Come Saturday night, just weeks prior to opening kickoff for Missouri football, Faurot Field will be illuminated for Night at the Zou, a recruiting camp for many of the state’s best. The event begins at 6 p.m. and will go until 10 p.m. All fans are invited to attend, and more than 60 recruits will compete and observe coaches and former Missouri players.

On Thursday, The Maneater caught up with Chaminade High School junior defensive lineman Trevor Trout, the 15th-best defensive tackle in the country according to [247 Sports](www.247sports.com), who will be observing drills and coaches. Here is what Trout had to say:

**The Maneater:** How has this summer gone, what have you improved, and what camps have you been to?

**Trevor Trout:** I went to the Ohio State camp, I’ve been with my team at the Memphis camp and the Ole Miss camps, and I went to the the Rivals Five-Star Challenge. I’ve gotten a lot stronger than I was last year and I’m just bigger and more experienced with two years of varsity under my belt.

**ME:** Who is really recruiting you the hardest right now?

**TT:** Over the summer, I’ve been focused on getting ready for the season, so I haven’t been doing much recruiting talk. But Nebraska is really high on me, Mizzou is the home school, so they’re always going to be there, Iowa is up there too, UCLA is really watching me and Illinois, so there’s a lot of schools and there will probably be a couple more coming in the next couple of months.

**ME:** On social media, you’re incredibly positive about St. Louis and even tweeted a few weeks ago, “2018 could be the best football class to come through since 2009.” What makes you so positive about your city?

**TT:** It’s because these are the kids I play with. I’ve played against some of the best kids in the country and when I compare them, I say the St. Louis guys are just as good as the national kids and it’s been awhile since there’s been such a broad amount of players here, so that’s the reason why I say those things. I know a bunch of kids I can honestly see playing in the NFL, and that’s not a joke.

There are guys like Michael Thompson (Parkway North High School), Kamryn Babb (Christian Brothers College), Dallas Craddieth (Hazelwood Central High School) — those kids are really good. And it pushes me to be better because guys like Thompson, he’s a national recruit, so I’m always trying to get better.

**ME:** How much do you talk with guys like Thompson, Babb and Craddieth and have you discussed playing with each other?

**TT:** We stay in touch and everybody knows what everybody else is doing. We always talk about playing together, but talking is just going to happen. Will playing together ever happen? Who knows, but we keep an idea about it.

**ME:** You mentioned Missouri. So what do you see when you think about the program right now?

**TT:** For me, with Missouri, I know a lot of the players on the team, so that does help. It’s two hours away, so they’re right close to my family and friends, but how they do over the next two seasons will play a factor. They’ve had a good line in the past, oh yeah, but the coaching change with Coach Craig Kuligowski did kind of hurt, but Mizzou is, of course, still up there because they’re still home.

**ME:** You have relationships with former Missouri defensive stars Sheldon Richardson and Markus Golden. What’s that like?

**TT:** Sheldon used to hang out with my cousin and Markus is also a family friend, and they always tell me you have to keep the legacy going (at Mizzou). I talk to them at times and they say they’ll support me wherever.

**ME:** As far as Night at the Zou goes, what do you expect and when there, what are you looking for?

**TT:** I will be at Night at the Zou Saturday. I heard it was an elite prospect camp and I’m not going to participate, but I’m going to watch it and see what the coaches do. I’ve never really hung out there and taken everything in at Mizzou, so this is going to be a good opportunity to do it.

I’m going to look for relationship with the players, and the players will tell me how the coach actually is, so I’m just going to be watching to see what types of drills they do and I’ll obviously be watching during the season too.