Longsnap.com

One of the unique features of Longsnap.com has been the annual compilation of Division One long snappers.  Historically, determining the snappers for each college team has been a very tedious excercise.  It usually involved scouring team depth charts, where available, to determine the starting snapper. 

Of late, I have noticed that football writer Phil Steele has devoted some attention to the long snapping position and even included them in a midseason and postseason All-America team last season.  This year, I picked up his 2011 College Football Preview and stumbled on the list of each team’s returning and, in some cases, back-up snapper included in his 2011 Projected Starting Lineup for each FBS team.

Perhaps Phil Steele has included snappers for years and I just never noticed.  I usually look near the punters and kickers in magazines to determine if a snapper is included, but Phil Steele has included the LS information below each team’s center. 

Look for Longsnap.com’s annual compilation of each FBS team’s snapper in the Fall.

Like all NFL rookies, the top long snapping prospects from the 2011 NFL Draft are playing the waiting game.  With no snapper drafted and the lockout preventing any undrafted free agent signings, rookie snappers must hope for a quick resolution to the labor dispute before trying to earn their dream of an NFL roster spot. 

Some of the top snapping prospects in this year’s class have been profiled in the media during this unique period in the NFL’s history.  Christian Yount (UCLA), Corey Adams (Kansas State) and, most recently, Danny Aiken (Virginia) have each been the featured players in articles describing their wait to get a shot at an NFL training camp.

On Sunday, Rick Maese of The Washington Post wrote an extensive story about Aiken and how he is spending his time among the recent college graduates that are unemployed.  Maese’s story describes Aiken’s rise to snapping prominence and, along with it, includes some great background material on the growth of snapping as a speciality position in the NFL.

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).