On Sept. 1, Missouri will kick off the third season in the Eli Drinkwitz era with a home matchup against Louisiana Tech. The entire month before then will be used to prepare for a campaign that feels like it could go a long way toward defining Drinkwitz's Missouri tenure.
Fall camp, the official start of full-time practices, will begin Aug. 1. We've been counting down the days to camp by previewing the Missouri roster one position group at a time. If you've missed any of the previous previews, links can be found below. We'll wrap up the series with a look at the players that could play major roles on special teams for the Tigers, which is of course headlined by kicker Harrison Mevis.
The Starters
Mevis gives Missouri a rare weapon in the kicking game. His combination of power and accuracy earned him a spot on the all-SEC first team as well as several All-American lists last season. Through two years at Missouri, Mevis is now a perfect 69-69 on extra points and 40-45 on field goal attempts, with 19 of those makes coming from 40 yards and beyond.
Mevis focuses strictly on placekicking, leaving kickoff duties to Sean Koetting. The sixth-year senior is back for another season, and he could well serve as the starting punter, too. Koetting replaced Grant McKinniss as the Tigers' punter against Arkansas last season and performed fine, averaging 46.7 yards on six punts.
The return game brings a bit more mystery, although we think a pair of newcomers are the frontrunners to return both punts and kickoffs. The punt return job is likely Luther Burden's to lose. Burden scored an absurd 11 touchdowns as a returner for East St. Louis high during his senior year, and Drinkwitz has said the staff plans to utilize him in the return game at Missouri. Boo Smith, who has since graduated, handled the majority of the punt return work a season ago. Meanwhile, Missouri added an all-Pac 12 kickoff return man in Nathaniel Peat when the running back transferred in from Stanford. The Columbia native averaged 24.7 yards per kickoff return across the past two seasons.
The Backups
There will be several other players who get a chance to earn the return jobs during fall camp. Other options at punt returner could be fellow receivers Mookie Cooper, Ja'Marion Wayne and Demariyon Houston. In the kickoff return game, cornerback Kris Abrams-Draine scored a touchdown a season ago, but he might be too valuable at defensive back to risk injury. Other potential options at kickoff returner could be Houston, Chance Luper and running backs Elijah Young and Tavorus Jones.
At punter, if Koetting isn't up to the task, the other option would appear to be redshirt freshman walk-on Jack Stonehouse.
Camp Storyline to Watch
Who wins the return jobs, and can they bring a special teams spark that's largely been missing in recent seasons? Across the past four years, the Tigers have returned a total of one punt and one kickoff for a touchdown — and the punt return score came against Southeast Missouri. A team that figures to be in a lot of evenly-matched contests this season could use some more dynamism from those spots, whether it comes from Burden and Peat or anyone else.
PowerMizzou prediction
Mevis will obviously remain the kicker, and should continue to be one of the best in the country. Koetting looks like he will both punt and handle kickoff duties. We'd be surprised if Burden doesn't return punts. The kickoff return spot has the most intrigue. Peat would seem to make the most sense, but if he wins the starting running back job, the staff might opt to spare him from taking hits on special teams. Plus, even if he does return kickoffs, there will likely be another player back there with him. Young has played that role in the past, so we'll tab him as the favorite for now.
Previous Positions
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