Where Mizzou football’s Harrison Mevis, the ‘Thiccer Kicker,’ gets his confidence
When the Mevis family watched Missouri kicker Harrison Mevis line up for the 32-yard, game-winning field goal attempt against Arkansas, they admitted there were slivers of nerves.
This is an 18-year-old kid after all, Tina Mevis, his mother, pointed out.
But Andrew Mevis, Harrison’s brother, said most of that doubt disappeared when Arkansas decided to ice the true freshman kicker — twice. Looking back, the TV broadcast caught Harrison Mevis smiling after the first timeout. When he was finally ready to kick the field goal, Harrison gave the Arkansas sideline a cool thumbs up.
Then he nailed the kick. Exactly like his family expected him to.
“It was really funny, especially when he got iced a couple times,” Andrew Mevis told The Star in a phone interview. “I knew as soon as they iced him, he enjoyed that. He likes to mess with people in that way. It just fuels him when they iced him.”
Harrison Mevis, undisturbed as ever, said he simply thought of it as nothing more than “just another kick for me.” He doesn’t have any special rituals or traditions, but there was one step he needed to complete: Stay with punter Grant McKinniss.
“A little boy with his dog” is how MU special teams coordinator Erik Link labeled the relationship between Mevis and McKinniss, who doubles as the holder.
McKinniss said sometimes his kicker just wanders about on the sideline, so it’s important he stays close by since they go on the field at the same time.
“One thing I usually tell Harrison is just to stay smooth,” McKinniss said. “I think when he gets a little too antsy is when he may push the ball or pull the ball a little bit. For him, it’s just staying smooth.”
That cool-headed confidence comes from a place of security and preparation, Mevis said. That’s where practice comes in because he can miss in drills then adjust for what he did wrong. A miss is a learning experience, he said, not something to be particularly shameful about. Sometimes he breaks technique down with Andrew Mevis, a fellow kicker.
That doesn’t stop the coaches from simulating high-pressure situations. MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz said he tries to rattle Mevis weekly, yelling at him or calling him names like “Jano-miss-ski.” Link said they really throw chaos at the true freshman, but they haven’t been able to crack him yet.
“For any specialists, let alone a freshman, he’s just got a laser focus and he is really legitimately hard to rattle,” Link said. “I laugh because it’s just such a unique characteristic to have. You just don’t see it very much anymore. He’s just the kind of guy, that’s his personality.”
Harrison Mevis’ kicking journey started back in middle school, doubling as the same time when Andrew Mevis started kicking it through the uprights. As is typical for kickers, it started in soccer before making the transition to football.
Andrew Mevis is a successful specialist in his own right, spending the past three seasons kicking and punting at Fordham at the FCS level. Like Harrison, he was an Under Armour All-American coming out of high school. He’s currently in the transfer portal, talking to a few schools with hopes he can kick against his younger brother at the next level.
That gives Andrew Mevis a unique angle to a win-or-lose kick. It’s not just that they’re family, but he’s lived through similar pressure in a game.
“It’s basically what you dream for as a kicker,” Andrew Mevis said. “You want to be able to make a difference in the game. At the end of the day, you have to go back to your routine. You have to have confidence. You have to have trust.”
Harrison Mevis, dubbed “The Thiccer Kicker” by fans and teammates, doesn’t get nervous. There is one thing he dreads: Missing a point-after kick. But those are chip shots and he hasn’t missed one yet. He’s barely missed this season at all. He’s made 16 of 19 field goals, including a career-long 52-yarder against LSU.
As her son puts on a cool, confident front, that’s exactly who he is normally, Tina Mevis said. The Mevis’ make the roughly 7.5-hour drive from Warsaw, Indiana, to Columbia for nearly every game. They do the same for road games, missing only one game this fall, the Tennessee game.
“That’s just him,” Andrew Mevis said of his brother. “What you guys see is truly him. He responds to those with confidence. He’s very confident. It’s really true. He knows what he can do. It’s amazing how much, being his brother, he knows. He’s just so much more mature how he is approaching everything daily.”
While Drinkwitz told his freshman “don’t drink the Kool-Aid,” Mevis said after the win he might be drinking some that night. But Mizzou fans need not worry as he’s locked into the next game, next kick.
“We can obviously think about the negatives when you miss a kick,” Mevis said. “But really, it’s just about next kick mentality. You’re only as good as your next kick.”