can't be that - he's complaining that something is binding when installing the rocker assembly, preventing it from meeting the cyl head. If the cam followers were missing, the pushrods (even the long A14/15 ones) wouldn't be anywhere near the rockers - even the ones on a cam lobe at peak lift!

from the info we have to go on at the moment, most likely causes in order are:
1) incorrect A14/15 pushrods. PLEASE measure one! it will take about 3 minutes to eliminate this possibility.
2) incorrect cam timing.

there is another possibility too - maybe whatever he used to hold the cam followers in place when installing the cam is doing too good a job of it