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Mizzou camp preview: Special Teams

It’s been an offseason like no other for the Missouri football program. The Tigers fired four-year head coach Barry Odom following a 6-6 2019 campaign, replacing him with Eliah Drinkwitz. Drinkwitz cleaned house on the offensive side of the ball, then just after the team began holding spring practices, the COVID-19 pandemic hit college sports. Missouri had to cancel 12 of its 15 originally scheduled practices, as well as the Black and Gold game, in the spring. While the team was able to return for voluntary strength and conditioning workouts this summer, which have since transitioned to mandatory practices, the Tigers have still only once taken the field in pads under Drinkwitz’s watch.

Fitting with the theme of the year, the calendar for the 2020 season continues to change. Last week, the SEC announced that each team would play a 10-game, conference-only schedule beginning Sept. 26. Tuesday, the league pushed back the start of fall camp as well. Missouri was originally scheduled to begin camp Friday, but instead will hold the first of 25 camp practices on Aug. 17.

Despite the constantly-shifting schedule, PowerMizzou is continuing to preview Missouri's 2020 season one position group at a time. Today, we conclude our preview series by taking a look at the Tigers' special teams units.

True freshman kicker Harrison Mevis could be asked to take on starting placekicking duties for Missouri this season.
True freshman kicker Harrison Mevis could be asked to take on starting placekicking duties for Missouri this season. (Rivals.com)
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The Starters

Since his introductory press conference in mid-December, Drinkwitz has consistently pledged to improve Missouri’s special teams, a promise that’s been well-received by fans. But he and special teams coordinator Erik Link will have to do so this season while replacing Tucker McCann, who did everything in the kicking game for the Tigers last season, serving as punter, placekicker and kickoff man. It looks like Missouri will turn to newcomers to fill all three roles — both an incoming freshman and a graduate transfer.

Missouri used one of its 81 scholarships to bring in Grant McKinnis, a graduate transfer from Kentucky. McKinnis served as the Wildcats’ starting punter in 2016 before being supplanted by Ray Guy award winner Max Duffy. McKinnis handled kickoff duties for each of the past two seasons. Look for him to kick off for the Tigers this season, and while he’ll have a bit of competition for the starting punter job, the expectation is clearly for him to win it.

McKinnis never attempted a field goal or extra point at Kentucky, so it seems unlikely he would pull double duty like McCann. That means the placekicking job should be Harrison Mevis’ to lose. The true freshman, who committed to Barry Odom but signed after Drinkwitz took over, will be the only scholarship placekicker on the Tigers roster. Kohl’s kicking academy ranked Mevis as the No. 2 kicker in the country, and he earned Under Armour All-American honors as a senior. Even though the last true freshman placekicker for Missouri — McCann in 2016 — didn’t fare all that well, the plan seems to be for Mevis to take over the job right away.

Finally, redshirt sophomore Jake Hoffman spent all of last season as the starting long-snapper, and we see no reason to boot him from that spot yet, although he will have to compete to retain the role.

The backups

Missouri has a few preferred walk-ons on the roster if needed in the kicking game, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Tigers bring one or two more into practice once classes start. Columbia native Sean Koetting and Springfield native Logan Brock will compete with Mevis at placekicker. Josh Dodge and Aaron Rodriguez should provide depth at punter. At long-snapper, Drew Wise has starting experience, having taken over the role during the 2017 season and started for all of 2018. The staff also added freshman Daniel Hawthorne as a preferred walk-on. The Louisiana native initially committed to LSU before flipping to Missouri.

You may have noticed we didn’t address the return yet. That’s because we don’t really have a good idea who will start. Tyler Badie has handled most of the kickoff return duties the past few years, and while he very well might continue to do so, we may also have reached the point where he’s deemed too valuable to the offense to take extra hits on special teams. Meanwhile, after the graduation of Richaud Floyd and Johnathon Johnson, the only player on Missouri’s current roster to have fielded a punt is walk-on Cade Musser. Look for Musser to remain in the mix for both return spots, but also for the staff to try out a handful of other playmakers, including true freshmen, during camp.

Storyline to watch

We’ll keep an eye on each of the positions mentioned above, of course. Whether Mevis shows enough poise and consistency to win the placekicking job during his first season on a college campus will likely be the main focus. But it will also be interesting to see who else the staff tabs to play on special teams. Drinkwitz and Link have said they won’t be afraid to employ starters or other regular contributors on the special teams units, which should help improve an area of weakness under Odom, but it remains to be seen whether the staff would actually ask players like Nick Bolton, Joshuah Bledsoe and Tyree Gillespie to play on the punt return team, for instance.

PowerMizzou Prediction

Out of all the players mentioned above, McKinniss seems like the safest bet to start, both as punter and kickoff man. We also expect Mevis to win the placekicking spot, although with the admitted caveat that we’ve never seen him so much as attempt a kick in person, and Hoffman to keep his long-snapping job. The punt and kickoff return jobs likely won’t be decided for a few weeks. We think Badie remains as kickoff returner but wouldn’t be surprised if true freshman Elijah Young gets a look there as well. Candidates for the punt return job will likely include Musser, Dominic Gicinto, Jay Maclin and Kris Abrams-Draine.

Previous position previews:

Quarterback

Running back

Wide receiver

Tight end

Offensive line

Defensive tackle

Defensive end

Linebacker

Cornerback

Safety

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