How is Missouri preparing for Wyoming’s altitude ahead of Saturday’s season opener?

Missouri coach Barry Odom has two interesting situations on his plate for Saturday’s season opener at Wyoming, both of which he’s spent the past few weeks preparing for.

First there’s the altitude, Wyoming’s War Memorial Stadium sits at 7,220 feet, making it one of the highest stadiums in college football. The second is his two biggest players on offense — Albert Okwuegbunam and Kelly Bryant — are more removed from game action than most players.

Odom said Tuesday that the team’s nutritionists changed the players’ diets three weeks leading up to the game to better prepare for the altitude, encouraging players to drink beet juice, which gets more oxygen into the blood stream. There is less oxygen at higher altitudes, which affects the red blood cell count.

“I want them to be aware of it but not make it such a big deal that it’s weighing on their minds,” Odom said on Wednesday’s SEC coaches’ teleconference.

Reviews on drinking beet juice have ranged among players, with offensive lineman Trystan Colon-Castillo said he’s struggled to digest it. Bryant has been drinking beet juice since he was at Clemson and said the taste has become tolerable.

Wyoming is 19-14 at home under current coach Craig Bohl, but two of those losses were to Pac-12 teams in Oregon and Washington State. Missouri defensive coordinator Ryan Walters said WSU coach Mike Leach gave MU’s coaches the idea of drinking beet juice.

Offensive coordinator Derek Dooley said MU can’t spend a week in the mountains practicing to properly prepare themselves and echoed Odom’s words about altitude becoming a distraction.

“It’s only a problem if you make it a problem,” Dooley said.

Dooley’s bigger concern is Okwuegbunam and Bryant, who last played in November and early September. Okwuegbunam injured his shoulder in Missouri’s upset win at Florida and missed the rest of the season. Bryant elected to transfer from Clemson four games into his season after being benched for freshman Trevor Lawrence.

Okwuegbunam had seven catches for 50 yards and a touchdown in MU’s previous game against the Cowboys and said he has less anxiety returning against a team he has some familiarity with.

“They’ve got a lot of new faces but as far as scheme wise we expect a lot of the same things,” Okwuegbunam said.

The 6-foot-5 tight end said Bryant has played too many snaps for his return to be a concern. But Bryant didn’t shy away from the idea that he could have some early struggles after being almost a year removed from his last game.

“It’s going to be adversity,” Bryant said. “Just working out all the kinks and continue to play.”