Missouri Tiger kicker Blake Craig had some big shoes to fill last season. Some might call them thicc.
But the redshirt freshman stepped in and immediately had fans beginning to find a nickname for him, (Craig the Leg perhaps?) after hitting a 56-yard field goal in Week 3 to make him 2-of-3 from 50+ yards and 8-of-10 overall in the first three weeks.
But after missing three kicks against Vanderbilt, while still hitting three more, some issues started to become apparent.
“Definitely consistency,” Craig said of his main focus going into his redshirt sophomore season. “My main focus area is definitely right hash and 40-to-49 just based off of statistics from last year. Yeah, the approach is definitely the same as it was last spring for me.”
That 40-49 yard range was certainly the issue in a season when Craig went 24-of-34 with six of those misses coming in the range. Otherwise he was 7-of-8 from 20-29 yards, 10-of-10 from 30-39 yards and 6-of-9 from 50 or more, including hitting from 56 yards out twice, once against Boston College and then again in the Music City Bowl where Craig earned a spot on the AP All-Bowl Team.
“I think, it was kind of just how the cookie crumbled, you know, in the season, ” Craig said of the issues from 40-49 yards. “Obviously, we’ve taken a look at it, watched a bunch of film. I’ve reviewed a bunch of notes on it and everything.”
And while he has reviewed notes and film to work on his consistency, Craig has added another of the main portions of his training. Visualization. Picturing his perfect routine as he leads into a kick.
For a kicker, there’s nothing else to consider. There’s no reading the defense, there’s no reacting to what someone else is doing. There’s just you, your steps, your leg swing and watching the ball go.
“I like to call it visualization,” Craig said. “It’s something that I do. I can either, I can do it in bed, before I go to bed, just kind of close my eyes and think about it. Or I can kind of go out on the field here and like, step it out and visualize it. Not have to actually put my foot on the ball, but I go through a detailed approach of, like, my whole checklist of taking my steps, eyes down, looking up, seeing where I’m going to kick it and then actually going through the kick in my head.”
Now Craig is bringing that visualization and his experience back to the field looking to climb the Tigers’ kicking leaderboards he’s already jumped onto. In total made field goals, he’s already sixth in team history, though is 28 behind Grant Ressel in fifth.
In total points, he could easily move up to sixth all time in Tiger history with a repeat season.
And his six field goals of 50+ yards is already second in team history.
“I’ve grown up, I’ve, you know, dealt with those situations in game,” Craig said. “Just having that year under my belt is obviously important. But I was say that my mental game is just something that I focus on every day, like, I go through a lot of mental reps and I think that is very important for me to do.”
Now Craig is entering his second season as the main man sent out when the Tigers need to put some points on the board and he’s hoping to continue to fill those thicc shoes left behind going into last year.
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