As talking season rolls on with the beginning of SEC Media Days in Tampa this week, the last thing any college football fan wants to hear about at this juncture is an injury to a key player.
Eli Drinkwitz and the Missouri Tigers already received some difficult news when star tailback Ahmad Hardy was shot in the leg at a hometown concert earlier this year, and with his status still up in the air, it appears that another offensive player is similarly in a state of flux.
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While meeting with the media Monday, Drinkwitz revealed that offensive tackle Josh Atkins recently suffered a setback with a leg injury he suffered during spring practice. As ABC17’s Nathalie Jones reported, the head coach stated that Atkins’ timeline to get back on the field just got murkier.
“Josh had a setback with his injury,” Drinkwitz said. “It’s not gonna be as hopeful as we had [hoped] that he’s going to be able to be back mid-season.”
The injury is important not only because Atkins was likely slated to be Mizzou’s starting right tackle, but also because Ole Miss transfer quarterback Austin Simmons is left-handed, making that the blindside spot on the line.
“He’s [Atkins] still attacking it, but we’ll see how that goes,” Drinkwitz said. “We’ll have to wait and see…but I feel like we did a great job of attacking the portal at that position. I feel very confident in this offensive line…I haven’t seen a group work this hard in my time.”
Parker is currently the sports editor for Gulf Coast Media in Foley, Alabama. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
