Anything But A Snap For Larson Cougars’ Deep Snapper Nervous About Spotlight Season Opener

Erik Larson spent Thursday in Jim Bauman’s office - eyes closed, reciting his mantra, visualizing perfection.

You see, Larson is Washington State’s redshirt freshman deep snapper and Bauman is the team’s psychologist. And the former’s extremely nervous, so the latter is in serious demand.

“Since the day they told me I was going to be the starting deep snapper, I’ve been this way,” Larson said.

This way is more fidgety than a Type A personality after a double espresso and a handful of No-Doze.

Sleep isn’t coming as easy.

Every practice snap is picked apart and scrutinized. And worst of all, everybody on the team is a little afraid to talk to him.

“They really don’t want to psyche me out,” Larson explained.

Well, forget about it. He’s already about as psyched out as he can get. This is a man in the cross hairs. He’s about as nervous as someone on Ken Starr’s subpoena list.

And the worst part is every day the 6-3, 248-pounder’s nerves become more frayed than the edges of grandma’s throw rug.

“It’s not like I’ve never done this before,” he said. “I’ve been doing it since the fourth grade. But I’ve never done in it in these surroundings with ABC showing the game, and 30 or so thousands watching everything I do.

“I can’t dodge it, I’m just nervous.”

So with the opener against Illinois rolling around on Sept. 5, he sought help.

“Now I’m trying to block it all out. Just block out the crowd and everything else and concentrate on getting the ball in Kareem’s hands.”

That’s just what it will take - concentration because basically a long snap comes down to this: The ball’s beneath you, there’s a fire-breathing 300-pounder across the line who knows if he blocks this punt he won’t have to run gassers next week, the punter is 15 yards back and you have to hike the ball perfectly without even looking.

Give the guy a blindfold and this could be the circus act of football.

“It’s tough,” said Larson. “You never know whether you’ve snapped it perfect or not. Sometimes it will feel good and it was a terrible snap. Other times it’s the opposite.

“And the worst is you never can see if you’ve had a good snap or not.”

Nope, if the deep snapper takes the time to look back at the punter odds are he’ll wind up flatter than Wile E. Coyote under an ACME anvil.

If anything does go wrong Larson will feel flatter than the above cartoon character.

“I just want to do it right,” he said. “That’s what I kept telling myself, ‘Perfect. Perfect form. Perfect snap.’ “And I’ll know if any reporters ask to talk to me I’ve screwed up.”

Chances are he’ll know way before that.

While Larson is more nervous than a sack full of cats, the duo he’ll be snapping to is the picture of calm.

Kareem Anderson, a junior college transfer, takes over the punting duties following Jeff Banks’ graduation. After a subpar spring, Anderson has made a transition in his punting style and believes his average should increase from the 44.2 average he had at South Mountain (Ariz.) last season.

“People may not want to see the punter go out on the field, but when I go out I want to make that kick that pins the other team and allows the defense to come on and make the plays,” Anderson said. “We’re turning the ball over anyway, I want to make it into a positive.”

Rian Lindell will again be in charge of the place-kicking duties for the Cougars. The redshirt junior made a school record 58 of 60 PATs last season and made 12 of 17 field goal attempts, including his last six.

But the thing that has driven Lindell this preseason are the couple of field goals tries he missed against Arizona.

“We won the game, but I never stop thinking of those,” he said about last year’s 35-34 overtime nail-biter against the Wildcats.

Notes

Gary Holmes, a senior co-captain, missed his second straight day of practice. Holmes, a 6-7, 318-pound defensive tackle, has been excused on personal business, coach Mike Price said. He is expected to be in the lineup for the Illinois game.

WSU CLINIC The Washington State football team and coaching staff will travel to Spokane for a free football clinic for youth players in elementary school on Saturday. The clinic will be held at 3 p.m. on the North Field of Joe Albi Stadium and will last 90 minutes. In addition to the clinic, approximately six Cougars will visit Shiners Hospital in Spokane. “It’s all a part of our give-back program,” said WSU running backs coach Kasey Dunn. “The Inland Empire has given us a lot and we’re just trying to give back.”