2018 Camp preview: Special teams
With SEC Media Days in the books, it’s finally time to start looking ahead to the 2018 football season. Missouri will begin its preseason camp on Aug. 3. For the past week, we’ve looked ahead to camp by breaking down the roster one position group at a time. Today we finish our preview series with the special teams.
The starters: This season, for the first time in years, Missouri has a full-time special teams coach in Andy Hill. Hill has had the luxury of knowing who will start in the kicking game since he got the job. Junior Tucker McCann rebounded from a challenging freshman season to make 15 of 17 field goals and 51 of 53 extra points a season ago, and he is all but certain to keep the starting job in 2018. McCann’s 88.2 percent accuracy on field goals tied for fifth-best in the country, and he was voted to the third-team preseason all-SEC by media members. He will likely handle kickoff duties as well. Senior punter Corey Fatony was voted to the first-team preseason all-SEC team. The four-year starter averaged more than 44 yards per punt last season, which ranked 13th nationally.
The one position battle among the specialists appears to be at long snapper, between sophomore Drew Wise and junior James Workman. Wise was listed atop the team’s most recent depth chart; we won’t pretend to have any intel beyond that.
The backups: Missouri currently lists just one placekicker aside from McCann on its roster: redshirt freshman Sean Koetting. Nick Bartallotta, who played and made eight of nine extra point attempts when McCann was suspended for the Tigers’ rout of Idaho last season, is not currently listed on the roster or the depth chart. Quite frankly, if anyone other than McCann attempts a kick this season, something has gone wrong. Fatony is the only punter currently on the roster.
Camp outlook: Since the two starting kicking spots are virtually guaranteed to McCann and Fatony entering the season, the special teams units probably won’t receive much attention during camp. However, one area we will monitor is who emerges as Missouri’s punt and kickoff return men. Wide receiver Richaud Floyd took over punt returning duties from Johnathon Johnson midway through last season and performed well, returning two punts for touchdowns in a five-game span. He’ll likely have the inside track to keep that job. Running back Larry Rountree III served as the primary kickoff returner last season, but with him expected to see a hefty share of carries out of the backfield this year, the staff might look to transfer those duties to someone else. Expect Hill to try out a plethora of players, particularly newcomers, for the spot during camp.
Projected Week One depth chart:
Kicker:
1. Tucker McCann
2. Sean Koetting
Punter:
1. Corey Fatony
Long Snapper:
1. Drew Wise
2. James Workman