Here are just a few of the articles that have been written about Chris Sailer Kicking long snappers throughout the country that have go on to play major college football. Enjoy!
Adam Munsterteiger
BuffStampede.com Publisher
Senior Joe Silipo will have competition for the Buffaloes' starting long snapping job this fall.
Rivals.com has confirmed that Ryan Iverson committed to Colorado about a month ago shortly after visiting Boulder. The 6-foot-1, 218-pounder from Newport Beach, Calif., had also taken a trip to the University of San Diego State and he was drawing interest from Washington, Oregon State and Colorado State.
"I committed to Colorado basically right after I came back from my visit," said Iverson. "I really liked the atmosphere of the college, where the school is located. I also liked the people around there."
Iverson will be joining CU's program as a preferred walk on. But he will be given an opportunity to earn a scholarship.
"It is going to be a competition and whoever ends up being the starting long snapper is going to get the scholarship," Iverson explained.
Well-respected long snapping guru Chris Rubio ranks Iverson as the 12th best snapper from the Class of 2010. He earned first-team all-Sunset League honors as a linebacker last season after recording 76 tackles for Newport Harbor.
"My snaps have good zip on them and I also have the ability to run downfield and make a play," Iverson said. "A lot of long snappers are fat and slow, but I can move. I am pretty athletic."
Over the course of his high school career, Iverson said he only had one bad snap.
"I had a couple dislocated fingers at the time," he added. "So I couldn't really feel the ball."
Silipo has taken a majority of the reps at long snapper for the Buffaloes this spring. He did not see any action as Justin Drescher's backup at the position last fall.
Iverson was in Boulder this weekend. He got a chance to watch the Buffs' second spring scrimmage.
"It was a great experience, everything was organized and fast paced," he said. "I am going to head out there on July 6th. … I am just going to do what I can and hopefully I'll win the [starting] spot."
Tennessee rewards South snapper Carr
By Tony Ciniglio, Staff Writer
Posted: 04/25/2009 05:26:12 PM PDT
When JR Carr entered South Torrance as a freshman, he decided he wanted to be a long snapper so he could play for the varsity team immediately.
Four years later, Carr has parlayed long snapping into a major Division I scholarship.
Carr made a verbal commitment to the University of Tennessee to join new coach Lane Kiffin on a scholarship that will kick in after his first semester, Carr confirmed Friday.
UNLV and Arkansas had made similar offer to Carr last week, and Carr had been holding out hope that Florida would offer a scholarship too after showing strong interest. When Tennessee jumped into the picture late and offered him a scholarship on the phone, he accepted.
"I can't wait to go out and play a game there," said Carr, who plans to visit Tennessee in the next two months before starting a summer semester there. "Everyone's been saying there's nothing like watching a college football game in the South. They average like 105,000 per game, which is nuts."
Though Carr's father is a Torrance detective who works security for USC football, Carr said he did not have a previous connection with Kiffin, a young coach who was a former USC coordinator and Oakland Raiders head coach.
Yet joining Kiffin was a definite selling point.
"Coach Kiffin definitely brings some credibility, and Coach (Ed) Orgeron and Coach (Eddie) Gran are great too. It's a well-put-together staff," said Carr, whose sister, Jennifer, earned a
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softball scholarship to Missouri State and is finishing her senior season.
Carr was a three-year All-Pioneer League linebacker, but he began fine-tuning his long-
snapping skills at the Chris Sailer Kicking Camps since he was a freshman, working with Chris Rubio, a former UCLA long snapper.
Apparently it was effective.
"I can't think of one bad snap in four years," South coach Josh Waybright said. "For four years, we never worried about snapping. He was automatic."
Once a long shot, a few long snappers are earning scholarships
Story Highlights
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. longsnapper Jordan Cowart signed with Notre Dame
Snappers take part in only 10-15 plays a game, must be perfect every time
Some colleges have revised their thinking in recruiting a long snapper
Virginia Tech's Collin Carroll is on scholarship as a long snapper.
