2/25/2021 football Edit

Position Reset: Special teams

Mitchell Forde • PowerMizzou

Staff

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The first Missouri football season of the Eli Drinkwitz era showed both plenty of reasons for optimism as well as room for improvement. The Tigers finished a 10-game, all-SEC schedule with a record of 5-5, including an upset of defending national champion LSU and at one point cracking the College Football Playoff rankings at No. 25. However, the team also dropped its final two games of the season and saw an average margin of defeat of 24 points in its five losses.

Friday, the Tigers will start working toward 2021 with the start of spring football practices. Over the past few weeks, we've gone position by position to break down the strengths and weaknesses of the roster. Our final piece in that series takes a look at Missouri's special teams. If you've missed any of the previous installments, they're linked at the bottom of this article.

Placekicker Harrison Mevis (right) had a strong freshman season, including a game-winning field goal against Arkansas as time expired. (Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports)

2020 Recap

Missouri had to find three kickers to replace one when it lost Tucker McCann to graduation. In 2019, McCann handled place kicks, punts and kickoff duties. Despite having new faces at all three of those spots in 2020, the Tigers were solid in the kicking game.

True freshman placekicker Harrison Mevis was the star of Missouri's special teams units. Mevis, who committed to the Tigers under Barry Odom then stuck around after Drinkwitz got the head coaching job, made all 28 of his extra point attempts as well as 17 of 20 field goals. Only four other kickers in the nation made at least 15 field goals while converting 85 percent of their kicks. Mevis also showed a strong leg, making multiple field goals from beyond 50 yards, as well as the ability to deliver in the clutch. His 32-yard field goal as time expired gave Missouri a two-point win over Arkansas. Thanks to the NCAA's ruling that last season didn't count against players' eligibility, Mevis could potentially man Missouri's starting spot at kicker through 2024.

The Tigers also brought in a new punter who performed well. Grant McKinniss, who spent a year as the starter at Kentucky before getting beat out by Ray Guy award winner Max Duffy, joined Missouri as a graduate transfer prior to last season. McKinniss averaged a solid 43.1 yards per punt, 40th-best in the country. He, too, will be back next season thanks to the extra year of eligibility, as will kickoff specialist Sean Koetting. Koetting, a former walk-on, earned a scholarship after handling kickoffs for Missouri last season. The Columbia native had just three kickoffs returned all year.

The one weak area for Missouri's special teams a year ago was its return game, particularly returning punts. The Tigers used four different players at punt returner. Three muffed at least one kick. They combined to average 4.1 yards per return — No. 101 nationally and second-to-last in the SEC. While Missouri didn't give the ball away on kickoff returns, its national rank was even lower. The Tigers averaged 16.3 yards (albeit on just 10 kickoff returns all year), which clocked in at No. 118 out of 127 FBS teams. Adding some dynamism to the two return positions should be a priority for special teams coach Erik Link during the offseason.

2021 Outlook

Departing: none

Returning: Grant McKinniss, Harrison Mevis, Sean Koetting

Just looking at the three kicking spots here, Missouri should be set for 2021 with all three of its starters back. The Tigers will also have their holder back in McKinniss. Missouri will also have each of its players who returned kicks last season returning, as well. Tyler Badie handled kickoff returns, while Kris Abrams-Draine, Jarvis Ware, Barrett Banister and Cade Musser all returned punts at various points. Those players will likely be in the mix for the return positions again this year, but given the lack of success a season ago, it would not come as a surprise if the staff looks elsewhere to fill those spots.

Incoming: Dominic Lovett, Mookie Cooper

It's really too early to speculate which newcomers could have a chance to contribute as a punt or kickoff returner. That's something the staff usually starts to experiment with during fall camp. But Drinkwitz specifically mentioned the return abilities of both Lovett and Cooper after they signed with Mizzou, so we would expect both to get a shot at contributing on special teams. The two St. Louis area wide receivers both possess the speed and shiftiness common in successful return men, but neither has done it yet at the college level.

Projected Starters: Harrison Mevis (placekicker), Grant McKinniss (punter), Sean Koetting (kickoff specialist), Elijah Young (kickoff returner), Dominic Lovett (punt returner)

Once again, barring injury, the three kicking positions are set for 2021 and should be strengths for Missouri. The two return positions, however, will be wide open. Given Badie's lack of success returning kicks and the increased role he's likely to have in the offense this season, we think it would make sense to use someone else as a kickoff returner. The speedy Young, who returned kickoffs in high school, would make sense to take his place. The top punt return spot will likely be absolutely wide open. If Cooper is eligible to play this season, he would probably be our pick as the favorite to start the season there, but unless the NCAA allows players to transfer one time without sitting out a season or approves a waiver for Cooper, he will have to take a year off. So we'll pencil Lovett into that spot for now. Others who we wouldn't be surprised to get a crack at returning punts include Banister, Musser, Jay Maclin and Boo Smith.

Spring Practice storyline to watch: If you've read this far, you've probably guessed it: How can Missouri improve in the return game? While it would be nice to find a player who can break off the occasional big play on a return, the Tigers' first objective needs to be finding someone who can secure the ball, particularly when fielding punts. Again, we wouldn't expect a starter to become apparent until fall camp, but we should at least be able to get a sense of who's in the running for the return positions.