With the start of the college football season approaching, Kevin Sumlin, the new Head Coach at Texas A&M, sent out a message on Twitter yesterday to current A&M students looking for a snapper, kicker and punter. Coach Sumlin was scheduling a meeting for today on campus to discuss walk-on tryouts for the specialist positions. It will be interesting to see if any snapping talent was hiding among the student population.
In a very rare move, the Steelers terminated Special Teams Coach Al Everest and have replaced him with Amos Jones, who had been his assistant. Although it is not uncommon to have coaching changes at the end of the season, or, in some cases, during the season, it is highly unusual to fire a coach just prior to the start of the regular season.
Alabama senior snapper Carson Tinker had a rough 2011 after he was injured and his girlfriend killed in a tornado back in April. This season is off to a much better start already as Tinker is considered a solid NFL snapping prospect for the 2013 NFL Draft and has just learned that he will be awarded a scholarship for his final season.
Tinker’s story is yet another great example of the hard working and dedicated athletes that fill college and NFL rosters at the long snapping position.
In 1999, kickers, punters and snappers had to contend with special kicking footballs, known as K balls. Now, for at least the second week of preseason, all players will need to deal with a football with synthetic laces.
Apparently, the NFL has asked that teams use the synthetic lace football as a “test” rather than a ball with traditional leather laces. Synthetic lace footballs, although common at the college and high school level, have already caused concern among NFL quarterbacks and some snappers as well. Teams have been told they have the option of which ball to use during this week’s preseason games.
Most long snappers prefer their anonymous but critical role in the NFL. To that end, snappers rarely seek or desire the media spotlight. Perhaps the lone exception is the preseason stories that commonly focus on long snappers and their special place in football.
A recent story in the Buffalo News on snapper Garrison Sanborn is no exception. The article notes Sanborn’s improvement as a snapper over the past few years and his constant desire to be perfect. As part of that effort to achieve perfection, Sanborn notes that on punts he will aim for the NFL patch on his punter’s pants since his punter prefers to receive snaps on his right hip. For field goals, Sanborn will pick a vein on his holder’s arm and aim for that area.
With the first full week of NFL preseason games approaching, some teams have made moves at the snapping position. The Lions waived Matt Camilli, who first signed with the Eagles after the Draft but was waived in June. The Bucs added Andrew DePaola, who snapped at Rutgers under current Bucs coach Greg Schiano. DePaola completed his college career in 2009, but is considered a rookie since this is first contract in the NFL.
NFL training camps are opening this week so it is a good time to debut the 2012 Training Camp edition of the Longsnap.com Long Snapper Chart. Twelve teams will open camp with competition at the snapping position.
Not long after he was waived by the Eagles, rookie free agent snapper Matt Camilli quickly found work again. Camilli signed a contract with the Lions recently and is expected to provide competition for veteran Don Muhlbach.
The CFL season starts tonight and teams continue to use non-import snappers that are born or trained in Canada. New snappers this year include Tim Cronk in British Columbia and Ryan King in Edmonton, while Randy Chevrier returns for another season in Calgary as the only active CFL snapper with NFL experience. Below are the snappers for the 2012 CFL season.
British Columbia 40 Tim Cronk
Calgary 56 Randy Chevrier
Edmonton 53 Ryan King
Hamilton 54 Kevin Scott
Montreal 37 Martin Bedard
Saskatchewan 47 Cory Hucklack
Toronto 82 Chad Rempel
Winnipeg 50 Chris Cvetkovic
NFL teams continue to drop snappers as they prepare for training camp. Matt Camilli, an undrafted rookie from UTEP, who signed with the Eagles after the Draft has been waived. Camilli’s departure leaves a total of just 11 teams with more than one snapper on the roster with training camps set to begin late next month.
Longsnap.com 