Courtesy of Virginia Tech
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Dan Stacey sent between 30 and 40 VHS tapes to college football programs as a senior at Father Ryan High in Nashville, Tenn., in 1997. Each tape featured Stacey with his head between his knees, rocketing the football to the punter or the holder. "I got a lot of letters back," Stacey said. "Most of them said no." Had Stacey, who eventually walked on at Tennessee and started at long snapper from 2000-01, been born 12 years later, he might not have spent so much time at the post office. College coaches might have called him.
Instead of hustling for a walk-on spot, Stacey might have received a scholarship. Last week, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. snapper Jordan Cowart signed with Notre Dame, and San Clemente, Calif. snapper Evan Jacobsen signed with New Mexico. Neither player will be expected to play another position. They will only snap, and, with any luck, they'll be as anonymous as Collin Carroll, Virginia Tech's scholarship snapper.
"Long snappers usually don't get noticed," Carroll said, "unless they screw up."
For Chris Rubio, each passing year brings more calls from college coaches looking for a reliable snapper. Rubio, a former UCLA snapper who teaches the art of the long snap to players at the kicking academy run by former Bruins punter Chris Sailer, is the nation's most plugged-in snapping coach. And Rubio can see a day soon when most Football Bowl Subdivision schools sign a long-snapper to a scholarship. "It's something they don't have to worry about anymore," Rubio said. "They say, 'I can offer this kid. I can tell he's good. I don't have to worry about it for four years.' It's fantastic."
It makes sense. While a snapper may take part in only 10-15 plays a game, he must be perfect every time. If the left guard misses a block, his team might lose two yards. If a linebacker misses a tackle, the ball carrier may gain an extra five yards. If the snapper sails a ball over the punter's head and out of the back of the end zone, he just gave up two points. If he bounces a snap to the holder during a field goal attempt, he just cost his team three points and valuable field position.
That's why some college coaches have revised their thinking when it comes to choosing a snapper. For the past few decades, snappers typically have come from the student body. If they were recruited at all, coaches invited snappers to attend walk-on tryouts. In recent years, coaches have essentially promised a walk-on roster spot and a scholarship once the snapper proves himself for a season. That's how Missouri landed Beau Brinkley, who started as a true freshman walk-on in 2008. It's also how Indiana got a commitment from Josh Keyt, a snapper from Roachdale, Ind. Assuming all goes well, Keyt will walk on and redshirt the 2009 season and go on scholarship in 2010. Until he goes to Bloomington, he'll practice. "My basement is 14 yards exactly," Keyt said, referring to the distance of a punt snap.
Some coaches have gone a step further. Some appreciate the value of allotting one scholarship every four years -- essentially, one out of about every 100 scholarships a program gives -- to a snapper. "It's basically, they want to scholarship the kid, and they don't even want to talk to him for four years," Rubio said.
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis echoed that sentiment last week when he discussed the signing of Cowart. Cowart, a 6-foot-2, 220-pounder, never made a bad snap at St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the nation's top high school programs. Cowart's punter, Ben Turk, also signed with Notre Dame last week.
"One thing I've been very concerned with is our long snapping situation," Weis said. "So we went out and got a long snapper. ... He's a good athlete. I can't see any reason why when we open up on Sept. 7, he shouldn't have a legitimate shot of being our snapper and staying there for the next four years. I'm hoping that to be the case. We don't give anything to anyone, but that's what we are counting on."
Unlike a top-rated tailback, the best snappers still don't have a wide variety of scholarship opportunities because only a limited number of schools are seeking snappers each year. Most hope they have an experience similar to Christian Yount, who received scholarship offers from Boston College and UCLA as a junior at Tesoro High (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) in 2005. Yount chose UCLA and started immediately. If the snappers perform once they reach college, they might wind up like former San Diego State snapper Tyler Schmitt, a scholarship signee and four-year starter who was picked by the Seattle Seahawks in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL draft.
