Missouri

Missouri bill would loosen child labor law by removing work permit requirements • Missouri Independent

Published

2 years ago

April 29, 2024

Missouri bill would loosen child labor law by removing work permit requirements • Missouri Independent

A push to eliminate Missouri’s requirement for children under 16 to obtain official work permits before they can begin a job could be debated by the House this week.

In order to work in Missouri, 14 and 15 year olds must obtain a certificate issued by their school, with information from their prospective employer about the details of the job as well as parental consent and age verification.

The child’s school, or if they are homeschooled, a parent, must review that information to ensure it’s in line with state laws that restrict the kind of work children can do and their hours. Once the school issues the certificate, a copy is filed with the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Children under 14 are generally not permitted to work and those 16 and older aren’t subject to the same restrictions.

The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Dave Hinman of O’Fallon and a similar one sponsored by state Sen. Nick Schroer of Defiance, would eliminate the formal work permit process. Instead of being overseen by schools and the state labor agency, the only requirement would be that a parent sign a permission slip for the child’s employer.

Proponents have characterized schools’ role in the process as unnecessary and outdated, and said parents should have the largest role.

“With discussions with our superintendent and other folks around here,” Hinman said in an interview with The Independent this week, “we felt it was better that the parents make that decision instead of schools being the ones that sign off on it.”

Hinman’s bill was voted out of committee in March, and he hopes the full House will debate it before session ends — perhaps as early as this week. The Senate version of the bill was heard in committee earlier this month and hasn’t been voted out yet.

Sen. Nick Schroer, R-Defiance (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).

The bill is about “empowering employers and youth,” Schroer said in a committee hearing earlier this month.

“While easing the regulations, this legislation also prioritizes parental involvement by mandating signed permission slips…ensuring that parents are informed and involved in their child’s work activities” Schroer said.

Arkansas passed a similar law last year eliminating youth employment permits, though it didn’t include the parental permission slip piece. It faced opposition from child advocacy groups and others, who worried it would remove a layer of oversight protecting child workers in a time when child labor violations have gained attention nationally for being on the rise.

Proponents have insisted that the bill won’t affect child labor violations because businesses will still be required to comply with state and federal law.

In Missouri, the legislation has flown largely under the radar: No one testified in opposition during hearings on the bill the last two years. A handful of individuals submitted written opposition.

John Fliter, an associate professor of political science at Kansas State University, who studies child labor, said in an interview with The Independent that certificates are an important safeguard for children.

“We need to be careful because at the same time that [some states are] doing this, weakening restrictions, we’re seeing an increase in child labor violations and some really bad cases over the last few years,” he said.

The certificates, Fliter added, produce a record of employers acknowledging they will follow the law, and allow schools to play a “supervisory role” and ensure children are “not working to the detriment of their education.”

State Sen. Doug Beck, a Democrat from Affton, asked during a committee hearing earlier this month how the state could be sure employers were still doing things like age verification if the government wouldn’t be allowed to require permits to oversee the process.

“Where’s the enforcement on this bill exactly?” Beck asked. “…Where’s the accountability?”

“I think the accountability is with the parents and the business owners,” Schroer replied.

Schools’ role

Earlier versions of the House bill included language to extend the hours in the day children are allowed to work, but that’s since been removed because the sponsor found out it conflicts with federal law.

Children under 16 are legally required to be off work by 7 p.m. during the school year.

The reason Hinman initially filed the bill was because he wanted to push that time back, after he was approached by a restaurant owner in his district who was struggling with staffing those later hours.

“I’d like to see that time adjusted hopefully, up till eight o’clock, nine o’clock. Just to give a little bit more time for those businesses,” he said.

Now, the bill includes a provision that those restrictions apply “unless a later time is allowed by federal law,” which Hinman said is intended so Missouri can automatically change its law if the federal government does.

When he started looking into these laws, Hinman found it “an odd thing that the school district did that,” referring to the certification requirements, which led him to look at a bill filed last year and incorporate some of its language.

Youth work permits aren’t federally mandated but the majority of states require them.

Thirty-four states require youth work permits. The details vary, including whether they’re issued by a state agency or schools and what ages are included.

State Rep. Holly Jones, a Republican from Eureka, said in the committee hearing that she “hates” that schools are the ones who sign off on certificates.

“I really don’t love the schools having so much power over families and students,” she said.

A similar bill last year, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Manchester Republican, didn’t gain momentum, clearing a Senate committee but never being debated by the full chamber.

