A review of the specialist performance for the 2024 season.
With the 2024 season officially over, it’s time to break down the performance of the team position by position. We’ll look at the stats for the year, the departing players, new additions, and some predictions for what we’ll see in 2025.
The last postmortem entry of the 2024 season assesses a position group that returns its most known player and…that’s about it.
Look…any special teams unit is going to be noticeably less fun and/or good without Harrison Mevis on it.
And while Our dearly departed Thiccer Kicker was able to draw attention away from – and overcome – a lot of special teams warts, the fact remains that Mizzou’s special teams have been a series of diminishing returns over the years:
- 2020: 25th in SP+
- 2021: 11th in SP+
- 2022: 38th in SP+
- 2023: 45th in SP+
- 2024: 98th in SP+
What’s been the cause of the regression? Mostly punt returns and kick off returns, frankly, as the vast majority of kickoffs go out of bounds and Tiger punt returners have been coached to either fair catch or let bounce any punts.
Do you want to guess how many punts Missouri returned last year?
As a table setter, Ohio State returned 22 last year, Alabama had 25, Texas had 30, Toledo returned 21, and Washington returned 14.
So I ask again: how many punts did Missouri return last year? As in caught it and then attempted to move forward.
The answer: 8. Yuck.
But returns aside, punting has also declined in effectiveness over the past few years, dipping down to a 38.1 net yard average (bad) and 12.2% of punts downed inside the 10-yard line (also bad).
Obviously Blake Craig has been dynamite on the kickoffs, knocking kicks out of the back of the end zone 68.9% of the time and pinning offenses on the 28.5 yard line on average, both of which are great. But any missed field goal for a Drinkwitz team is an amplified missed opportunity, and 19-year Blake Craig could not replicate Thiccer’s range, going 7-16 on field goal 40+ yards long. The flip side? 17-18 on field goals under 40 yards.
It’s a mixed bag but now you know why Drink gets so fussy about his punter: it’s a necessary tool in his “shorten games for victory” toolkit and it hasn’t been good. But no one who punted the ball last year is on the roster and, of course, the kicker returns. Let’s break it down further.
The Departed
Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images
Luke Bauer might better be known for his secret quarterback skills thanks to the game-changing touchdown he threw to Marquis Johnson against Kentucky in 2023, but he was also Mizzou’s full-time punter in 2024. He wasn’t the greatest punter in the world but he usually avoided devastating shanks and, of course, was a folk hero thanks to his killer right arm. Unfortunately it seemed that he decided to flex his last year of eligibility after Mizzou went to the portal to get his replacement, and with his spot gone, he transferred to Michigan.
Former Murray State transfer Orion Phillips had one of the best heads of hair on the team but couldn’t beat out Bauer to see the field and then transferred to Utah.
The Returners
Photo by Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The do-everything scholarship kicker Blake Craig was utilized for kickoffs and field goals and did an pretty good job in his first go-around on the job. As previously mentioned, his kickoffs were consistently dynamite and, in terms of field goal kicking, he was the exact inverse of Mevis, as Craig was Mr. Reliable inside 40 yards and fairly poor on anything outside that range. It’s not fair to ask a college kicker to reliably attempt 50+ yard field goals but Drinkwitz was used to that points binky and kept going to even in the face of Craig’s longshot struggles. If Craig can smash some Thiccer burgers and acquire via osmosis Mevis’ thunder gams, then he would be the complete 3-tool kicker. Until that time, however, Drinkwitz should find a way to avoid putting his kicker in unmanageable kicking scenarios.
The Transfers
Photo by David Madison/Getty Images
Let’s talk about Connor Weselman. Drinkwitz brought in the Stanford product to seemingly battle with the walk-ons for Mizzou’s starting punter role.
The problem? He’s a punter in name only.
See that picture above? That’s him. Holding the ball. AKA not kicking it.
Despite being a decently rated punter coming out of high school Weselman has only spent one season as a punter, booting a mere 22 punts over 25 games of action and averaging 35 net yards per punt which…isn’t good. And last year, he spent all season doing what that picture above shows.
Now, it’s good to have a reliable holder, no doubt about that. But either Weselman is going to finally develop into the punting weapon the experts thought he would be coming out of high school…or the coaching staff just took a spot for their multi-year reliable punter for a guy who couldn’t even do the job for a bad Stanford team.
2025 Forecasting
The simplest answer would be:
- Kicker: Blake Craig
- Punter: Connor Weselman
- Returner: Marquis Johnson
But, truthfully, everything but kicker should be a fierce competition throughout fall camp with – ideally – competition bringing out the most of a guy who can reliably do either of those jobs. We know Drinkwitz loses sleep over his punting depth and this year shouldn’t be any different.