Mizzou kicker Harrison Mevis growing in confidence during sophomore season

In front of a packed Southeastern Conference stadium, surrounded by fans packed as high as most buildings on Georgia's campus, Harrison Mevis had to channel his focus.

Those blinders, where he can block out the noise and put all his attention on his next kick, could be why Mevis, Missouri's sophomore place-kicker, has been so effective during his sophomore season.

There was a collective gasp as Mevis' consecutive field-goal streak ended late in the third quarter against Georgia last Saturday, on a 48-yard attempt that was long enough to be successful but hit the left upright about halfway up.

The Lou Groza Award semifinalist's streak of consecutive made field goals, which was the longest in the nation, ended at 20 in a row. The Groza is given annually to the best place-kicker in college football.

"There's never a streak. It's always next-kick mentality," Mevis said. "I think I went 1-0 20 times. I know coming into Saturday I'm going to go 1-0."

More: What is Missouri's quarterback situation? What Eli Drinkwitz said after Mizzou's loss to Georgia

Missouri returns home for the first time in nearly a month to face South Carolina on Saturday, needing two wins to secure bowl eligibility, with three games remaining in the regular season.

With a near-even spread heading into the matchup with the Gamecocks, special teams could be the difference between winning or extending Missouri's home losing streak in league games to four, dating back to last year's matchup with Georgia.

Missouri's last home SEC win? A 50-48 thriller over Arkansas, where Mevis hit the game-winning field goal as time expired, his fifth made kick of the day.

The “Thiccer Kicker” is 13-for-14 this season, including 7-for-8 from 40 to 49 yards and 3-for-3 from beyond 50, with his longest boot of the season being the 56-yard, game-tying kick against Boston College as time expired in September.

"He does a great job of providing us points and that's the name of the game, to have more points than your opponent at the end of the game," Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. "So it doesn't really change how I call the plays or anything like that. It's just nice knowing when you get inside 35, you've got the opportunity to go for it, to kick it, which isn't always the case.

"It puts you in a position a couple of times, like we did against Vanderbilt, where instead of having to try to throw the football to gain a first down, you just knew, 'Hey, I'll hand this off and get it for four yards and we'll be able to get points.'"

Mevis has drawn attention unusual for a kicker in his two years at Missouri, mainly due to his conversion rate of kicks and possibly his stature.

The Missouri athletics website lists Mevis at 5-foot-11, 236 pounds. For comparison's sake, starting linebacker Chad Bailey is billed at 6-foot, 229 pounds.

Mevis has some accolades to chase down the rest of the season, with his name being in the middle of the discussion for first-team all-conference honors.

The Lou Groza Award finalists will be revealed Nov. 23, with Mevis being a prime contender to make the heavy cut from 20 to five. He'll also find out then whether his brother will join him.

Andrew Mevis, the place-kicker for Iowa State and Harrison's older brother, is also a semifinalist for the Groza. It's his first season as a Cyclone after transferring from FCS-level Fordham.

The Mevis siblings are the first brother pair to be nominated for the award at the same time, a recognition Harrison truly valued because of the time growing up and training together.

"Whenever we talk, it's about football," Harrison said about conversations with his brother. "It's more technique and we're kind of reviewing what we did. I think I talked to him the last time, they played last week at home versus Texas. He's punting now for them. So when he got the punt snapped, he looked like he was going to punt. And then he rolled out and tried to punt with this left foot. He's right-footed, so it's kind of interesting to see that. So I questioned him about that."

Despite the younger Mevis playing FBS football longer than his older brother, he maintains he hasn't had to mentor him in any kind of way.

"Everything I know is because of him," Harrison said of Andrew. "I feel like he's more of a mentor to me than I am to him. It's more so us working together to try to be better and to try and push each other."

The Mevis brothers compare stats, like being the top two in the country in made field goals from 40 yards or longer.

They only overlapped in high school for one season — Andrew is three years older — at Warsaw Community High School in Indiana. Andrew was the team's starting kicker before Harrison took the reins.

Harrison is now more than a year into being in control of Missouri's place-kicking game and still has full confidence from those in Columbia.

When asked about Mevis' ability, Drinkwitz routinely knocks on the wooden lectern when he stands for press availability, hoping to see continued success for his trusted kicker.

"I'm not messing with the flow right now," Drinkwitz said.

Contact Eric Blum at eblum@columbiatribune.com. Follow @ByEricBlum on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football kicker Harrison Mevis full of confidence as a sophomore