A Washington Post investigation last year found the Florida-based conservative think tank, Foundation for Government Accountability, and its lobbying arm, the Opportunity Solutions Project, has been behind the push to roll back certain child labor protections in state legislatures.

“States should be allowing their teenagers to decide, with their parents, to get a job — not the government,” an issue paper published by Foundation for Government Accountability last year said. The paper characterized the issue as pitting “parents vs. educators and regulators.”

That group played an important role in Arkansas’ elimination of work certificates, the Post reported, and in Missouri, a lobbyist for Opportunity Solutions Project, James Harris, sent Koenig’s staff draft legislation last year before he filed it. Hinman said Harris didn’t approach him with the language.

Harris was the first one to testify in the committee hearings this year. In the House hearing, he said his first job as a teen helped him when he was a “law breaker” youth.

“I look back at that job and I learned so much,” Harris said.

“…Part of this is to help businesses be able to have more of a workforce for people to work,” Harris said during a later discussion about how pushing back the 7 p.m. restriction could cause businesses to worry about breaking federal law and not bolster their workforce.

Neither Harris nor the Foundation for Government Accountability responded to interview requests.

Other support has come from business groups including the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, Missouri Retailers and Missouri Grocers Association.

The legislation was voted out of committee on party lines. Democrats opposed it.

Hinson said in an interview with The Independent that while he’s not optimistic it will pass this year — with just three weeks left in session — he is hopeful it will come to the floor and that discussion will help improve the bill for next year.

“I would love to have the opportunity to have a full discussion with everybody on the floor, both sides of the aisle and see what the thoughts are so next year if we need to make corrections to the bill, that we can make it an even better bill,” Hinman said. “…[The legislation] is one of my priorities.”

‘One more set of eyes’

Maura Browning, spokesperson for Missouri’s Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said the agency can’t comment on pending legislation.

But speaking broadly about how the state oversees child work requirements, labor department officials said they rely on the current licensing practice and see it as a tool to help ensure kids don’t enter hazardous work or take on excessive hours.

The required form is just one page. In it, the child’s prospective employer must provide the specific job duties, hours and an acknowledgment they will abide by state law. Schools verify a child’s age and can review their grades.

Todd Smith, who directs the Division of Labor Standards within the state labor department, said schools help identify when the descriptions employers submit should be flagged as hazardous.

Kids under 16 aren’t allowed to do certain jobs, like operating a meat slicer or handling any hot oil or grease.

“We will enforce whatever the legislature passes, obviously, but in a perfect world, I think it’s important to have that education piece to share with employers,” Smith said in an interview with The Independent.

Missouri issued over 10,000 youth employment licenses last year.

Patrick Watkins, who works as the wage and hour section manager in the state labor department, said going through the school “gives us one more set of eyes to look at those hazardous job descriptions.”

Watkins added that in the current process the employer “agrees that they understand our restrictions, but more importantly, they have to fill in exactly what job duties the child will be performing and we catch a lot of hazardous titles just in that reveal alone.”

Child advocacy and social justice organizations reached by The Independent said they are not taking a position on the bill because they are deciding to stay out of the issue or are simply not up to speed on the legislation.

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Missouri

11 Best Golf Courses in Missouri

Published

4 hours ago

June 1, 2026

Press Room

Big Cedar Lodge, the Bass Pro Shops resort above Table Rock Lake, has assembled the densest collection of big-name golf design in the Midwest, with courses by Tiger Woods, Tom Fazio, Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and Jack Nicklaus all within a few minutes of one another. That Ozarks cluster anchors one of Missouri’s three golf regions. St. Louis brings a 1914 Charles Blair Macdonald layout and two Robert Trent Jones Sr. courses with deep championship history, while the Lake of the Ozarks splits the middle of the state with Nicklaus and Weiskopf designs on opposite shores. The eleven courses below each cover architect, yardage, green-fee range, and access notes for visiting golfers.

Ozarks National

Built on the bones of a defunct course, Ozarks National is the work of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who widened the fairways and routed new holes across the limestone ridges south of Branson. The par-71 layout opened on May 1, 2019, stretches to 7,036 yards with a 73.9 rating, and includes a 400-foot wooden bridge that carries golfers 60 feet above a creek between the 13th tee and fairway. It was named a Best New Public Course for 2019 and has held a place among the country’s top 100 public courses every year since. Holes ride along ridgetops and out onto fingers of land that fall into wooded ravines, and the tilt of those holes puts a premium on shaping shots off the tee.