Virginia Tech's Carroll and New Mexico's Jacobsen had more typical recruiting experiences. Carroll, a 6-3, 240-pounder from Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.) who started in 2008 as a redshirt freshman, had plenty of interest as a walk-on, but he wanted a scholarship. "I've got six younger siblings, and my parents are going to have to pay for college," he said. "I was praying for a scholarship, but I didn't know what to expect."
Carroll had a scholarship offer from Eastern Michigan, and he was close to accepting when his phone rang one day. "I knew it would be an honor to work with Coach [Frank] Beamer, but I didn't really know if that was a realistic goal or not until Coach Beamer called me," Carroll said. "It was just a miracle. He said, 'Hey, this is Coach Beamer.' I almost dropped the phone." Carroll visited Virginia Tech the following week. On the trip, he immediately accepted Beamer's offer of a scholarship.
Jacobsen, the No. 1 player in Rubio's snapper rankings for the class of 2009, also had to wait to get an offer. He was recruited early by New Mexico and by Washington, but he figured those opportunities would vanish when coaches Rocky Long and Tyrone Willingham were fired. "Oh great," Jacobsen remembered thinking. "Every school that recruits me, the staff is going to get fired."
But not long after Mike Locksley took over at New Mexico, Jacobsen received a call from assistant Toby Neinas, who had coached Schmitt at San Diego State. The Lobos offered a scholarship, and Jacobsen accepted. "It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders," Jacobsen said.
While the limited number of suitors alters the recruiting experience for snappers, they do face some of the same issues as position players. Just as a school that runs the option wouldn't sign a drop-back quarterback, a school that uses the spread punt formation -- three linemen stationed between the snapper and the punter -- wouldn't take a bulky snapper. A spread punt team would want a leaner, faster snapper who can tackle, because spread punt snappers typically release immediately to chase the returner. A team that uses a more traditional punt formation would want a sturdier snapper who could block oncoming rushers. Jacobsen learned quickly which schools used which formation in his discussions with coaches. "Boise State and Florida were looking for a downfield runner," Jacobsen said. "Washington, New Mexico and Georgia Tech, they were just looking for the perfect snap."
If the current crop of scholarship snappers delivers enough perfect snaps, it likely will blaze a trail for even more opportunities in the future as coaches try to reduce their headaches by one. "You don't need to offer a scholarship to a long snapper every year or even every two years," Virginia Tech's Carroll said. "But every four years or so, you need a long snapper. I'm really optimistic about how long snappers seem to be getting more recognition and more credit."
Burley grad Patterson invited to walk-on at Oregon as long snapper
By Ryan Howe
Times-News writer
Two years ago the Burley high football team needed a long snapper. Steven Patterson volunteered, seeing it as an opportunity to get more playing time.
Since then, Steven Patterson's world has been literally flipped upside down.
When he raised his hand and offered to give long snapping a try, he never dreamed that chucking a pigskin through his legs would take him this far.
Patterson began playing football in the seventh grade, and like most young players dreamed of someday playing Division I college football. But major programs rarely recruit southern Idaho.
"I had little dreams. I think everybody wants to play some college ball," Patterson said. "I didn't know if it was ever going to come true. Compared to all the amazing athletes that get to go to those big D-I schools, I wasn't quite caught up with them, so I decided to develop something special and see how far it can take me."
Now it appears it will take him at least as far as the Oregon Ducks of the Pac-10.
The Skill
As the center who snaps the ball to punters, as well as holders on field goals and extra-point attempts, long snappers are an integral part of a football team's success. Teams covet good, consistent snappers. Colleges award them with scholarships and NFL teams award them with paychecks.
Patterson was naturally skilled at the position, but he needed proper training. He scoured the Internet for tips to improve. He began to really excel in January after attending a Chris Sailer camp in Las Vegas.
In recent years long snapping, kicking and punting have become a specialized niche, and Chris Sailer Kicking camps are one of the most highly-regarded in the country for developing young talent.
Chris Rubio is in charge of Sailer's long snapping instruction. Rubio snapped for UCLA from 1994-1998. Seven years ago, Sailer, an old Bruin teammate, called and Rubio's been teaching long snappers across the country ever since.
