You've probably heard it a couple of times before, but it's officially the end of talking season for real this time.

The dog days of summer are almost over as Mizzou will kick off its season on Thursday when it hosts South Dakota in a first-ever matchup between the schools.

Throughout camp, a number of receivers talked to the media, and they all have the same genuine optimism about their role in the offense and how explosive it can be.

They usually don't give away too much about what to expect scheme-wise, but they typically have a sheepish grin, a smirk or a smile indicating there's something they like that's going on.

It was no different for Mekhi Miller when we talked to him last week.

"I like the role. The role every receiver has is everyone is going to be able to go out there and make plays," Miller said with a slight grin. "So, it's pretty fun to enjoy when you're making the plays or you're seeing your teammates making the plays. So, I'm embracing that and I like it and I like seeing me succeed and my teammates as well."

Missouri's wide receiver room may be the deepest position on the team, with several players being viable options to be consistent contributors throughout the 2023 campaign.

Miller will be one of the four top receivers to start the year.

He was able to contribute as a freshman on offense and special teams, and with a talented freshmen receiver class looking at playing time, Miller said he passed down some advice to them.

"(I was) telling them don't be scared to make mistakes for sure," Miller said. "Because sometimes you might be scared that if you make one mistake, it might be it, but if you go out there with the feeling of it's okay to make a mistake, you're going to be good if you can learn from that and build from it."

Joshua Manning, Marquis Johnson and Daniel Blood make up the freshmen receiver class in line for some playing time this season.

It hasn't been revealed who is leading the pack and if all three will play, but Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz has alluded to at least two of them seeing the field this season.

Something Drinkwitz made abundantly clear is multiple quarterbacks will play in the season-opener.

The time frame each quarterback will get is to be determined, but Miller said the receiving room will be ready either way.

"Whoever is out there, we trust to go out there and do the right thing, “ Miller said. “As receivers and quarterbacks, we build that trust in practice by catching footballs with every single one of them, so it really doesn't change much."

Connecting the dots to what Drinkwitz said last Friday, the quarterbacks will be running the same game plan.

So, you won't see one quarterback running a specific part of the offense and the other quarterback running something different.

The offense won't cater to the quarterback. The quarterback will need to cater to the offense.

It's safe to say that every Missouri player is ready to go up against someone else after about a month of training camp.

Right tackle Armand Membou is beyond excited to face someone else, and he said he's expecting this new and improved offensive line to dominate no matter who the opposition is.

"I just want to see us dominate. We have a mentality like it doesn't care if we play in an elementary school, doesn't care if you play in the band. It doesn't matter. Everyone's going to get it," Membou jokingly said. "So, I just want to go out there and just dominate.

"I mean legally, we can't, but if we did (play elementary school kids) they still got to get it."

It was all jokes and fun for Membou, but he and this offensive line took this offseason seriously.

Membou and every returning offensive lineman knows that the unit was one of the worst on the team, and for this team to get to where it wants to go it has to be better. And by all accounts, it has been.

New offensive line coach Brandon Jones can be thanked for a lot of that, and it started with what Membou was talking about earlier 一 a dominating mentality.

"I think he's really improved our mentality up front and getting us to play harder, so I think having him has helped us a lot," Membou said. "I think he made a bigger emphasis to the offensive line about finishing blocks, and if we're able to do that then the offense is going to be a lot more successful."

Something Jones has also been able to help Membou do is make the transition from right tackle to right guard and back to right tackle again.

Membou started a handful of games at right tackle in 2022 and then was slated to be the starting right guard this season. However, the last couple of weeks found him back at his original position which Membou has no complaints about.

"I played tackle all last year, so I've been playing tackle for a while so it's cool," Membou said. "It wasn't too bad going back outside. I'd say I'm probably a little bit more comfortable playing right tackle because I played it so much, but I also like guard. So, I feel like both those positions I'm pretty comfortable at."

It's looking like Javon Foster (left tackle), Xavier Delgado (left guard), Connor Tollison (center) and Cam'Ron Johnson (right guard) will be joining Membou in the starting lineup on Thursday.

There are a few positions on the roster with an argument for the most depth.

As previously mentioned, the wide receiver group would be up there. However, they have a lot of talent but not a ton of experience sans a handful of players. .

Missouri's defensive tackles have talent and experience, with its top eight players from a season ago returning. Four of who are in their last season of eligibility.

One of those veterans is Jay Jernigan, who has taken some steps forward after a less than stellar 2022 campaign in his first season in Columbia when he recorded 14 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and a bat down.

"I really just wanted to work on my quickness and my ability to shed off of a block," Jernigan said. "I feel like I accomplished that to a certain extent. You can always improve. So, I feel like throughout the season, I'll be improving and getting better every day."

Jernigan hasn't been the only defensive tackle improving.

It appears that there's been a rotation of players who've at one point or another been the two best defensive tackles on any given day or week.

"There was a point in camp where Realus George and Josh Landry were the two best interior guys," Drinkwitz said. "So, they moved ahead of Kristian (Williams) and Jernigan. We consider to have four starters at the defensive tackle position.”

Jernigan said he likes the competition and doesn’t view it as a negative. In fact, he sees it the same way Drinkwitz does.

"It's been great (working with the other defensive tackles) because just like last season, we were all from four different places," Jernigan said. "So, we can all just keep getting knowledge from each other, and that's what we've been doing. Everybody has been rotating. It's been me, Realus, Kristian and Josh. Everybody has been improving, and we have four solid guys who can go out at any time."

Jernigan has a chance to start at defensive tackle next to Williams, but if he doesn't, he'd be one of the first defensive tackles off of the bench.

The way defensive tackle coach Al Davis likes it is two players equals one of the two defensive tackle spots. So, a number of options is probably more pivotal to this unit than any other unit on the defense.

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