Green fees run roughly $190 to $275 by season, and play is tied to a Big Cedar Lodge reservation. The resort covers more than 4,600 acres above Table Rock Lake, with lodging that spans lodge rooms, cottages, the four-bedroom Buffalo Ridge cottages added in 2021, and the remodeled Angler’s Lodge near the water. Six pools, marinas, the Cedar Creek Spa, and horseback riding fill out the grounds. Springfield-Branson National Airport is about 45 minutes north, and the practice facility beside the clubhouse also serves Payne’s Valley and the resort’s par-3 courses. Conditions are cleanest from April through October.

Payne’s Valley

Payne’s Valley was the first public-access course Tiger Woods designed through his TGR Design firm, and it carries the name of Springfield-born major champion Payne Stewart. The par-72 layout runs 7,170 yards over wide fairways and large greens, and it ends on a bonus 19th hole designed by Johnny Morris, an island green ringed by streams and waterfalls spilling down exposed rock. Its grand opening in September 2020 was marked by the Payne’s Valley Cup, an exhibition pairing Woods and Justin Thomas against Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose. The course ranks consistently among the best in the country.

A round requires a Big Cedar Lodge reservation, with green fees around $325 and forecaddies on hand through the season. A memorial to Stewart, the two-time U.S. Open champion whose life ended in a 1999 plane crash, sits on the property. The resort’s lodging, restaurants, Cedar Creek Spa, and three other championship layouts make this the simplest one-stop golf trip in the state, with Springfield-Branson National Airport the nearest commercial gateway. The course holds up best in April through June and again from September into October, since the Ozarks bake at midsummer.

Buffalo Ridge

Tom Fazio first laid out this course in 1999 as Branson Creek Golf Club. After Johnny Morris bought it in 2013, he brought Fazio back for a 2014 redesign that added waterfalls, water features, and exposed rock. Now called Buffalo Ridge Springs, the par-71 layout plays 7,036 yards on zoysia fairways with a 73.4 rating and 130 slope, and a herd of North American bison grazes the pasture beside the opening hole as the routing threads limestone outcrops with not a single house in sight. From 2014 through 2019 it co-hosted the PGA Tour Champions Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf alongside Top of the Rock.

Green fees generally run about $135 to $275 by season, with the best value off-season. Buffalo Ridge keeps its own clubhouse and practice area about 1.5 miles north of the main Big Cedar campus, and stay-and-play packages open up lodging across the resort. The clubhouse handles food and beverage and houses a pro shop. Springfield-Branson National Airport is roughly 45 minutes out. Late spring and early fall play firmer and cooler than midsummer, though it is worth checking for the March and September aeration weeks before booking.

Top of the Rock

Jack Nicklaus finished Top of the Rock in 1996 as a nine-hole par-3 course on a bluff above Table Rock Lake. When the PGA Tour Champions Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf moved to Big Cedar in 2014, the layout became the first par-3 course ever used in a Tour-sanctioned event. Its holes reach beyond 200 yards across lakes, cliffs, and rock ledges, and the complex sits next to an Arnold Palmer practice range and a Tom Watson-designed Himalayas-style putting course covering more than an acre. The grounds hold Audubon Signature Sanctuary status, and the par-3 hosted the Legends through 2019.

The course is open to the public, with green fees around $125 for lodging guests. Dining happens at Arnie’s Barn, a 150-year-old structure moved from Arnold Palmer’s backyard in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, that now holds his memorabilia and the pro shop. The Palmer range lets players hit into the cliffside terrain before a round. Springfield-Branson National Airport is the nearest commercial option, about 45 minutes north, and the season runs April through October, with golden hour over the lake making late tee times worth chasing.

Branson Hills Golf Club

Chuck Smith designed Branson Hills with PGA professional Bobby Clampett as his consultant, and the course opened in June 2009 as Payne Stewart Golf Club before taking its current name. The par-72 routing runs 7,324 yards from the championship tees across six tee sets, with the forward set at 5,323, over A-4 bentgrass greens and Meyer zoysia fairways, and the opening tee shot falls about 130 feet to the fairway below. Each of the 18 holes carries the name of a moment from a Missouri golfer’s career, with tags like Trevino’s Tease, Payne’s Pit, and Chelsea’s Kiss.