The Times-News caught up with Rubio via telephone while he was preparing to run camps for Les Miles at LSU and Nick Saban at Alabama.
"The best thing about Steven is you tell him what to do and he does it. He wants to get better, and that's a big positive," Rubio said.
At the camp in January, Patterson was one of 135 snappers from 38 states. His hard work and determination helped him stand out.
"It was a much bigger stage than he was used to," Rubio said. "He needed to work on blocking and speed. He kept improving and came to our camp in May and did very well. Everything I asked him to work on, he did."
It's not as easy as it looks. The long snapper must be able to throw the football at a small target 15 yards away. He does so while upside down and with 280-pound defenders bearing down on him.
Players who do it well reap the rewards. One of Rubio's pupils got the long-snapping job at Duke University and received a full-ride estimated at over $300,000.
"A lot of times snappers are the smarter kids, and I say, 'Relax. You're not solving world hunger here. You're snapping a dead animal 15 yards. Snap it fast and snap it accurate, that's what you need to do,'" said Rubio.
Despite its importance, long snapping is a thankless job. A snapper's name is usually only mentioned during game broadcasts when he messes up. Everyone remembers Adam Vinatieri kicked the game-winning field goal for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII, but how many people remember Brian Kinchen, the long snapper?
Duck Call
Since January, Patterson has worked tirelessly to become a Division-I-worthy long snapper. He works out more than three hours every day, lifting weights, running and practicing snaps. At the Chris Sailer Camp in May, he ranked among the top 40 snappers in the nation. Rankings are based on speed, accuracy, consistency, size, athletic ability and blocking.
Patterson, a 6-foot-1, 215-pound All-Great Basin West offensive tackle and linebacker, sent videos to almost every college in the country.
"We didn't have any idea who was going to like it," Patterson said. "We didn't know how good I was."
About 10 schools showed solid interest. The most intriguing call came from the University of Oregon, and Patterson visited last month.
"It was amazing," he said. "They have crazy facilities. NFL pro scouts come along and they say 'We don't even have stuff like this.'"
Since Patterson was a late find for Oregon, he's had to rush the NCAA Clearinghouse and school admissions process. This fall, Patterson will walk on, and then work to earn the starting long snapper job and a scholarship. He said the Oregon coaches have hinted he might have a chance to play in his first year.
"The game is so much bigger and faster (at the college level)," Rubio said, "but I think he does have the ability, I really do. He's improved so much, and he's going to keep improving. He's a hard worker."
Patterson could make his college football debut back home in Idaho, as Oregon opens the season at Boise State on Sept. 3, a game slated to be broadcast nationally on ESPN. If that's not a big enough stage for a kid from small-town Burley, how about Oct. 10 when the Ducks travel to Los Angeles to play UCLA inside the Rose Bowl? Or the Ducks' home game with perennial power USC on Oct. 31?
Right now, it's all pretty surreal for Patterson
"That's pretty crazy to think about. Big powerhouse USC. It's going to be on TV, too, so that's pretty nerve-wracking."
While he's come a long way, Patterson knows he still has a long way to go.
"I don't know how far I can take it, if I can even take it to the pros because it's such a special ability," Patterson said. "Or if I can just pay for my education, that's good enough. That will be well worth the while. We've put a lot of work into it. If it can pay for my education, that will be great."
The boss can be quirky too. Locks needed a deep snapper in his first class. It's not exactly a position you recruit. That's why God made walk-ons. Think of the guy who squeegees your windows at a stop light suddenly getting hired full time at Turtle Wax.
That's the equivalent of giving a scholarship to a deep snapper.
In 2007, there were 32 New Mexicans on the roster. The overwhelming majority of those were walk-ons. Free talent is a built-in advantage for this program. The state typically produces fewer than 10 recruitable Division I-A athletes per year. But the state lottery funds something called the lottery scholarship. Any kid with a 2.5 GPA can get his tuition paid thanks to all those scratch-offs.
