Longsnap.com

Due to the lockout, none of the 2011 long snapping prospects have joined an NFL team.  However, it is not too early to start looking at next year’s prospects.

NFLDraftScout.com is one of the few draft sites to give long snappers appropriate attention when it comes to identifying pro prospects.  They have already prepared a list of the top five 2012 prospects as of June 27, 2011, and Josh Harris of Auburn is the top ranked snapper.  He is followed by Kyle Wojta of Wisconsin, Nick Guess of Tennessee, Charley Hughlett of Central Florida and Matt Camilli of Texas El-Paso.

The CFL season gets underway on Thursday and, at the very least, provides an opporunity for some snapping news.  Once again, the snappers for each CFL club are non-imports or players born or trained in Canada.  Only Randy Chevrier of Calgary has NFL experience.  Below are the snappers for the eight CFL teams heading into the opening week.

British Columbia 70 Dan McCullough

Calgary 56 Randy Chevrier

Edmonton 52 Taylor Inglis

Hamilton 30 Kevin Scott

Montreal 37 Martin Bedard

Saskatchewan 47 Cory Hucklack

Toronto 82 Chad Rempel

Winnipeg 50 Chris Cvetkovic

Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic wrote an interesting story on the final day of the NFL Draft about the number of snappers in the NFL that are from Arizona.  Five of the 32 snappers are from the state.  Nick Sunberg (Redskins), Jon Weeks (Texans), J.J. Jansen (Panthers), Brian Jennings (49ers) and Jason Kyle (Saints) are all from Arizona.

In addition, former NFL special teams coach Gary Zauner and Ben Bernard of Arizona Elite Longsnapping, are both based in Arizona and have played a significant role in the state’s development of a number of NFL snappers.

The NFL Draft concluded last night and, like last year, no long snapper was selected.  In fact, just two specialists, Nebraska kicker Alex Henery (Eagles) and Miami punter/kicker Matt Bosher (Falcons), were selected.  The lockout prevented the usual immediate signing of undrafted free agents, so many of the top snapping prospects are forced to wait for the labor dispute to be resolved before they can sign with a team.

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.