Long and Short of Huskies' Long-Snapping Issues

The UW has made a concentrated effort this week to fix this ongoing problem.

UW center D'Angalo Titialii prepares to snap the ball to Will Rogers in the Apple Cup. / Skylar Lin Visuals

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey -- Bad snaps have been rampant for this University of Washington football team this season. Centers D'Angalo Titialii and Landen Hatchett each have dribbled the ball back to Husky quarterbacks in shotgun formation. Long snappers Cameron Warchuck and Caleb Johnston likewise have been off target in delivering the ball to a holder or a punter.

Even one of the writers sitting in the press box and covering this a UW team has a history of messing this up -- he put one over a punter's head for a 46-yard loss in a scoreless battle of unbeatens in a Seattle high school game long ago. The bad snapper's vibe must be his fault.

These snapping snafus have cost the Huskies points, drives, possession and field position, and they're just four games into this season.

"It's something we need to get cleaned up and we're working diligently to towards that," said Brennan Carroll, UW offensive coordinator and offensive-line coach. "We know this week is going to be a challenge with the cadence. They're going to be all fired up in New Jersey."

However, it rained overnight and might drizzle again and the ball could be slick leading to more snapping adventures for Friday night's UW-Rutgers game at SHI Stadium.

The Huskies haven't had to worry about this football chore in recent seasons, with scholarship snapper Jaden Green flubbing his very first punt pass in 2020 but playing flawlessly thereafter for four seasons, even getting so comfortable he caught a two-point conversion pass.

Parker Brailsford, now considered the nation's top center at Alabama, handled the shotgun snaps for the Huskies last season and everything went fairly smoothly.

Yet with this team, everyone literally has had a hand in the muffed snaps, with quarterback Will Rogers dropping a couple of direct snaps, mainly because at his previous stop, Mississippi State, he was always in shotgun formation and this has been a bit foreign to him.

The Huskies cranked up the music in practice to provide built-in distractions that might emulate a rowdy Rutgers crowd. They increased the repetitions. They sent a message that bad snaps have to stop.

Something seemingly so simple to navigate has been a huge challenge for this team and there's no shortage of experts on hand who can be consulted. Meantime, the Huskies have resorted to alternating Titialii and Hatchett more often at center, trying to take the pressure off each of them.

UW defensive coordinator Steve Belichick was a long snapper for Rutgers during the 2011 season, though he wasn't used in games and ended up having multiple thumb surgeries because of his lacrosse sporting career. Still, he carries a certain amount of wisdom on this football subject.

"You're not the quarterback, but everybody's got a long snapper," Belichick said. "Somebody's got to do it and it's important."

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