Where Missouri football was picked in USA Today All-SEC poll

Two Missouri football players made USA Today Sports Network’s All-SEC team for the 2026 season, but the Tigers were picked to finish in the bottom half of the league.

The 15 voters who cover the league for USA Today, including the Columbia Daily Tribune, picked fourth-year left tackle Cayden Green and third-year running back Ahmad Hardy to make the preseason all-conference team. 

Neither Green nor Hardy, who received an encouraging injury update from head coach Eli Drinkwitz on Monday, were a unanimous selection. Mizzou was one of six teams who had multiple players on the preseason All-SEC team.

More: Will Ahmad Hardy return in 2026? Eli Drinkwitz updates status

More: Key Missouri football offensive lineman sustains injury ‘setback’

Mizzou was picked to finish 10th in the league by the voters.

Texas is the preseason favorite to win the regular-season title. Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian has been tipped to win SEC Coach of the Year, while Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was selected as the preseason Player of the Year and LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt received the preseason Newcomer of the Year nod.

Drinkwitz said Monday that Hardy, who sustained a gunshot wound to his thigh on May 10 in Mississippi, could enter a return-to-play protocol in 5-8 weeks and that he anticipates that Hardy "will make a recovery."

"What that recovery will look like after having a bullet, you know, strike you is still to be determined," Drinkwitz said. "We do not know exactly what the return-to-play progression is because there's not a lot of literature and data on this, but we are utilizing our medical team, along with our athletic performance team and nutrition, to approach this at a very good pace.”

Here are the full results of the preseason ballots:

2026 preseason All-SEC football team

Offense

• QB: Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
• RB (2): Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss; Ahmad Hardy, Missouri
• WR (2): Cam Coleman, Texas; Mario Craver, Texas A&M
• TE: Trey'Dez Green, LSU
• OL (5):Cayden Green, Missouri; Drew Bobo, Georgia; Jordan Seaton, LSU; *Trevor Goosby, Texas; Wendell Moe, Tennessee

Defense

• DL (4): Colin Simmons, Texas; David Stone, Oklahoma; Dylan Stewart, South Carolina; Will Echoles, Ole Miss
• LB (3): *Xavier Atkins, Auburn; Rasheem Biles, Texas; Whit Weeks, LSU
• DB (4): Bray Hubbard, Alabama; Ellis Robinson, Georgia; KJ Bolden, Georgia; Zabien Brown, Alabama

Special teams

• K: Tate Sandell, Oklahoma
• P: Grant Chadwick, LSU
• All-Purpose: RB/WR Ryan Niblett, Texas

2026 preseason SEC individual awards

• SEC Coach of the Year: Steve Sarkisian, Texas
• SEC Player of the Year: QB Trinidad Chambliss, Ole Miss
• SEC Newcomer of the Year: QB Sam Leavitt, LSU

Predicted order of finish for SEC football's 2026 season

First-place votes in parenthesis

1. Texas (9)
2. Georgia (6)
3. LSU
4. Ole Miss
5. Texas A&M
6. Oklahoma
7. Alabama
8. Tennessee
9. Florida
10. Missouri
11. Auburn
12. South Carolina
13. Vanderbilt
14. Kentucky
15. Mississippi State
16. Arkansas

The All-SEC team, individual awards and predicted order of finish were selected by a panel of 15 writers who cover the league: Ryan Black (Courier-Journal), John Brice (USA TODAY), Kevin Brockway (Gainesville Sun), Adam Cole (Montgomery Advertiser), Jackson Fuller (Southwest Times Record), Colin Gay (Tuscaloosa News), Aria Gerson (The Tennessean), Sam Hutchens (The Clarion-Ledger), Lulu Kesin (Greenville News), Calum McAndrew (Columbia Daily Tribune),Sam Sklar (The Clarion-Ledger), Adam Sparks (Knoxville News Sentinel), Colton Sulley (The Oklahoman), Blake Toppmeyer (USA TODAY), and Marc Weiszer (Athens Banner-Herald).

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Where Missouri football was picked in USA Today All-SEC poll