|
News and Notes From Kevin
Gold
NEWS & NOTES
November 19, 2002
Week Eleven brought a minor snapping change, as the Giants used
offensive lineman Chris Bober on placement snaps to replace the
struggling Bob Jones, who continues to handle punt snaps. Bills
snapper and tight end Dave Moore returned to snapping duties this
week and handled both long and short snapping. Bengals snapper Brad
St. Louis recorded a solo tackle to move into a tie with Dolphins
snapper Ed Perry. Each player has a total of five tackles, four
solos and one assisted.
A longsnap.com reader recently asked contributors Rob Davis and
Kendall Gammon who they thought was the best pro snapper they had
seen. In response, Davis mentioned former Cowboy snapper Dale Hellestrae,
due, in part, to the Super Bowl rings he has, while Gammon mentioned
a trio of retired snappers, Blair Bush, Mike Morris and Adam Lingner.
As mentioned in last week's News and Notes, The Sporting News Ultimate
Pro Football Scouting Guide 2002 ranks over 1,800 players at all
positions, including long snappers. The grades were on a scale from
1 to 10 and players were separated as either a veteran or rookie.
Rookie grades and commentary are based on college action only.
Some snappers were graded solely at their primary position and are
not included here. Below are the grades and rankings from top to
bottom and a summary of the positive comments:
Veterans
1. Jeff Robinson (9.6) (strong velocity; extremely accurate)
2. Patrick Mannelly (9.5) (explosive zip; top cover long snappers)
3. Brian Jennings (8.3) (good zip; no critical errors)
T4. Ethan Albright (7.8) (accurate; does not make critical mistakes)
T4. James Dearth (7.8) (good zip; excellent size)
6. Mike Bartrum (7.7) (accurate; good athlete)
T7. Brad Banta (7.5) (solid; one of the top cover long snappers)
T7. J.P. Darche (7.5) (consistently accurate; great effort in coverage)
T7. Lonie Paxton (7.5) (great velocity; consistent)
10. Rob Davis (7.4) (strongest zips of any long snapper; upper-
echelon blocker)
T11.David Binn (7.3) (fast and accurate; dependable)
T11. Derek Rackley (7.3) (one of the strongest snaps; athletic)
T13. Kevin Houser (7.0) (good zip; good mechanics)
T13. Ryan Kuehl (7.0) (extremely accurate; good blocker)
T13. Joe Maese (7.0) (excellent velocity; solid snap every time)
T13. Mike Schneck (7.0) (decent velocity; solid)
T13. Justin Snow (7.0) (accurate; good job getting downfield)
T18. Kendall Gammon (6.7) (accurate; consistent)
T18. Joe Zelenka (6.7) (fast and accurate; dependable)
20. Sean McDermott (5.9) (good accuracy; good job of covering downfield)
21. Brad St. Louis (5.8) (solid; good accuracy)
T22. Brody Heffner-Liddiard (5.7) (reliable; good velocity and accuracy)
T22. Dan O'Leary (5.7) (flashes excellent velocity and accuracy)
24. David Diaz-Infante (5.6) (adequate velocity)
25. Jason Kyle (5.5) (outstanding accuracy and zip; aggressive and
intelligent cover guy)
Rookies
1. Jeff Grau (3.1) (great velocity; good accuracy)
2. Chris Massey (3.0) (strong blocker; good accuracy and velocity)
Finally, Western Athletic Conference snappers are profiled below.
Rice snapper Ryan Pontbriand is one of college football's top snappers
and his coach, Ken Hatfield, has called him the best. Week Nine's
News and Notes accidentally omitted Tennessee's freshman snappers
Scott Newsome (68 6-2 230) and Adam Miles (59 6-0 225). The Independent
schools will be featured next week in the final installment of Division
I snapper profiles.
BOISE STATE 33 Matt Strohfus 6-2 233 (SR)
FRESNO STATE 41 Kevin Murphy 6-0 215 (SR)
HAWAII 45 Tanuvasa Moe 5-11 218(FR)
LOUISIANA TECH 60 Matt Graham 5-9 252 (FR)
NEVADA 89 Erick Streelman 6-5 250 (SR)
RICE 58 Ryan Pontbriand 6-2 245 (SR)
SAN JOSE STATE 78 Jeff Gordon 6-4 287 (JR)
88 Marcus Helfman 6-5 241 (SR)
SMU 63 Grant Eidson 6-1 265 (FR)
TULSA 58 Thomas Perrault 6-2 236 (JR)
UTEP 47 Jon Dorenbos 6-0 245 (SR)
WEEK ELEVEN (TACKLES/ASSISTS)
St. Louis (CIN) (1,0)
Davis (GB) (1,0)
Leach (DEN) (1,0)
Banta (DET) (1,0)
Maese (BAL) (1,0)
THROUGH WEEK ELEVEN
Perry (MIA) (4,1)
St. Louis (CIN) (4,1)
Grau (DAL) (4,0)
Bartrum (PHI) (3,0)
Hodel (ARI) (3,0)
Mannelly (CHI) (3,0)
McDermott (HOU) (2,1)
Banta (DET) (2,0)
Davis (GB) (2,0)
Houser (NO) (2,0)
Jennings (SF) (2,0)
Albright (WAS) (1,1)
Dearth (NYJ) (1,1)
Snow (IND) (1,1)
Binn (SD) (1,0)
Darche (SEA) (1,0)
Gammon (KC) (1,0)
Jones (NYG) (1,0)
Leach (DEN) (1,0)
Lepsis (DEN) (1,0)
Maese (BAL) (1,0)
Massey (STL) (1,0)
Moore (BUF) (1,0)
Paxton (NE) (1,0)
Rackley (ATL) (1,0)
Snow (IND) (1,1)
Treu (OAK) (1,0)
Allred (PIT) (0,1)
Schneck (PIT) (0,1)
Read Previous News
& Notes
Please feel free to send me your
comments
via e-mail.
If
you would like to receive News & Notes in e-mail,
please send us your name
and email address.
|
