Inside The Huskies

Huskies' Jaden Green Snaps with the Best of Them, According to this List

This UW football player has handled fourth-down chores for two seasons snow.

Dan Raley

Huskies' Jaden Green Snaps with the Best of Them, According to this List
Huskies' Jaden Green Snaps with the Best of Them, According to this List /
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Another reminder that it's the silly season for college football, where every last program aspect gets ranked, right down to the waterboy. Adam Sandler, are you paying attention?

While it's interesting to see what others think, or aggravating to some, this particular ranking below stopped us cold — the top 50 long snappers, compliments of the tireless Oklahoma list-maker who goes by the handle Big Game Boomer. 

More than any other player ranking, what possibly could set these 50 men apart who man the middle for everyone's fourth-down change of possession?

Does a radar gun measure their speed of delivery? Is the level of spiral graded for overall beauty? Are there style points for breaking huddle with authority? 

These are all legitimate questions from one with supposed insider knowledge on this athletic endeavor. Full confession, I once set a Seattle Metro League record back in the dark ages — for longest punt snap over a punter's head, which went 46 yards on the roll, in what was then a scoreless game with 8,000 people watching. Still have nightmares.

As for the Boomer's list, he puts the University of Washington's Jaden Green, a two-year veteran, at No. 49, barely making the cut, but included in this football fraternity just the same.

The 5-foot-10, 208-pound Green from Gilbert, Arizona, has rebounded quite nicely after sending the very first snap of his collegiate career over the head of then-UW punter Race Porter against Oregon State in 2020, resulting in a blocked punt and a Beavers' touchdown.

Maybe Green can tell us how Central Florida's Alex Ward rates as the nation's best hiker, if that word is even used anymore? 

Or how Oregon's Karsten Battles sits at No. 6, Washington State's Simon Samarzich rates No. 11 and obvious blueblood Jack Landharr IV from UCLA is the nation's 42nd-best snapper?

Jaden Green enters his third season as the UW snapper.
Jaden Green has been the UW's starting snapper for two seasons.  / UW

This might be the first modern college list of any kind where Alabama, Georgia, Texas and USC don't have an entry. These guys don't make snapping a priority at those powerhouses?

With pandemic provisions in hand, Green still has three seasons of eligibility remaining. There's still plenty of time for him to crack the top 10. It's still just a 15-yard snap for everyone, except for me, of course, who had to add another 31 yards on to my fateful offering. 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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