Snappy Sypniewski Article

Submitted by ChiBlueBoy on

Rivals Article talks about our new LS. While the article/commentary is about what you'd expect in a glowing bio, and I'm loathe to bring up the topic again, I'm petty enough to take the opportunity to suggest that we should all relax a bit. Taking a step back, let's remember that recruting is not an exact science, and  let's celebrate with a kid who, based on the article,  has worked hard and seems to be the type of student-athlete we can be proud to consider a Michigan Man.

Yes, I'm still scratching my head on it, but I'm happy that we've added a bright, diligent young man, and I'm more than happy for him.

/steps off soap box

MadMonkey

June 11th, 2012 at 1:52 PM ^

day to get him prepared to be the kid who holds the ball for kickoffs on windy days at the D1 level.  In addition to his grueling physcial workout, he is pursuing a rigorous course of study in intra-stadium meterological phenomena.   He has the Big House down, but he is struggling with East Lansing and Champaign.

I figure we are going to be so stacked with talent after 9 more years of Hoke recruiting that Michigan will certainly offer my kid an education worth about $295,491.09 (assuming about 5% annual increase in costs) to eliminate the lone remaining weakness in Michigan's roster.

 

DISCLAIMER:  This post has been a misguided attempt at humor and should not be interpreted as a slight on our newest commit or our coachs' decision to offer him.

jmdblue

June 11th, 2012 at 11:45 AM ^

1) Bo once suggested that he was reluctant to expand his long snappers' duties and give them more playing time for fear they would get hurt.  If a long snapper is valuable to Bo he's valuable to me.

2) Seems to me that more than a few on the board who are wringing their hands over this are overly concerned over our final recruiting "ranking".  I don't really care.  I want quality in terms of winning in the future.

Allin4Blue

June 11th, 2012 at 11:57 AM ^

I am also more concerned about the team recruited to play the field and not concerned about what some douche (possibly named Mike) over at rivals thinks of our class.  Although it would be fun to be number 1 on all sites, I am just happy to see Michigan land top talent, especially in the state of Ohio!!

Leaders And Best

June 11th, 2012 at 11:48 AM ^

Not much of a headscratcher anymore and has become more commonplace at a lot of programs.  Alabama just offered a longsnapper this weekend, and Michigan State stole one of our 2012 preferred walk-ons with a promise of a scholarship.  I expect we will probably offer a longsnapper about every 4-5 years.

The timing makes complete sense with Jareth Glanda being a RS Senior in 2013 when Sypniewski would be freshman (most likely redshirting).

ryebreadboy

June 11th, 2012 at 12:04 PM ^

Except we have a quality walk-on who is going to be a freshman this year. Maybe not as highly ranked as Snappy (though I'm not really sure how reliable long snapper rankings can really be), but from what I can tell he was pretty highly regarded. Why not wait and see if he can do the job first? This sucks super hard for that kid, because now there's no way he ever gets a scholarship.

The FannMan

June 11th, 2012 at 1:03 PM ^

Maybe they were worried that some other top program would offer.  I think it is hard tell a LS to hold off on another offer because we may offer him in five months if somebody else doesn't work out.  Then you are stuck trying to get the kid to switch a committment when you show up in the fall with an offer.

WolvinLA2

June 11th, 2012 at 4:20 PM ^

Yeah, but there are maybe a thousand high school football teams in Michigan, almost all of which have long snappers. You tell the two beat ones that they can come to Michigan and play on the football team. If you did that every year, you'd have eight competent long snappers, at least one of which would be good enough to throw out there. Problem solved.

Leaders And Best

June 11th, 2012 at 12:42 PM ^

There is always going to be a need for more than one longsnapper on the roster (a walkon most likely).  It is pure speculation on the talent level of the 2012 walkon and the coaches expected role for him.

I think you also leave out that being a preferred walkon also gets you admission to the university which is not always a given and a benefit for many.

Niels

June 11th, 2012 at 12:00 PM ^

Neglected to post this earlier, but when Andy Reid interviewed for the Eagles years ago he spent the entire time talking through big binders of data showing the importance of long snappers. The owner (Jeffrey Lurie) indicated that this attention to detail is what got him the job. (trying to post a link, getting spam blocked, long time reader, first time poster, etc)

Now if only the Eagles had hired a two-minute drill timeout coordinator I, as a UM and Philly fan, might have been able to celebrate a national title AND a Super Bowl win in my lifetime....

 

 

Hardware Sushi

June 11th, 2012 at 12:10 PM ^

For the love of God can we stop posting these threads where the entire point of the thread is "everybody calm down about our longsnapper"?

An article about Scott Sypniewski is cool; all that other crap after you posted the link is really, really annoying. We get it: some people are upset we offered a LS in June.

If you're one of them and need to console yourself, posting a new thread about how Alabama offered a longsnapper or how a rivals fluff article makes you feel better is the wrong next step. The appropriate next step is to stop complaining about it.

I know it's slow right now but jeebus, guys.

LSAClassOf2000

June 11th, 2012 at 4:54 PM ^

"Full scholarships aren't given to many specialists like long snappers very often. This shows that Michigan is very serious about their special teams and went after one of the best in the nation at his position,"

This is probably the takeaway statement in a way. The trend in offering long snappers in general has been discussed here at length, of course, so there's no need to go further into that, but it is because there is a growing emphasis on technically proficient special teams play and securing personnel that will aid in that effort. As has been mentioned, many teams in FBS want the deep snap in under a second.

If the team is as serious about this as they are about being proficient in the other phases of the game, then I see where this coaching staff might want to occasionally (i.e. once every few years) offer a scholarship to someone who is strictly a special teams player like this because it makes those units potentially that much better when they are out there.

If you feel that you have room and can do so,  there's no real compelling reason not to at least consider  offering at positions not traditionally  filled by scholarship players. We all know that lack of proficiency at this position could spell disaster on field goals and punts, even if everyone else out on the field is excellent.
 

reshp1

June 11th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^

As one former Wolverine noted recently, whoever wins the long snapping job is always on scholarship

I actually thought that was the takeaway line, i.e. a good long snapper was never taken for granted. The only thing that seems to be changing is that to attract top talent for the competition now you need to offer a scholarship up front

 

champswest

June 11th, 2012 at 10:31 PM ^

complaining that we had too many walk-ons in the 2 deep.  Now we have many complaining about giving out scholarships to kids who are rated #2 in the nation at their position.

Situation normal, here at MGoBlog.