Given that, it would seem a coach could practically start a fraternity house of deep snappers. But last season, the poor New Mexico player's snaps were known for their hang time.
"He had an arc on it," Locksley said.
So the coach saw nothing wrong with using a scholarship Wednesday on a guy who would only play a few snaps a game. He didn't expect Evan Jacobsen. The kid has been deep snapping since he was 9. Recruiting services called him the best in the country at what he does.
"According to my (high school) coach it's the most important position," Jacobsen said. "You get the ball back there as fast and as accurate as you can. Then you run down and try to make a tackle."
There's a number for everything. Even Jacobsen can claim to have set the high school record in the Rubio snapping index.
But the kid seems more enthused by his hobby. That is, to be the youngest person to scale the world's seven tallest peaks. Four down for 240-pounder from Laguna Niguel, Calif., three to go.
"I was supposed to do No. 5, Mount McKinley, but football and climbing are contradictory," Jacobsen said.
As he traveled the world, Jacobsen was so struck by the poverty he saw in places like Russia, Nepal and Tanzania, it inspired him to start Summit7, a non-profit that helps raise funds for housing. His goal is to raise $1 million for each country he visits.
"My father kind of picked up mountain climbing and went on all these trips," Jacobsen said. "He kept telling me these fascinating stories. There's plenty of good climbing around New Mexico.
"I practice for an hour every day at most," he said.
Just one question. Is Jacobsen talking about football or mountain climbing?
FORT LAUDERDALE - Jordan Cowart never planned to be a long snapper.
Then again, who does? It's not like children went outside the morning after the Super Bowl and pretended to be Jared Retkofsky.
Who?
Exactly. Retkofsky was the guy in the Pittsburgh uniform people didn't notice, the guy who was mostly anonymous during the game because he didn't make any mistakes.
Cowart not only didn't plan on a long-snapping career growing up, but he didn't expect to play football. The St. Thomas Aquinas senior who is going to Notre Dame on a football scholarship started as a baseball player.
He pitched. He took private lessons. He spent time at the batting cage. Then he stepped on the Brian Piccolo Memorial Stadium turf and knew he wanted to play for the Raiders.
"I could see dollar bills floating away at that point," Cowart's father, Gary, said jokingly.
Gary Cowart wanted to make sure his son was ready to step on a football field. He set up private lessons, so Cowart could learn to block, tackle and catch passes. Then one day, at the end of a workout, Cowart's coach asked him to snap the ball.
"The first time that Jordan snapped the ball, you knew there was something special," said Gary, a Broward County judge.
Cowart, 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds, found his future with one snap. While he worked some with both the offensive and defensive lines, he focused on long snapping.
"It got me on varsity, so I'm happy I decided to do it," Cowart said.
Injuries to teammates landed him on varsity as a freshman, but during the two games he was listed as the starter on the punting unit, he never got to see the field. The first time he stepped into a varsity huddle during practice he looked up at the upperclassmen who towered over him and was terrified. He suited up for the 2005 state title game, the first of four consecutive appearances — three starts.
He became the starter his sophomore year and has been almost automatic.
"He only had one bad snap in all four years that I've been snapping with him," said punter Ben Turk, who also signed with the Irish. "No one else notices when he has a good snap, but I notice."
There are times, though, when it isn't easy being the long snapper. There is the pressure to be perfect every time. There are those who mock a player whose specialty is special teams. There is the urge to try new positions. But he kept with it. He understands there are challenges more difficult than snapping a football.
If he needs a reminder, he just looks to his mother, Jodi.
About nine years ago, she went through a liver transplant and, even though Cowart was young, the experience provides strength when he needs it.
"She just taught me to never be afraid of anything," Cowart said. "If she can go through all that, I'm sure there are plenty of things I should be able to do."
After her wedding day and Cowart's birth, Jodi called signing day the happiest moment of her life.
"He's seen me go through so much, almost die," Jodi added. "He sees that I never complain, that I just keep going on with what you're supposed to do in life and it makes me feel so wonderful that he's proud of me."
