Long snappers find it’s no snap to master craft
PULLMAN – Jason Hill goaded Mkristo Bruce into giving it another shot before practice Friday morning, taunting him mercilessly.
“Your snap game is down the drain,” Hill cooed.
Bruce, always one to take the bait, demanded a ball and had Hill stand 15 yards behind him. The punt snap spiraled back, high over Hill’s head, as the wide receiver – and more than one casual observer – laughed at the defensive end.
Long snapping is not easy, as Bruce has discovered since the spring, when he gave it a shot in practices.
Instead of falling on the senior captain, snapping duties will be handled by a trio of players anonymous to most Washington State University fans, and possibly to their own teammates.
One first arrived on the practice field bearing the weight of a family tradition. Another showed up after taking a break from pre-med work to glance at a depth chart. The third arrived this fall alongside a high school teammate who shared similar dreams.
None is a scholarship player, and considering the position they play they’d probably prefer it if no one knew their names. But Tony Thompson, Peter Hill and Zach Enyeart will be responsible for getting the ball into the hands of punter Darryl Blunt and holder Gary Rogers – and if they don’t, everyone in the stadium will quickly take note of exactly who they are.
“In some ways, it is kind of a Zen-like thing,” said Thompson, the most notable of the three as the son of Cougars great Jack Thompson. “I just need to really control my breathing, just relax. Don’t squeeze the ball.”
He should be the punt snapper, earning his way onto the field despite being well down the list of Cougars tight ends. Enyeart, a freshman from Sammamish, Wash., has backed him up this fall.
Thompson clearly has a way to go, airmailing two snaps and sending punters scrambling for a number of others thus far in scrimmages. Thompson took his struggles in the first scrimmage – one day after the death of his maternal grandmother – especially hard.
“You’ve just got to conquer that emotion and fight through it,” he said.
Peter Hill has perhaps the most interesting story. A long snapper at Wenatchee High School, Hill came to WSU to pursue a chemical engineering degree while aspiring to enter medical school. Last fall, the sophomore happened to look at a depth chart, and he was surprised at what he saw at his old position.
“Senior, senior, senior,” recalled Hill, as Bienemann, Riley Fitt-Chappell and Adam West were all graduating. “So I went ahead and talked to (Bill) Doba.”
Now, while taking senior-level design classes in engineering, Hill – a redshirt sophomore for football considerations – gets the honor of being slammed by defensive tackles while trying to get the Cougars kicking game started.
Both Thompson and Hill wouldn’t have made the travel squad had it not been for long snapping, but unless something changes in the next two weeks both players will be there when the Cougars enter Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium on Sept. 2.
Notes
WSU, already thin at guard after starter Andy Roof had thumb surgery, is holding both of its top reserves out as well. Jacob McKinney (right hamstring strain) and Justin Luafalemana (right thumb sprain) are waiting for the medical green light to resume practices. … Mead’s Skylar Jessen (hamstring strain) is listed as out indefinitely.