OT: Alabama offers long snapper
First of all, we have a 'Long Snappers' user tag at mgoblog, and that is just fantastic.
Second of all, Alabama offered a scholarship to Cole Mazza, a long snapper out of Bakersfield, CA. And while most of us loathe the Saban, if he's willing to add a long snapper to a class that is supposed to be relatively small for Saban standards, there may be some traction to this idea. So let's all take a deep breath and wait and see how Scott Sypniewski plays out for us, ehh?
Year of the Long Snapper?
I wonder how Alabama can afford to offer a LS since they are used to bringing in tons of kids in each class and only offering one year scholarships. Now that they are offering 4 year scholliies you would think that they would be hurting on the number of kids that they could offer.
Saban will find some way around it.
Yeah I thought that Saban was going to offer 12 long snappers this year, to replace the 10 long snappers who didn't work out and who are transferring to UAB or are going on medical grayshirts....
Once again, just proving Saban is one step behind Hoke at all time. Should be a cakewalk in Dallas.
Easier to justify recruiting a long snapper when you get 120 recruits over 4 years instead of 90.
Should be noted that this kid is the #1 snapper in the Class of 2013(Sypniewski is #2) and is already verbally committed to UCLA. Should be interesting to see if Saban can flip him.
Yeah, if you take a drive through Westwood, the campus is nestled in-between 5-10 million dollar homes with opulent statues in there front yards. It still mystifies me as to how UCLA cannot seem to have a consistent football program with the beauty and richness of where their campus is, USC on the other hand is kinda like in the ghetto or close to it and yet they keep rolling in those recruits.
Funny thing is though, that having been exposed to both fanbases, USC fans are much more like U-M fans and show more class but UCLA has some low class gangster type fans quite too often.
Sidenote:
I read on other blogs that there were rumors that Jaron Dukes had been dropped by M Coaches and/or he de-committed and it appears to be false cause Dukes was interviewed and stated that he came home and heard these rumors and thinks they were started on an ohio blog, big effing surprise. We'll know more in the next couple days I'm sure.
http://mgoblog.com/diaries/big-ten-recruiting-rankings-6-10-12
Is the Rose Bowl. It's so far from Westwood they have no chance of getting enough students at games.
I bet Jim Delaney is outside your front door waiting to beat you for disparaging the Rose Bowl.
USC on the other hand is kinda like in the ghetto or close to it and yet they keep rolling in those recruits.That was one of the problems for USC in the 90's. People said that they were done as a football power, and that one of those reasons was the school was located in a dangerous part of LA
The biggest problem for USC in the '90s was that its coaches were Ted Tollner, Larry Smith, and especially Paul Hackett.
If UCLA had Pete Carroll, Ken Norton Jr, Ronnie Lott, etc patrolling the sidelines, then UCLA would have owned LA instead of USC. After you get through all the cute talk about academics and campus lifestyle, these kids care about having a shot at the NFL. USC can sell that much easier than UCLA.
I would amend your post only in saying that USC Alumni are much more like U-M Alumni. Fanbases are another story. USC home games at the Coliseum are a gauntlet for opposing fanbases, and a lot of the tailgaters don't mind getting in the face and taunting senior citizens who happen to wear the wrong colors. I've seen this firsthand, multiple times.
Did you ever watch that show? There's your answer, Uncle Phil.
I was once offered a job in LA because in my interview the principals liked that I seemed like an "SC guy". I have a feeling that is not a compliment everywhere. Fortunately, I can make like Zelig.
I've heard that the UCLA AD is more of a basketball guy if that means anything.
I understand he's looking for early playing time, good academics, and a feeling of comfortability, as if being at home. The criteria he's looking for separates him from most of the other longsnappers who desire ONLY beaches and girls.
The idea of offering long snappers is gaining traction, it seems. There was an article in the "Hello" thread for Scott Sypniewski which listed some of the programs that have offered scholarships at LS - a list which includes LSU, San Diego State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Arizona State and of course, MSU and now our program.
Now that there are specialized camps and many teams have a specific list of things they look for in a long snapper - mainly that that they can complete the deep snap in under a second - I suppose that it isn't completely off-the-wall that you would see some long snapper offers since teams strive to make even their special teams play flowing and technically correct.
That being said, if Miles has already done this, then part of me thinks Saban is in his office whistling "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better".
Running, for the moment, with the assumption that UM, Alabama, et al. will be gaining a measurable competitive advantage through their elite long snappers, is it not _amazing_ that this hasn't happened before? Doesn't everything get measured in football?
If Michigan jumped off a bridge, would you jump to?
....wait nobody answer that
...The precedent doesn't answer any of my questions. I mean, last year Northwestern, LSU, and Notre Dame all signed Long Snappers. The year before that, USC, UGA, and OSU all signed them as well. It happens, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it.
Every big-time program needs a shutdown long-snapper.
Uncle Rico is awesome.
I'm almost positive that these coaches are all trolling us.
I heard from Lloyd Carr at a football camp in one of his last years say if you want a spot on a D1 football team become a great Long Snapper. Every team needs one and no one wants to do it.
That college football owes Mark Dantonio a debt of gratitude.
If he hadn't been hidin in the weedz, stealin r walkonz, this year's Longsnapper-a-thon never would have started.
I think Hoke has changed the (Crimson) Tide on long snappers. Hell Nick Saban is starting to offer them. Never in a million years I would have thought that. Offering a LS from Illinois is a good start.
Do you guys realize that you've started a thread on a long snapper recruit who Michigan didn't even offer?
-99569 mgopoints to be precise. What the hell did you do to get that deep in the hole? Kill someone's dog?
Can't argue with science. :-)
I admire your moxie.