Green fees generally land between $175 and $225, with tee times bookable 60 days out. The clubhouse holds the Many Faces of Payne sports bar and the glassed-in Payne Stewart Museum, which displays items lent by Tracy Stewart, among them five Ryder Cup bags and clubs from his biggest wins. Branson Hills sits inside a 1,200-acre gated community about seven minutes from the Branson Convention Center, and visiting golfers tend to stay at Branson Landing’s Hilton properties or in community rentals. Springfield-Branson National Airport is 45 minutes north, and the course is at its best from April through October.

LedgeStone Country Club

Tom Clark’s LedgeStone opened in 1994 inside StoneBridge Village, about 15 minutes from downtown Branson. The par-71 layout reaches 6,881 yards from the back tees and 4,906 up front, with bentgrass greens, tree-lined zoysia fairways, and the steep elevation changes that Ozark mountain golf tends to demand. The signature 15th drops sharply downhill to a three-tiered green and counts among the steepest holes in the state.

LedgeStone is open to the public under the StoneBridge Village Property Owners’ Association, with green fees of about $80 to $120 by season and time of day. The clubhouse sits beside a water feature and houses the pro shop and the LedgeStone Grille. The club runs no lodging of its own, but StoneBridge Village offers third-party rentals, and Branson’s hotels and the Hilton properties at Branson Landing are within 25 minutes. Springfield-Branson National Airport is the nearest commercial option, and April through October brings the best weather.

Bellerive Country Club

Robert Trent Jones Sr. completed Bellerive’s championship course for a Memorial Day 1960 opening, and the club hosted the U.S. Open just five years later, where Gary Player beat Kel Nagle in an 18-hole playoff in 1965 to complete the career grand slam. The course measures 7,547 yards from the championship tees at par 72, dropping to par 71 for tournaments with the 10th played as a par 4, and carries a 76.3 rating and 141 slope. Rees Jones renovated it in 2006 and again in 2013, swapping his father’s bunkers for his own style, lengthening the routing, and rebuilding the bunker complex. The major-championship roll call is long: the 1992 PGA (Nick Price), the 2018 PGA (Brooks Koepka, whose 264 set a record), the 2004 U.S. Senior Open, the 2008 BMW Championship, and the 2013 Senior PGA, with the BMW returning in 2026 and the Presidents Cup booked for 2030.

Bellerive is private, with membership by invitation and access generally limited to members and guests outside tournament weeks. The clubhouse handles dining on several levels, and practice facilities and event space round out the property. The club sits about 20 minutes from downtown St. Louis and 25 minutes from St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and visiting golfers tend to choose between downtown hotels and Clayton-area boutiques. May through October plays best, when the zoysia fairways and bentgrass greens hit their stride.

St. Louis Country Club

Charles Blair Macdonald designed St. Louis Country Club in 1914, with Seth Raynor handling construction, which makes it one of only a handful of Macdonald-Raynor courses anywhere and the architect’s westernmost work. The par-71 layout plays a modest 6,542 yards but leans on the template holes Macdonald gathered on a research trip to Scotland, including a Redan from North Berwick, a punchbowl from the Old Course at St Andrews, and a blind approach drawn from Prestwick. A restoration led by Brian Silva from 2000 onward reintroduced Macdonald’s original features. The course hosted the 1947 U.S. Open, where Lew Worsham edged Sam Snead in a playoff, plus the 1921 and 1960 U.S. Amateurs, the 1925 and 1972 U.S. Women’s Amateurs, and the 2014 Curtis Cup.

The club, founded in 1892 as a polo club, is private and invitation-only, and the USGA counts it among the first 100 clubs in America. A full-sized polo field still hosts matches in front of the clubhouse and doubles as the driving range. Bentgrass fairways set it apart in a transition zone where most clubs run zoysia or Bermuda, and the course favors spring and fall. It sits 10 miles west of downtown St. Louis in the Ladue suburb, about 20 minutes from St. Louis Lambert International Airport, with visiting golfers clustering around Clayton and downtown hotels. Late April through October plays best.

Old Warson Country Club

The second Robert Trent Jones Sr. course in St. Louis County, Old Warson opened on April 15, 1954, a year after construction began on 180 acres bought by a group of local businessmen. The par-71 layout plays 6,946 yards from the back tees with a 74.5 rating and 144 slope across undulating, tree-lined ground, showing off the elevated greens, runway tee boxes, broad bunkers, and repeated doglegs that Trent Jones counted as his signatures. The short par-4 14th is one of the most praised holes in the state, its elevated tee shot carrying a lake to a narrow landing framed by water and sand. Old Warson hosted the 1971 Ryder Cup, where the United States beat Great Britain 18.5 to 13.5 in the last edition to feature Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Lee Trevino on the same side, along with the 1999 U.S. Mid-Amateur, the 2009 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and the 2016 U.S. Senior Amateur.

