The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
NDCL’s O’Brien on radar of D-I schools
Senior-to-be on track to be long snapper in college
Triston O’Brien never imagined holding the ticket to college athletics like the one he’s currently holding.
A junior at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, O’Brien probably imagined himself as a quarterback — one of the positions he plays for Coach Andrew Mooney’s Lions.
With his size (6-foot-3, 205 pounds), receiver, linebacker or safety might have made sense. Or maybe even following in the footsteps of his Grandpa Ron, a tight end and former college teammate/roommate at Mount Union with Larry Kehres, who then went on to a legendary career coaching the Purple Raiders.
But long-snapper? No, O’Brien never imagined that.
Yet as the months wind down to the beginning of his senior year, that longsnapping ticket looks to be the one O’Brien is going to cash in. With interest from Michigan State, Boston College, Cincinnati, Akron and Toledo, O’Brien has received plenty of looks.
According to Kohl’s Kicking Camp — a prestigious organization where kickers, punters and long-snappers hone their skills and are ranked — he is the 34thranked long-snapper in the nation for the Class of 2021.
All of which would have caught O’Brien offguard a handful of years ago if he was told this is the hand he’d be playing in 2020.
“Yeah, if you told me back then this is what I’d
be doing, I’d say ‘there’s no way,’” said O’Brien, who resides in New Lyme Township in Ashtabula County. “As time went on, it became more and more of a reality.”
O’Brien is certainly pushing all his chips into the middle of the table in his quest to be a high-level long-snapper on the college playing field. He has been to Kohl’s Kicking Camps at Thiel College (in Pennsylvania) and most recently in Orlando, Fla. (in January). He has also taken part in Kohl’s training sessions at Massillon.
His Kohl’s profile reads, “O’Brien recently competed at the Kohl’s Underclassman Challenge and displayed tremendous power and explosiveness. He has a long frame that still has room for growth and development. O’Brien is consistently on target but will see his snapping continue to improve as he makes gains with his ball rotation.”
He has trained in Las Vegas
and Chicago with Chris Rubio of Rubio Long-snapping, and is also a pupil of the Hammer Kicking Academy in Buffalo, N.Y. Hammer’s Adam Tanalski has O’Brien ranked as a top-five snapper in the Class of 2021.
“I was in Buffalo in September, and my dad (Casey) asked about where I was recruiting-wise,” O’Brien said. “He said I could be a big FBS, full-scholarship snapper. That opened our eyes a little. Before that, I had no idea where I fit in.”
O’Brien made it a point to “fit in” from his first days of practice as a freshman at NDCL a few years ago. The Lions were looking for volunteers to long-snap, which was an important position as NDCL had one of the nation’s best kickers in Gabe Brkic, currently the starting kicker for the Oklahoma Sooners.
“My friend, Dominic Roberts, suggested I do it,” O’Brien said. “I started my freshman year and it’s just
snowballed from there.
“My freshman year, Gabe was my biggest mentor during that process. He really helped shape me because of the level he was at at th the time.”
There are three main components to being a successful long-snapper, O’Brien said — 1, the speed of the snap; 2, the accuracy of the snap; and 3, he ability to block and also go downfield and tackle on punting plays.
As he has gotten taller and stronger, his technique as both changed and improved.
“As a freshman I was like a little puppy snapping the ball,” he said with a laugh. “I’m more fluid and strong now.”
That technique, honing of skills and camp success has gotten the eye of college programs. He admitted his favorite right now is Michigan State. He said was concerned with the coaching change this offseason, when longtime coach Mark
Dantonio and his staff departed, but that the new staff has been i contact and remain interested.
The thing about being a long-snapper is the scarcity of scholarships. Many college programs have only one long-snapper on scholarship at a time, meaning such players have to accept preferred walk-on status and then compete for the scholarship spot once the former scholarship snapper exhausts his eligibility.
O’Brien said he is willing to work for and fight for such a spot.
“We’ve talked about that as a family,” he said. “A lot of times at the big FBS programs, they have two or three snappers and they look for the best to win the job,” he said. “If you think you’re good enough to win that scholarship, you should go to the school you like and go earn it.”
Wherever he decides to go for college, O’Brien (who holds a 3.6 grade-point average)
plans to major in finance or law.
While O’Brien is excited about his opportunity as a college long-snapper, he’s focused on his senior year at NDCL. The Lions just graduated a senior class of 22 from the football team, but O’Brien said he and his teammates are confident in melding together for another highly competitive season.
“We had a lot of injuries last year,” he said, but younger guys stepped up and showed they could do that job on the varsity level. That will help us this year.”
And when the time comes, he’ll be ready for the next step — wherever that leads him on the college recruiting landscape.
“It’s pretty exciting,” he said. “It’s exciting to have these college programs talking to me. I used that as motivation to keep pushing myself. I have to keep working and striving to earn that scholarship I want.”