UW Football | Long snapper has one job, but it's big

Danny Morovick and Ian Hammond sound like brothers in arms.

Each is a native of Mission Viejo, Calif., each attended Saddleback Community College and each is now a deep snapper — and a deep snapper only — for a Division I-A college football team, Morovick for the Washington Huskies and Hammond for the Syracuse Orange.

Those two teams play each other Aug. 31 in UW's season opener at Syracuse.

It might make for a really good story if the two knew each other.

Instead, the two went to rival high schools and were never teammates at Saddleback as Hammond left before Morovick got there. Morovick never played football at Saddleback, spending just one semester there before coming to UW in the spring of 2006.

Still, the oddity of it caught Morovick's attention the other day.

"I kind of thought 'wow,' " he said.

That each team has a player who does nothing but deep snap — and went to great distances to find that player — further speaks to the growing specialization in college football.

There have been a few recent seasons when the Huskies had deep-snap specialists, but often they were players recruited to play other positions who ended up filling that void — or players who had aspirations beyond just deep snapping. More often, UW has turned to a player who was also playing another position to handle deep snapping.

But Morovick is a deep snapper only, with no other ambitions.

And while versatility is an asset in the era of 85 scholarships — UW has 76 active scholarship players now — coaches no longer hesitate to use a spot on a deep snapper if the right one can be located.

"If you can find a guy who can snap for four years, that makes a lot of things easier on you as a coach," said UW special-teams coach Bob Simmons. "But more importantly, it helps your punter and your field-goal kicker because they see the same snap over and over and they become comfortable."

And after a few rough moments for Morovick a year ago, there seems little doubt now that that he could be a four-year player at that spot.

Morovick was touted by UW coaches as having had just one bad snap in high school. He began deep snapping after losing the quarterback job as a junior at the urging of his stepfather, Terry Giblin, who played at Wake Forest.

He liked it and decided to specialize, realizing early the possible opportunities — Washington coaches saw him at a showcase camp for deep snappers.

But he admits the step up in competition last year took some adjusting, in part because at 230 pounds, he was on the small side.

"He was physically weak and obviously his snapping started off inconsistent," Simmons said. "But as we got towards the end of the season it got better, and he's improved over the summer."

He has put on about 10 pounds while also getting stronger and said, "I've already noticed the difference. ... I feel like I started off a little shaky last year, then toward the end of the season I feel like I was more in sync. I wasn't so nervous, I was more confident, and I feel like that's carrying over to this point."

Said holder Carl Bonnell: "The biggest thing is that he's right on spot every time. There were a few times early last season where he was a little high, a little off-center, and that kind of thing kind of throws off the timing for the kicking. But he's really been spot-on, and that's helping our whole crew."

That makes Morovick one of the few certainties in Washington's kicking game. The punting spot remains open with scholarship players Jared Ballman and Ryan Perkins and walk-on Kiel Rasp vying for the job.

The place-kicking job seemed destined to go to true freshman Erik Folk, but he missed the first week of camp with back spasms.

Folk has impressed with his leg strength since getting well enough to kick a few the last couple of days, but Ballman and Perkins also remain in that race.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Read his blogs on Washington football and basketball at www.seattletimes.com/huskies