Jodi's illness brought the family closer together and it is going to be tough for Cowart to move to South Bend. His parents plan to visit often.
For Cowart it is the next step in a career he came upon by accident.
When a coach gives a scholarship to a long snapper, he is expected to come in and get the job done right away. It brings pressure, but Cowart's even keel is one of his greatest assets.
"He always does well when the pressure's on," said Chris Rubio, who works with Chris Sailer Kicking, which puts on the most prominent kicking camp in the country in California. "He's definitely one of the top 15 in the country."
For a top prospect, Cowart's accomplishments go largely unnoticed but, like most long snappers, he doesn't crave attention. That lack of notoriety means he is just doing his job.
MANHATTAN, Kan. | In mid-August, Kansas State held another installment of its popular clinic for women, “Football 201.”
Inside the Vanier Football Complex the pupils soaked up instruction from coach Ron Prince, assistant head coach Tim McCarty and defensive line coach Mo Latimore.
And then K-State special-teams coach Jeff Rodgers addressed the women.
“Do you know who Corey Adams is?”
Silence. No raised hands.
“That’s good,” Rodgers said.
If a long snapper becomes a household name, it’s for all of the wrong reasons.
But do your job — no, be perfect at your job, as Adams has been on all of his snaps at K-State — and no one notices, which, in a weird way, is the goal.
“At UCLA, I would snap it well during practices and games, and I’d say, ‘Coach, you never talk to me,’ ” said Chris Rubio, a Bruin during 1993-98 who now teaches long snapping.
“And he said, ‘Chris, as a long snapper, if I never talk to you, you’ve done good.’ ”
Prince admitted this week that he’s the same way with Adams. Some thought Prince was crazy to offer a scholarship to Adams, a sophomore long snapper from Monument, Colo., but it’s become one fewer aspect of increasingly frustrating Saturdays to deal with.
Sure, Rubio saw the logic. During college, Chris Sailer, the punter and kicker he snapped for, was a two-time All-American. Naturally, Rubio considered himself an All-American, too.
What’s a perfect kick or punt without the perfect snap?
And so it was when Sailer launched his kicking school and turned to Rubio as his long-snapping coach. The whole endeavor took off, which only partially explains how Adams found his way to Manhattan.
Long snapping, he reasoned, was his quickest route to playing varsity football.
Between Adams’ sophomore and junior year at Lewis-Palmer High, he and his father, James, searched the Internet for help. Adams attended the Ray Guy Camp and was impressive there.
Which led to an invite from Rubio to Las Vegas for a January combine.
After watching Adams, Rubio rated him No. 1 in the country, which is when everything changed.
Offers from Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Arizona State, Central Michigan and K-State filtered in.
“Once you give these schools one, they trust you,” Rubio said.
There is a common misconception that anyone can pitch a football between their legs, or that what Adams does isn’t impressive.
Consider:
•Velocity. The average college snap takes 0.8 seconds to hit the punter’s hands. Adams is timed consistently from 0.65-0.7, which is NFL range. Tyler Schmitt, another Rubio product, has been timed at 0.53 seconds, which, according to Rubio, translates to 52 mph.
•Accuracy. Adams and Rubio insist this is the most important attribute. The ball must hit a right-footed punter on his right hip, and vice-versa for lefties. On PATs and field goals, the holder’s back knee is the target. “A punter needs to be in rhythm and consistent,” Adams said.
•Technique. The good ones, such as Adams and Schmitt, use their legs to drive the ball. Plus, it’s preferable to have the laces out when it lands in the punter’s or holder’s hand, and the spin of the football can be controlled by how much velocity is applied.
•Pressure. Adams has never had a poor snap. Not at K-State, not in high school, not anywhere.
“I used to worry on every snap whether it’s going to be good or bad, but now I don’t even bother,” James Adams said. “I’ve never seen it.”
