Aug. 21, 2015
Past Mick McGrane 2014-15 football features
2014
Kaehler: A Thinking Man's Game (Aug. 5)
Whittaker: Long Time Gone, Never Forgotten (Aug. 6)
Life in the Weight Room: Hall's Strong Suit (Aug. 15)
Roberts: A Career Comes Full Circle (Aug. 21)
The Season's in Session, Take Your Seats (Aug. 29)
How Quickly we Forget (Sept. 7)
Looks can be Deceiving (Sept. 19)
O-Line has Aztecs' Running Game in High Gear (Oct. 23)
Falling Short is no Longer an Option for Aztec Football (Nov. 29)
Winds of Change: "Rise To 25" Fuels New Direction for Football (Dec. 23)
Pumphrey in Need of a Playing Partner (Dec. 24)
2015
Football no Longer Needs Sun to Sell Itself (Feb. 4)
Aztec Football is Flush with Experience in 2015 (Feb. 20)
Regardless of the Road, J.J. Whittaker's Future is Flush with Success (July 23)
Gordon no Longer Wrestling with Football Future (July 30)
Kazee has the Corner Covered in Aztec D (Aug. 5)
Hageman has Given Boot to Aztec Kicking Woes (Aug. 14)
McGrane: Life is a Snap for Aztecs' Overbaugh
By Mick McGrane, @GoAztecs Senior Writer (@MickOnTheMesa)
In the very real possibility that you were unaware, long snappers are now cool. The bing, the bang and the bomb. Ridiculously rad.
Indeed, arguably the most anonymous player in football has suddenly achieved celebrity status, lest you need additional YouTube evidence from the next trick-shot artist who drops a football into the waiting arms of a flea from 5,000 feet.
There's Akron's Michael Buddenberg, hitting a moving target 135 feet below while snapping from the upper deck of InfoCision Stadium.
There's Baylor long snapper Jimmy Landes, launching a ball snapped from the top of McLane Stadium into a trash can on the field, and Buffalo University's Corbin Grassman, who one-ups William Tell by plucking a water bottle off a teammate's head before challenging Landes' effort with a snap into a trash can from the second deck of UB Stadium.
The trash-can capers continue with Western Kentucky's Nolan Dowling, who pulls off the feat with a snap from a suite on the press level at Houchen Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium.
Personally, SDSU's Jeff Overbaugh prefers the story of Larry Federoff, a former Penn State walk-on who built himself into an NFL Draft prospect after moving from fullback to long snapper. Among Federoff's attempts to sell himself as NFL-worthy was snapping a ball from a roof two stories high, aimed at a buddy riding in the back of a pickup truck moving 25 mph.
"Some guys actually use those for legitimate marketing tools to get their names out there," Overbaugh said. "(Federoff) didn't have the ability to play solely as a fullback in the NFL, so he came up with a really extensive five-minute trick-shot video to help his stock as a snapper. It's actually pretty smart.
"With a little practice, I'm sure I could do the majority of the stuff guys are putting (on YouTube)."
A little practice and, supposedly, an inordinate amount of idle time. Though the number of video takes devoted the aforementioned accomplishments is not divulged, one can imagine birthdays passing before any of the snaps even sniffed the proximity of the targeted trash can.
Of course, there also comes a time when the circus-snapping must transfer to the field, where 300-pound nose tackles couldn't care if you've long-snapped from the Sears Tower in a tuxedo. Enter Overbaugh, who despite yet having joined the ranks of the cool kids with a video of his own, heads into his senior season with a far greater distinction: All-American.
Overbaugh, who amazingly has yet to deliver an errant snap on a single PAT, field goal or punt at SDSU, was recently awarded fourth-team preseason All-American honors by college football guru Phil Steele. Since assuming the team's long-snapping duties as a true freshman in 2012, Overbaugh has been perfect on 353 career snaps (134 PATs, 55 field goals and 164 punts), numbers that overwhelmingly trump any trash-can trickery.