The club is private and invitation-only, and Hale Irwin, the three-time U.S. Open champion and a member since 1977, is the most prominent name on the roster. The course is at 9841 Old Warson Road in the Ladue area, about 20 minutes from downtown and 25 from St. Louis Lambert International Airport. Practice facilities are extensive, the clubhouse covers dining and events, and members’ guests typically stay at Clayton boutiques or downtown St. Louis chains. April through October offers the most reliable conditions.

The Club at Porto Cima

Jack Nicklaus’s only signature course in Missouri opened in July 2000 on the western shore of the Lake of the Ozarks. The par-72 layout plays 7,060 yards across five tee sets, with seven holes running along or over the lake and a four-hole closing stretch that hugs the shoreline. The 15th is a hard par 5 whose green juts into the water, forcing an approach decision few Missouri courses can match. It has held a top-10 spot among the state’s best courses every year since opening.

Porto Cima is private and run by KemperSports, and membership opens the course, the 17,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style clubhouse, and the neighboring Yacht Club, a 118-slip marina with a pool, fitness area, tennis and pickleball courts, and a poolside cabana. The Grille Room, Sandtrap Lounge, and a patio over the 18th green handle dining. The club is about three hours west of St. Louis and two hours south of Kansas City, with the Lodge of Four Seasons 20 minutes east providing lodging for invited guests. May through October plays best.

Old Kinderhook

Tom Weiskopf routed Old Kinderhook in 1999 on the west side of the Lake of the Ozarks as the centerpiece of a 700-acre planned community. The par-71 course plays 6,726 yards over zoysia tees and fairways and bentgrass greens, working valleys, waterfalls, hills, and water hazards into the surrounding Ozark terrain. It welcomed its first round in May 1999 and has hosted more than 300,000 golfers since, and it ranks among Weiskopf’s stronger solo designs.

Green fees generally run $65 to $115 by season, the resort plays year-round, and an 84-room lodge overlooks the course. The Trophy Room serves dinner and the Hook Cafe handles breakfast and lunch, with the lodge 10 minutes from the Ozarks Amphitheater. Amenities include three saltwater pools (one indoor), a private boat ramp on the Big Niangua arm of the lake, a winter ice rink, and Spa 54. Daily-fee tee times open 30 days out, and lodging guests book first. Camdenton Memorial-Lake Regional Airport takes small craft, while commercial flyers come through Springfield-Branson or St. Louis Lambert. April through October plays best.

Planning Your Trip

The Big Cedar Lodge complex, with Ozarks National, Payne’s Valley, Buffalo Ridge, and Top of the Rock, plus the nearby public LedgeStone and Branson Hills tracks, fits comfortably into a four or five day trip from a single lodge or cottage base, with arrivals through Springfield-Branson National Airport. St. Louis Country Club, Old Warson, and Bellerive sit close together on the west side of St. Louis around Ladue, Town and Country, and the Clayton corridor, served by St. Louis Lambert International. The two Lake of the Ozarks courses, Old Kinderhook and Porto Cima, split the middle of the state and make a natural halfway stop on a road trip between the two metros.

Green fees span a wide range: under $100 at LedgeStone and Old Kinderhook, about $325 at Payne’s Valley, and various points in between. April through October is the broad season, with the Big Cedar courses holding up best from late spring into early fall and the St. Louis tracks peaking in May and again from September into October. With this much golf packed into a few tight clusters, Missouri rewards a trip built around one region at a time.

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Missouri

Which ex-Missouri football players will face former team this season?

Published

14 hours ago

May 31, 2026

Press Room

Which ex-Missouri football players will face former team this season?

Let’s talk drama.

Transfer portal drama, specifically. The kind inspired by last week’s Texas Tech-Florida softball series, which comfortably could have aired on Bravo.

For those who missed out on the fun, former Florida second baseman and current Texas Tech star Mia Williams — the daughter of former Gators point guard “White Chocolate” Jason Williams — was hit by five pitches over the course of the series by her former team.