Adams’ biggest challenge so far has been his critics.He sees them when he’s out in Aggieville on Friday or Saturday night, the ones who ask what position he plays. What they don’t realize is that he’s probably one of the safest bets on K-State’s current roster to make a NFL team once his eligibility is complete, and being drafted — Schmitt was a sixth-round pick by the Seattle Seahawks this year — is a possibility.
Instead, they all think they can do it as well.
“I’ll tell a guy what I do, and he’ll say, ‘Oh, I did that in high school and I’m better than you are,’” Adams said. “I’ll say, ‘Let’s go get a ball. Let’s go snap in the street right now.’ Some actually do challenge me, and I keep a ball in my trunk for when it happens.”
Rubio laughs knowingly.
“Corey will be dealing with that for the rest of his life,” he said. “I still get that.”
Name the starting KansasStatefootball Wildcat who has yet to have a bad play.Josh Freeman? Nahh — he's thrown an interception, or two.Ian Campbell? Nope — he went without a tackle in one whole game.Brandon Banks? No — he's dropped a couple catchable balls.
Ever heard of the name Corey Adams?
He's been on the field for 67 plays and has graded an "A+" 67 times. That's for 35 long snaps on extra points, 20 hikes on punts, another nine on field goals and three on fake punts.
"Not yet," Adamssaid when asked if he's had a bad snap, rapping his knuckles on a table, and adding a quiet, "Knock on wood."
Adamshas anonymously gone about his duties for 19 KansasStategames, and that's exactly like he wants to keep it. He knows the only way his name's going to make a newspaper game story is if he zings a snap over punter D.J. Fulhage's helmet, or dribbles one across the turf to holder Tysyn Hartman.
"I'm not amazed anymore," said KSUkicker Brooks Rossman of Adams' accuracy. "He's a great snapper and you expect him to be perfect."
Adamscame out of the Chris Rubio and Chris Sailer kicking/snapping school based in Las Vegastwo years ago as the No. 1 long-snapper in the country.
Today, Adamsworks in that camp. "That tells you what I think of him," Rubio said.
K-State was the first to offer a scholarship, but others quickly followed — Oklahoma State, OregonState, ArizonaStateand Central Michigan.
"The first time I saw Corey he had some skills, but was raw," said Rubio, a former long-snapper at UCLA. "He was really lean. He reminded me of Opie."
But as Adamsmatured physically and technically, Rubio knew his student had a future.
"I remember the tape he sent out," said KSUcoach Ron Prince. "I remember his velocity and accuracy and wondered, 'OK, is this trick photography, or real' ... and it was (real)."
Adamsis now a pioneer to his amateur profession.
Rubio guessed that five years ago maybe one scholarship given to a long-snapper. Today, he estimates 25-30 grants are given in each recruiting class.
The position is respected to the point that the Seattle Seahawks made San Diego State long-snapper Tyler Schmitt a sixth-round selection in the 2008 NFL Draft.
Rubio ranks the Wildcat sophomore among the top five in the country with some of Adams' skills already being NFL-ready.
While 40-yard-dash times are prevalent to the game of football, for long-snappers it's a blurrish .8-second clocking between the time the ball leaves Adams' hand and arrives touches the hands of his punter, who is standing 14 to 15 yards away.
My times are .65 to .7," Adamssaid. "In the NFL you look for a .7, but those guys are so accurate."
And that's just as important as speed.
"You try to put it on the punter's right hip for a punt, and my target is Tysyn's (Hartman) knee," said Adams, who also controls the spin of the ball with the flick of his wrist so his holder catches the ball with the laces pointing out. "If you spray the ball the kicker can't be comfortable."
For the record, a kick/punt that Adams has been a part of has not been blocked at K-State in his 19-game career, and had zero blocks in his final two years at Lewis-Palmer High School in Monument, Colo.
It was in those teen years that Adamspracticed his craft even on Christmas day, aiming his between-his-leg zingers at a 12-inch by 12-inch square for field goals, and a 3-point, 2-point, 1-point bull's-eye, which happened to be Rubio's face.
Today, Adamsis readying himself for an NFL career, in part, by eating every quarter-pounder, whopper he can find.
