Mizzou has revealed its traveling party for SEC Media Days: head coach Eli Drinkwitz will be joined in Tampa by offensive lineman Cayden Green, running back Jamal Roberts and linebacker Nicholas Rodriguez. The Tigers take the podium on Monday, July 20, and all three players will be making their first career appearance at the league’s annual talking-season kickoff.
The Rundown
- Drinkwitz plus Cayden Green (OL), Jamal Roberts (RB) and Nicholas Rodriguez (LB) will represent Mizzou at SEC Media Days in Tampa
- Mizzou’s session is Monday, July 20 — one of the opening-day slots
- All three players are first-timers at the event
- Rodriguez led the team with seven pass breakups in 2025 to go with 61 tackles
What the Picks Tell Us
Media Days invites are never random. Coaches bring the guys they trust to carry the message, and this trio tells you exactly where our Tigers believe their identity lives in 2026: up front, in the backfield and in the middle of the defense.
Green is the headliner. He’s entering year three in Columbia and coming off a season where he slid out to left tackle just two weeks before the opener — the kind of move that wrecks most linemen and barely fazed him. With his decision to run it back at Mizzou already made, he walks into Tampa as one of the SEC’s most respected returning blockers.
Roberts is the tone-setter. Drinkwitz was vocal after last season about how badly the program needed to keep him in black and gold, and the staff got that deal done. When your head coach publicly stumps to retain a running back, you bring that running back to Media Days.
Rodriguez Speaks for the Defense
Rodriguez earned this trip the hard way. The junior linebacker played in all 13 games in 2025 and stuffed the stat sheet: 61 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, 4 tackles for loss and a team-leading seven pass breakups. That last number is the one that pops — a linebacker leading the roster in PBUs tells you how much ground he covers in space. He’ll be the voice of a defense that expects to keep Mizzou in every game this fall.
Talking Season Is Here
Notice who isn’t going: new starting quarterback Austin Simmons. That’s not a snub — plenty of programs shield first-year starters from the podium circus — but it does mean the veterans will be answering the QB questions all day. Expect Drinkwitz to lean on his usual mix of one-liners and edge, and expect the national media to press him on whether this roster can finally break through in a brutal SEC.
The takeaway for Tiger fans: the season officially feels real now. Monday in Tampa is the starting gun, and Mizzou is sending three players who earned the microphone.
Sources: ABC17 News, Saturday Down South