Florida’s coach was ejected during the fiery Super Regional. The Gators’ players declined a handshake line after the Red Raiders clinched the series and a Women’s College World Series berth behind two Mia Williams home runs in the finale. Jason Williams was spotted Gator-chomping in the direction of the Florida dugout after a home run, and a UF fan was ejected after a reported altercation between Jason Williams and Mia Williams’ sister.

Woah!

College football has some potential for high-octane reunions. Our undivided attention on Sept. 19, for instance, will be on Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford, Mississippi, with LSU.

Let’s turn local: Does the opportunity for some not-so-amicable reunions exist with Missouri football this year?

Probably not to the degree of any of the examples listed above, but there are multiple former Mizzou players on the Tigers’ schedule this season. Missouri also has several projected starters set to face their former teams, too.

Here are the former Missouri football players who the Tigers will see on the opposing sideline this upcoming fall, and the current Mizzou players who are going to face their former teams:

Which former players will Missouri football face this upcoming fall?

Marquis Johnson, WR, Mississippi State: Johnson is expected to be a starting wide receiver for the Bulldogs’ when Mizzou visits Starkville. The wideout, who flashed as a deep-ball threat as a freshman, spent three seasons with the Tigers but never managed to top his rookie-year receiving production. He lost his starting job midseason last year.

Kewan Lacy, RB, Ole Miss: Lacy spent the 2024 season with Missouri and has since emerged as one of the better running backs in the college game, rushing for 1,567 yards and 24 touchdowns for the Rebels last season. This has been a little bit of a ‘Sliding Doors’ moment, because Mizzou signed Ahmad Hardy two days after Lacy went into the portal.

That’s worked out just fine for both teams, we’d say. If Hardy can make a storybook comeback this year, which this matchup pits two of the best tailbacks in the college game next season.

Horatio Fields, WR, Ole Miss: Fields technically was a Missouri player for a moment, although it may be the shortest stint in program history. He officially signed with Mizzou from Auburn on Jan. 8 but was back in the portal, after MU added multiple more transfer wide receivers, a little more than two weeks later.

Brandon Solis, OT, Kansas: Yes, there was a transfer across Border War lines in football, as well as basketball, this offseason. Solis did not play for Mizzou over three seasons in Columbia and appears likely to be a backup offensive tackle for the Jayhawks.

Courtney Crutchfield, WR, Arkansas: Crutchfield spent one season with Mizzou in 2024 and caught one pass for 26 yards last season with the Razorbacks. He is projected as a backup for Arkansas next season.

Mark Manfred III, CB, Kentucky: Manfred was a three-star freshman last season, entering the transfer portal and joining the new Kentucky staff in December.

Which current Mizzou players take on their former teams?

QB Austin Simmons, WR Cayden Lee and CB Chris Graves Jr. vs. Ole Miss: Three of Mizzou’s most-important offseason transfer additions will return Oct. 17 to Oxford and will almost certainly have a major say in whether or not the Tigers can stage a midseason road upset.

These parting of ways appear to have been quite harmonious. Ole Miss, for what it’s worth, does have a more notable defector from this past year currently residing in Baton Rouge.

Cayden Green, OT, Oklahoma: Green’s December 2023 transfer to Mizzou from OU upset the Sooners fanbase at the time, and the left tackle has previously spoken about leaving social media because of the backlash. But, the move is yet to boil over on the field, so Green’s last outing against the Sooners should be mostly drama free.

Luke Work, Zach Owens, OLs, Mississippi State: There is a chance that two of Mizzou’s starting offensive linemen when the Tigers play Sept. 26 in Starkville are former Bulldogs. Owens is competing for Mizzou’s starting spot at left tackle, and an injury to Josh Atkins means Work is a candidate to play at right tackle.

Darris Smith, DE, Georgia: Smith spent two seasons with Georgia out of high school before transferring to Columbia. He is expected to be Missouri’s top pass rusher this season, as the Tigers try to replace the massive production of Zion Young and Damon Wilson II.

Nick Evers, QB, Oklahoma: Evers, who will compete with Matt Zollers for Mizzou’s backup QB position behind Simmons, started his college career as a four-star prospect in 2022.

Naeshaun Montgomery, WR, Florida: Montgomery will compete for a rotational role in Mizzou’s wide receiver room this fall. He isn’t likely to start ahead of Donovan Olugbode or Caleb Goodie on the outside, but he could see the field against the Gators, where he spent his true freshman season and caught three passes.

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