McGregor 1

Tyler McGregor
Steffen Guenzel
ENC 1101-0001
26 October 2014
Perfectly Invisible: An Analysis of the Long Snapping Community
Long snappers are usually the least known players in football, because of their
specialized and mostly invisible role on the field. Even the kicker, a prime contributor to football
teams yet sometimes still overlooked, is recognized more than a long snapper. The lack of
attention and encouragement from spectators and coaches brings the long snapping community
together and gives a common ground to be shared. While this is the case, college coaches are
starting to realize how vital the long snapper is to their team and as a result are starting to
scholarship the talented ones. This has lead to large increases in the number of serious long
snappers in camps, further increasing the size of the community itself. The long snapping
community has the characteristics of a discourse community but the easiest to identify are
common goals, mechanisms of information and feedback, mechanisms of intercommunication,
and specific lexis.
Snappers that attend camps do so for one reason: to get exposure to professional
instruction and college attention. With that, its safe to assume that many snappers that attend
snapping camps do so to earn a scholarship. Coaches have slowly started to realize how having a
reliable long snapper can be a huge asset for their team. Michigan State special teams coach
Mike Tressel has realized the importance of a reliable long snapper. Long snappers obviously
one of those positions that you dont realize how important they are until you dont have it,
Tressel said (Mergargee). Kids that go to these snapping camps are ranked and evaluated by

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well-respected instructors, which is why they are so important if a snapper wants to play
collegiate football. Since their evaluations are valued and trusted, college coaches look at the
opinions of the instructors and results of the camps. According to Mergargee in his annual report
on rivals.com, in just 2013, 25 colleges offered long snappers scholarships out of high school or
junior college. As coaches begin to realize the importance of having a reliable long snapper, this
number can be expected to rise.
Common goals extend beyond trying to earn a scholarship. Snappers are the most humble
athletes on the football field, embracing the fact that they are only thought of when they mess up.
Perfection is an expected quality of a snapper. Whenever a head coach sends the punt team onto
the field, his concern is rarely whether or not the long snapper will mess up. As a result, the
snapping community does its best to stay under the radar. It seems ironic that the only athletes
that are expected to be perfect, and most the time are perfect, are the most humble and under
recognized.
Few people realize the speed of the football when snapped back to the punter. Most
colleges, and all NFL teams, have their punters stand back at 15 yards from the line of
scrimmage. This is so that the punter has plenty of space to get the ball off in enough time. The
snapper must ensure that the ball is sent back to the punter quick enough as an aid for the punter
to punt the ball without it being blocked. According to Mannelly the average snap time for
college snappers is .72 seconds (Manelly). Many snappers strive to get their speed down to that
number, however a common goal is to get the snap to less than .8 seconds on a consistent basis.
More important than speed is accuracy. The ideal placement for a snap to hit the punter is the
right or left hip, depending on the punters preference. A snapper that can snap the ball in under .8
seconds to the punters hip on consistent basis is one that will most likely play collegiate football,

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which is why most snappers strive for those two goals. Minor goals exist as well, such as decent
40-yard dash times and strength benchmarks, however those arent exclusive to the long
snapping community. As long snappers begin to gain recognition from coaches, the community
will continue to grow and be further founded on the characteristics of reliability, humbleness,
and efficiency.
The complexity and large size of the snapping community requires intricate systems of
information and feedback that exists while at camps in a person-to-person form, and off the field
via text message, email, and social media. Before camp signups, instructors require email
addresses from campers. The most prominent reason instructors email snappers is to let them
know what colleges are looking for snappers and the contact information of those particular
colleges. Instructors also email to keep snappers informed of approaching camp dates. Its
important to note that off-field feedback is not only existent on an instructor-student basis. Many
snappers often communicate with each other via social media and text message, to let others
know updates on snapping advances such as offers, new snap times, or stand-out games and
camps. Because snappers communicate with one another so frequently, a bond and sense of
understanding toward one another is often formed which results in a family type of relationship
and close-knit community.
Long snappers often refer to their snaps as rips which is likely because when a snapper
snaps the ball, it creates a ripping sound. At camps, snappers compliment each other by saying
nice rip or rip it and so on. More specific to the snapping community is that long snappers
never refer to themselves as centers, as many coaches, players, or spectators call them. To call a
long snapper a center is offensive. There are many key differences between a center and long
snapper. Centers are required to snap the ball a very short distance to the quarter back, are

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usually large, and must be able to block large defensive linemen. Snappers must snap the ball 15
yards in under .80 seconds, and then proceed to sprint downfield to make a tackle.
Within the long snapping community there are two camp giants that attract the most
snappers. The first is Rubio long snapping camps and the second is Kohls long snapping camps.
Both of these camps claim to be the best and use statistics such as the amount of long snappers
each camp has helped get a scholarship from a college. For example, on Rubios blog he claims
that in 12 years hes assisted over 300 snappers get scholarships or play collegiate football. But
according to Kohls website, he claims to have had 294 athletes commit to a college in just 2014,
however this number includes long snappers, kickers, and punters. While both of these camps
see each other as rivals and competition, they undoubtedly have striking similarities. These
similarities are what make them a part of the long snapping community.
Rubio runs a divided camp system with his partner, Chris Sailer who instructs kickers
and punters while Rubio handles the long snappers. During Rubios camp, video footage is
taken of the camper snapping, which is later evaluated by Rubio and the camper in order to
visually see where things go wrong or right during the snap. After film is taken, the campers
execute drills and snaps in front of instructors and practice technique. At the end of every camp,
a competition period is held. This competition allows camp participants to see how they stack up
against other top long snappers. Kohls runs a very similar camp system. Like Rubio, the system
is divided by what position one is being trained for. At Kohls, snappers are filmed and that film
is later studied by the instructor and snapper. After film analysis a competition period is held to
see whom the best long snapper at that particular camp is.
Rubio and Kohls see themselves as bitter rivals with few similarities other than having
camps dedicated to specialists. What these two giants dont realize is that they share many of the

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same campers. I was a dual camp snapper, as were many friends I made at other camps. The
campers often see this connection and take advantage of getting second opinions. By doing so,
snappers take full advantage of the resources provided. This provides a system of
intercommunication within the community. Snappers from one camp discuss with snappers from
another camp things that theyve learned or improved.
Its imperative for aspiring college snappers to attend snapping camps. In truth, there
arent many differences between Rubio and Kohls. Both instructors are well respected in the
coaching community and each have their own set of benefits. It would be advantageous to attend
both Rubio and Kohls in order to be exposed to each. However, attending one camp isnt
sufficient. While it can become expensive, its important to attend as many of the scheduled
camps as possible in order to work with other top snappers and instructors.
The world of long snapping is more complicated than what may appear. Long snappers
are separated from the general football discourse community because of their unique
characteristics. These characteristics allow it to become its own discourse community.

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Works Cited

Mannelly, Patrick. "Longsnapper.com." Longsnapper.com - The Official Site of Chicago Bears

Longsnapper, Patrick Mannelly. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
Mergargee, Steve. "Rivals.com Football Recruiting - Scholarships for Long Snappers on the
Rise." Rivals.com Football Recruiting - Scholarships for Long Snappers on the Rise. 23
May 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
Kohl, Jamie. "Home." Kohl's Football Kicking Camps, Punting Camps, and Snapping Camps.
Jamie Kohl. Web. 02 Nov. 2014.
Rubio, Chris. "Rubio Long Snapping Blog." Rubio Long Snapping Blog RSS. Chris Rubio. Web.
02 Nov. 2014.