• You do not need to register if you are not going to pay the yearly fee to post. If you register please click here or log in go to "settings" then "my account" then "User Upgrades" and you can renew.

HuskerMax readers can save 50% on  Omaha Steaks .

Can a center get better at snaps.

Haptics is the key here. Naturally your brain hardwires a routine through feeling a movement with repetition. We don't have a few seasons to waste for him to get it down. It is absurd to think what he is doing now will suddenly change.

There is a way it could happen. You can actually learn surprisingly fast, in as little as a few hours, to do complicated keyboard work using 'haptic gloves'. The key is not simply wearing a glove, it's the complicated series of signals going through the gloves on a repeating playback. You can do literally the same keyboard sequence 'stimulus' a few hundred times and your mind is largely unaware of the number. But somehow your brain lays down the neuropathic sequences to repeat it when the gloves are taken off. The body normally has to run through the sequence in perfect practice a few thousand times without this kind of learning aid. If only we had the equivalent for learning football skills. This might require a partnership with academia to pull off something like that. Minnesota ironically used to be one of the leaders in haptics research, but it's been awhile since I last did a lot of looking into it.
 

The team suffers while all this is going on. The younger Farniok was lined up at one point to play center and has had a lot of experience. But for some reason we continue to let Jurgens throw the ball every which way, thereby making QM play very difficult. On the point of can it get better, we are half way through the season and it hasn't gotten better yet.
 
Its frustrating for sure. I think its putting AM off having to anticipate a poor snap. IMO the O-line is not exactly blowing holes in the D or giving AM tons of time on pass plays. Is Farniok that much worse as a blocker that we can't get at least get a decent game of snaps.

The QB receiving the ball in rhythm seems to be a major key in the zone read and misdirect that SF's O needs to be successful. CJ must be a beast or we are incredibly thin behind him for this to be still creating havoc 5 games in.
 
Really baffles me as when we were in high school, we moved a kid to center and all our coach said was "throw the ball between your legs and just slam your wrist against your shin." We never had an issue with snaps and I feel like coaching now could be even better.

I'm just chalking it up to him having to learn so much new since he has never played OL before. Game is probably moving pretty fast for him.
 



It seems like a case of the yips more than anything. I'm sure he's getting tons of reps and not missing often in practice. In live game situations, he's just so anxious and self-focused, it's impairing his ability to execute what should be a simple task.
 
DuckTownHusker said:
Dave Rimington was so fast he used to be able to hit the DL and then a LB before he snapped the ball.
Click to expand...
Barry Switzer tried to psych us and the Refs by arguing in the press that Rimington was offside when he snapped the ball... Did it the week before we played them... I think he also tried to argue Rimington held a lot.

Of course, Switzer was also a Center... Hmmm... does he come to the Rimington Trophy presentation?
 




247sports.com

Husker snap issues: "There is no excuse for it now"

Snap issues continue to plague the Huskers.
247sports.com 247sports.com
"Right now, we just got to figure out a way to get it right," said Nebraska junior right tackle Matt Farniok. "There's too many snaps that are going wild or going wrong that are messing up the reads, and we've got to find a way to fix it. It's on all of us. We got to find some kind of way to get those snaps right to his chest. There is no excuse for it now. Heading into Week 7, we need perfect snaps every time. That's the No. 1 role of the center, and that's what we expect from the center. So he knows he needs to fix it and he's been working on it."
Click to expand...
Translation: "My brother should be starting at center."
 
I was a 3 year starter in HS at center, that was before shotgun was in wide use. I did snap punts and PATs also. It is something that can be learned, but some are just naturally better at it. You have to think of it as passing a football between your legs.

My son is the starting center on his HS team and they are exclusively shot gun. He has had maybe 3-4 errant snaps all year. When I say errant I mean a little high or low, nothing like Jurgens has done. Takes after the ole man. :Biggrin:

Jurgens is worried more about his blocking assignment than he is about getting the snap done correctly first. I am sure he is spending a lot of extra time practicing his snapping before and after practice. I would imagine that his snapping looks fine during practice. It is probably something that rears itself during game time situations.
 
Walztrent said:
Everyone is complaining about the center and his snaps but to me it will get better with time. It looks like when the snaps are high hes coming out of his stance to fast and not snapping the ball first and then coming out. More like a timing issue or he’s more worried about the block than getting the snap back to the qb. Those two things should get better just don’t see them getting a lot better this year.
Click to expand...
The answer may be yes and it can happen quickly. Many have gone to the "dead snap" technique.

www.espn.com

How one technique could end bad snaps forever

One of the most frustrating things in football can be a botched snap, but a decades-old technique is suddenly gaining popularity and changing how the ball gets from the center to the quarterback.
www.espn.com www.espn.com

They couldn't snap the ball on target. His offensive coordinator, with each errant Saturday snap, would remind him of that. Seven snaps that season were classified as a disaster.

As Cushing canvassed the snapping landscape in his offseason probe, he noticed Michigan and a few other schools' centers peculiarly palming the football's nose rather than grabbing the laces in shotgun. They flipped and floated it back, allowing it to hang in the air without much rotation. It was a landmark judgment favoring precision over power.
That crude simplicity is the dead snap's most attractive feature. Once the ball is spotted, the center places the back point of the ball in his palm rather than gripping it like a quarterback arming a spiral. The nose is then placed into the ground so the ball is at a 45-degree angle with an inch of the ball grazing the turf. The fingers are spread, usually with one across the laces or seam to help with grip. Then with the wrist locked, the center swings his arm back like a pendulum and releases.
"Life changing," Cushing said.

If the dead snap sounds complicated, centers assure it's much easier than the spiral and avoids a hurtling fastball back to the quarterback. Northwestern center Brad North said his biggest flaw is overthinking, so after a 2015 season of bumbled snaps, he learned the straightforward dead snap in a few weeks. Last season, Northwestern did not have one snap that prematurely ended a play.

Elite programs can often recruit centers with a background in spiral snapping, and coaches usually won't fiddle with a lineman who is comfortable with his delivery. But a lot of schools have to fit a lineman in at center and then guide him. North was a high school tackle who had never snapped.

"I can teach a 5-year-old," Drevno said. "That's how easy it is."

That limited learning curve changes roster dynamics and opens up recruiting. Northwestern now has six linemen who can snap, opening up scholarships and insulating them from a rash of injuries.

"As an O-line coach, on day one you get rid of half the guys who can't snap the ball, so you sleep better when instead of two centers you have six," said John Kuceyeski, a Cornell assistant who spent time in the Big Ten, Big 12 and MAC. "I make all my guys [dead] snap now
 



Walztrent said:
Everyone is complaining about the center and his snaps but to me it will get better with time. It looks like when the snaps are high hes coming out of his stance to fast and not snapping the ball first and then coming out. More like a timing issue or he’s more worried about the block than getting the snap back to the qb. Those two things should get better just don’t see them getting a lot better this year.
Click to expand...

He can get better at snaps, but at this point, all he can hope to be is good not grate.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

GET TICKETS


Get 50% off on Omaha Steaks

Back
Top