Longsnap.com

With the final day of the NFL Draft set to begin and with the lockout back, there was both positive and sad news involving college long snappers this week.  On the good side, there is another NFL Draft prospect making news with a trick shot video of snapping exploits.  Former Penn State snapper Larry Federoff, following the trend set by fellow snapping prospect Zach Enyeart of Washington State, recently posted his own video demonstrating his unique abilities.  Federoff created the video in an attempt to get some attention from NFL clubs.

Unfortunately, there is also more somber news in the snapping world, as the recent severe weather in the South injured Alabama long snapper Carson Tinker.  Tinker also lost his girlfriend, who died when a tornado hit the house that Tinker and his girlfriend were staying.  Prayers go out to all of the people affected by this tragedy.

With the NFL Draft set to begin Thursday, Pro Football Weekly and NFLDraftScout.com have updated their snapper rankings.  Pro Football Weekly ranked a total of 7 snapping prospects led by Andrew Schulze (Iowa).  Danny Aiken (Virginia), Zack Enyeart (Washington State), Scott Albritton (Colorado State), Christian Yount (UCLA), Neal Dahlman (Bowling Green) and Aaron Feld (Mississippi State) conclude the rankings.

NFLDraftScout.com’s database includes a total of 23 snappers, led by Aiken, Schulze, Yount, Enyeart, Albritton, Keenan Bratcher (Memphis) and Patrick Scales (Utah State).

Although recent snapping news has been limited to the UFL, CFL and high school, it became public earlier today that Buccaneers snapper Andrew Economos recently tore his Achilles tendon.  Given the lockout in the NFL, the Bucs may need to address the situation in next week’s NFL Draft.

Snapping expert and fellow blogger Chris Rubio has just updated his Rubio Long Snapping blog with a post on high school snapper Scott Daly who has already committed to Notre Dame as a junior.  Daly is believed to be the youngest long snapper to have been offered a scholarship (January of junior year) and to have committed (April of junior year).

In my post last week about the UFL protected lists and snappers, I failed to notice that Ryan Senser was actually protected by his club.  Thus, all five snappers from last season are protected for the upcoming season.

With little going on in the NFL world as it relates to snappers due to the lockout, the most recent snapping news comes from the United Football League.  Recently, the five UFL teams released their 40 player protected lists.  Snappers Jared Retkofsky (Hartford Colonials), Rigo Morales (Las Vegas Locomotives), Matt Overton (Omaha Nighthawks) and Aaron King (Sacramento Mountain Lions) were all protected.  The only snapper that was not protected was Ryan Senser, who played for the Florida Tuskers.  The Tuskers are now the Virginia Destroyers.

With the NFL lockout underway, snapping news is scarce.  Although there will be a Draft at the end of April, there will be no undrafted free agent signings as of right now.  As a result, the only snapping news of note involves the Canadian Football League, where veteran snapper Taylor Inglis was acquired by the Edmonton Eskimos from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in exchange for draft picks.

Snapping instructor Chris Rubio just updated his new blog with a comprehensive examination of his answer to the question that I am frequently asked, “What Makes a Great Long Snapper?”  Rubio’s post examines this question by breaking down a number of qualities, such as speed, accuracy, consistency, size, athleticism, blocking, spiral and mentality.

Many college snappers often wonder what separates a great college snapper from those few who can snap at the professional level.  While all of the factors Rubio mentions are key to the position, I have found that consistency and blocking are particularly relevant.  As Rubio notes in his post, some high school and college systems do not require the snapper to block after the snap and this can be a key element as to which snappers can succeed at the professional level, where blocking is a must.

Zach Enyeart, a Draft-eligible long snapper from Washington State, has received national media attention for his video containing various snapping tricks.  The video, which was posted on You Tube a few days ago, shows Enyeart demonstrating some amazing snapping accuracy in a variety of unique settings.

Although NFL snapping developments may come to a halt in the next few days due to the labor dispute, the Jaguars made a move late last week to prevent snapper Jeremy Cain from becoming an unrestricted free agent.  Cain signed a new contract that will keep him with the Jags through the 2013 season.