"He is the most incredible snapper I've ever known," said Aztecs' placekicker Donny Hageman, the Mountain West's preseason Special Teams Player of the Year. "The speed of his snap is as good as anybody in the country. For Tanner (Blain, punter and the team's placeholder), it can even be hard to catch sometimes.
"But probably the most incredible thing about him is that on field goals his ball is always facing out when Tanner catches it so that the laces are already facing away and Tanner doesn't even need to spin the ball. A lot of times you'll see kickers hitting the ball with the laces turned the wrong way. The holder is spinning the ball and the kick is going off to the right or the left. It just causes havoc. But with Jeff snapping, it's just a blessing. It makes the whole operation that much better. A lot of my success is due to Jeff. He has been absolutely perfect on field-goal snaps and I can't wait to see what we can do this season."
If Overbaugh is aiming to conclude his final season in high style, inspiration is but a snap away. In 2008, former Aztec Tyler Schmitt became the first long snapper ever selected in the NFL Draft when he was taken by the Seattle Seahawks in the sixth round. Aaron Brewer, also a former SDSU long snapper, joined the Denver Broncos as a free agent in 2012 and remains a member of the team's active roster.
As with Schmitt and Brewer, Overbaugh has spent a sizable portion of his career under the tutelage of former UCLA long snapper Chris Rubio, who along with former teammate/kicker Chris Sailer organizes kicking/snapping camps throughout the year in cities around the country. For Overbaugh, it's created a long-snapper fraternity of sorts, allowing him to hone his craft alongside peers such as Notre Dame's Scott Daly; LSU's Reid Ferguson; Alabama's Cole Mazza; and Michigan State's Taybor Pepper.
Pretty fair company for a kid who grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, as a defensive end/offensive tackle/long snapper who initially had leanings toward hockey.
"At one point, I was arguably more committed to hockey than I was to football, just because the game is so fluid and so much fun," said Overbaugh, who laced his skates as a defenseman until his junior year in high school. "Not that football isn't the same way, but hockey is just such a joy to play, and, obviously, people in Anchorage play hockey much better than they do football. It was a bigger part of the culture. If I had wanted to, I could have played hockey year 'round. But most Pop Warner and high school coaches kind of push those guys away, because they want athletes who are deeply committed to football.
"I can't make any outrageous claims about the (caliber of football in Alaska), because obviously you're not drawing from the same pool of people you are here. You also don't have the same level of commitment because there are so many other things to do in Alaska. For the most part, everyone is playing hockey."
While, presumably, giving little thought to snapping balls off the rooftops of high-rises.
"He may not be the fastest guy getting the ball back there, but he's definitely one of the most accurate I've ever seen," Aztecs coach Rocky Long said of Overbaugh. "He's a very critical part of what we do."
Last season, Overbaugh anchored a field-goal unit that enabled Hageman to deliver a school-record 20 field goals and 37 PATs without a miss.
"They (long snappers) are completely overlooked," Hageman said. "No one sees the field-goal team come out onto the field and says, 'Hey, let's watch the long-snapper.' The only thing you're usually looking at is how long the kick is and the field-goal kicker. Nobody's looking at the snap or the holder. There's so much pressure on them, as well, to make sure that the snap and the placement of the ball is right for the kicker. It's such a huge part of the whole operation. Everyone should be aware of how good Jeff and Tanner really are."
Apparently, someone's aware. After all, it's not every day that long snappers are lumped together with other premiere players worthy of "All-American" assignation.
"It's a tremendous honor for me and a great feeling just to be part of that conversation," he said. "Our job is relatively simple compared to the assignments that other guys have. We don't have anything close to that.
"But I take a lot of pride in mastering my craft. I always want to get better, so I never want to be at a place where I feel satisfied about my skill. I definitely feel confident, but I never want to get complacent. Constant improvement is the name of the game."
Even if your game never goes viral.