Justin Smith knows how to make a first impression.
The Missouri football coaches knew they were getting a good player when they signed the Jefferson City High defensive lineman in 1998. Then he arrived on campus that summer. The hulking 6-foot-4, 250-pound farm boy from Holts Summit was no ordinary freshman.
“I’ll never forget the day he showed up that summer before his freshman year,” former teammate and defensive lineman Steve Erickson said. “We’re all in the weight room and he walks in. He was already a man.”
Big 12 offensive linemen would discover that soon enough.