou way. And just pouring some of that wisdom into them guys that never had it or just came from different programs that's not Mizzou."

On how the running game strengths the offense as a whole:

"I feel like it just makes it easier for quarterback to play quarterback and some of the guys that's playing receiver to play receiver. We've got those guys that the running back position to be able to run the ball as well as we do. It makes it easier for the guys around us to do their jobs on the field as well."

On the Arkansas rivalry and others:

"I love rivalry games. They're really fun. They're exciting. They're new to me as well, just playing in the KU game in the Arkansas games, like we always play Arkansas at the end of the year every year. And they're really fun to play. It's just battling on the line."

On playing Oklahoma in the last week of the season during rivalry weekend:

"We gotta get them for sure. OU part of it."

On last year's performance against Texas A&M:

"Just last year, just being ready when my name was called. Just running the ball. Just focusing on them guys up front. I've got to give good props to my guys up front like the linemen. They blocked very well for that game, I can't do it without them. Without the linemen, I couldn't have that good game as I had last year."

On how Ahmad Hardy is doing:

"Ahmad is doing well. He's at every team event that we do. He's doing rehab and he's doing well."

On how Roberts and Hardy build off eachother:

"Me and Ahmad coach each other up all the time. Even on -- he coached me up right now. I thought he was coaching me up doing just summer workouts. And we give each other pointers, like I said. I would step up this year and pour wisdom into the guys. But he's already given the God-given ability to run the ball. But just to help him understand the plays, or pre-snap reads and this that and the third, and just help each other out. We really come as one."

On this season's offensive line:

"Just as me and Ahmad is one, our whole offensive line is one. They do a lot. They put in so much work during the offseason, it's unbelievable. I really appreciate that work that they put in because it's going to show. They're going to apply it to the field and we're going to dominate up front."

On what the Tigers are known for by recruits:

"We definitely are a run-game program. They love that we run the ball and that we had top SEC rushers in, like Coach said, Tyler Beaty and Ahmad Hardy. That's what they really like to hear and the coaches just love that environment, just open, the college, not the college, but the high school kids with open arms, like how they deal with me, just showing them the way, you know?"

On representing Missouri being from St. Louis:

"That means a lot. I'm definitely grateful for the opportunity. I really appreciate coach for picking me as one of the people to represent Mizzou. And it definitely means a lot because it's possible, man, like it's very doable. And I'm really grateful for the opportunity."

On the best food in Columbia, Missouri:

"I really be eating the same thing. As far as like go-tos, I really be on Pickleman's a lot. It's like a pizza/sandwich type of place. (Indiscernible) pizza and sandwiches. That's pretty much my spot. And Bud's BBQ, though, Bud's is really good. Bud's really good. I really enjoy it a lot. The smash burgers are really good there."

On Simmons:

"He's not afraid to throw it. He's definitely taking charge. He's keeping everybody on the same boat, same page, and we're doing the same thing with him. By him being a transfer, we're showing him the Mizzou way as well. Just taking a charge and running an offense as a quarterback as a captain, as a quarterback."

Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram for the latest news.