The Cardinal Countdown: 46 Days Until Kickoff

#46 Brendan Lowery

Class: Junior

Ht/Wt: 5-11/200

Position: Long Snapper

Hometown: Barrington, IL

Twitter: @Lowery_LS

Thoughts: Things could get interesting at long snapper this year for the Cards. If you followed Louisville football the last couple years and, oh I don’t know, happened to tune into the NFL draft a few months back, then you saw Colin Holba come off the board as one of the few specialists to get drafted (most are picked up after the draft). So that vacancy now means we have a full blown position battle heading into the fall.

If you read my recap on Lowery the last couple years you know I really like what he’s shown, even though his size scares me a little. While I think Lowery can win the gig (he left spring ball as a first teamer) I wasn’t shocked to see Mitch Hall’s name appear as the #1 guy in the recently released Media guide. Hall was considered the #2 long snapper in the country and was one of only 6 long snappers to get a scholarship offer and sign a LOI last season out of high school in 2016. Using a scholarship on a longsnapper shows just how bad the Cards wanted Mitch, and as noted by USA Today, it was the first time in over 15 years the Cards have offered a long snapper out of high school.

As I noted in Massad’s post back on Day 76 the long snapper isn’t praised very often and it’s the epitome of a “just put your head down and go do your job” type position, but we’ve seen when you’re reliable, you’re consistent, and you can accurately throw a football 7-12 yards between your legs…good things will happen.

Tip of the cap to a CC “correspondent” Tim Lowery for taking a few moments to break down some of the misconceptions of grading out long snappers. I found it interesting and thought you might as well…

Long Snapper rankings are [typically] biased in favor of snapping speed and height.

You can go to Patrick Mannelly's website and see his view that snapping speed is overrated. When snaps are too fast, they are a distraction for the punter, who should be thinking about punting, not worried about catching a bullet snap. It takes time to gather a fast snap in and take it back out to the punting position. Mannelly's experience is that the total get off time of a punt is actually faster with a slower snap (.75 is good) in the right location.

In the Alabama Clemson game last year, Alabama had the highest rated and fastest longsnapper. One snap was low, which led to a partially blocked punt. Clemson had a walk on, and had no bad snaps.

My point is that fast snappers tend to be less accurate. You can look at film of fast highly rated snappers and see this. All you can really believe about snappers is the result of honest competition.

And a competition we will have. With Hall on campus I’d imagine Brendan and Hall, along with Ryan Betlach, will all fight for that spot in 2017. Maybe I’m the oddball but I’d pay to see that specific position battle over a starting spot at say cornerback or free safety. Each snap carries a lot of pressure and putting those guys through the ringer would be great entertainment for me. Good luck to Lowery and the other long snappers this season as we’ll see who rises to the top for Week 1.

Sweet Tweet: Lowery’s tweets are protected which makes me very excited, actually. Why? Because I don’t have to scan through hundreds of tweets to try and finagle or contort a comment out of one of his tweets that somehow allows me to post a long snapper trickshot video. I can just smack you straight in the face with it, no explanation required.

Enjoy.