Harrison Mevis made sure Blake Craig wasn’t taking photos without an appropriate accompaniment.

Craig, Missouri football’s future at placekicker, and Mevis, now the program’s all-time leading points scorer and then the program’s starter, had recently met Craig on his official tryout for the Tigers. A year passed, Craig committed, and the pair stayed in touch.

So, when it came time for Craig to wrap up his illustrious high school career, Mevis made sure he was hooked up and ready.

“You know, even for Blake's senior pictures,” Blake’s father, Ernie Craig, said, “Harrison made a point to say, ‘Hey, let me lend you a Mizzou football so you can take senior pictures.’”

Passing the proverbial torch? Not quite at that point. Mevis still had a season to play and a couple gamewinners to kick.

One year later, though, and it’s Craig’s time.

The ‘Thiccer Kicker’ leaves behind big cleats to fill.

But for the redshirt freshman Craig, that’s just “another day in the office.”

“I mean, he didn't act any different at all (after being named starter),” Ernie Craig said. “We jokingly say, ‘just another day in the office.’ You know, it's kind of our little motto we say when big things happen, whether I have to give a presentation or he's got to go do something on field goals. So, nothing really changed.”

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Craig was long assumed to be the Tigers’ next official starter when Mevis, the four-year mainstay at Mizzou, declared for the NFL Draft after the 2023 season, forgoing his final year of remaining eligibility. Craig took kickoffs in three games last season and has typically been the next man up in team practices.

If there were any Day 1 nerves for his debut on kicking duties, Craig did a good job concealing them.

He made five point-after attempts before his first field goal opportunity arrived. He threaded the third quarter 39-yarder and followed that with two chip-shot 3-pointers and another PAT to round out the 51-0 rout of Murray State.

If you’re counting, that’s 9-of-9 to kick start his career in Columbia.

You won’t be surprised to learn that he’s always been pretty good with his foot.

Blake Craig’s first sport was soccer. Ernie Craig said there was a ball by his foot as soon as he could walk. While coaching him in youth leagues, Ernie Craig played him as an attacking midfielder and put him on set-piece duties — dead-ball situations like corners and free kicks to which your premier playmaker is often assigned.

In short, the player who knows how to pick his spot.

That took Craig to Sporting Kansas City’s academy program tryouts, where he earned a spot as an 11-year-old and played for about four years. He played for Union KC Soccer Club in the Elite Clubs National League, a national youth soccer developmental league, when he entered high school.

But his gifted right foot was turning heads on another field. And Blake’s attention began to turn, too.

He started as a freshman at Liberty North High near Kansas City. After that season, his coach at Liberty North, Andy Lierman, sat him down and quite presciently showed him his future.

“They were like, ‘Hey, we really think that you guys should give this some serious thought, because we think he can kick on Saturdays,’” Ernie Craig said. … “And I'll tell you, we heard him loud and clear, but we were somewhat patient.”

‘Somewhat,’ being the operative word.

Lierman would go into his office on Saturdays and Sundays and see one consistent. There was Blake, banging balls on the practice field. There was dad shagging them and bringing them back. Mornings and evenings. Winters and summers. Rinse, repeat.

“I mean, when you meet kids like that, you realize they're just a little bit different,” Lierman said. “And Blake was definitely one of those kids. … He's practicing trying to kick it between the bleachers and a light post. I mean, it was just things that you could see him doing that were really trying to perfect what he wanted to do.”

The ECNL soccer appearances continued, but spring gave way to fall, and soccer gave way to Friday Night Lights. Soccer slowly turned into a spring sport and a way to stay in shape, but by the fall, football was all-consuming.

Soon, he was off to a Kohl’s Professional Camp for specialists — the same route Mevis took — in Chicago and kicking off the ground, not a tee, for the first time.

First impressions?

“The coach, Jamie Kohl, … was like, ‘where have you been?’” Ernie Craig said.

That earned him an invite to a national showcase in Florida, which subsequently earned him a ranking he could take to schools.

Lierman said the offers started coming from all over. But there was one spot on Craig’s mind.

It was a place in the Missouri Tigers’ camp, where his home-state team got their first glimpse. Special teams coach Erik Link had them attempting approximately 55-yarders at the tryout, Lierman said.

After a few conversions, the first miss eventually arrived.

Craig's reaction: “I guess he immediately said, ‘Give me another one, coach,’ where the other guys (had to) kind of get themselves together, he goes, ‘give me another one,’” Lierman said. “(Link) goes, ‘that's the kind of kid that I need.’”

Missouri offered him a spot by the end of the week.

Craig went on to finish his high school career with the most single-season field goals (17) and career field goals (45) in Missouri history. That includes a career-long 56-yarder as a junior against crosstown rival Liberty High, which ranks fifth all time in state history.

He graduated after his senior season and enrolled early at Mizzou to get his first taste of a college spring camp. One year on, after a season shadowing Mevis, and he’s the new starter.

And he had a friendly face there to greet him on Faurot Field for his debut.

About an hour before Thursday’s kickoff, Mevis came out of the southwest end zone tunnel and walked straight to the Missouri sideline. Some field-pass wielders waved and tapped him on the back, but Mevis was bee-lining for the sideline where there was a player waiting.

Blake Craig.

The kickers hugged and then chatted for a pre-game moment. The sold-out stadium was slowly filling up and a new era was on deck.

Then, game time rolled around, and the torch officially passed.

On Day 1, Blake Craig just had another day in the office.

“He's worked incredibly, incredibly hard at all things he's done,” Ernie Craig said, “and to finally see him out there and have that opportunity was just phenomenal.”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: The story of Blake Craig, the next placekicker for Missouri football