Clary’s snaps
Offensive line coach Dustin Fry has instituted a policy in practice that a center who makes a snap that’s too high or low has to run.
“If you have a bad snap, there’s no questions asked,” said starting center Ty Clary, a junior from Fayetteville. “You just take a lap around the whole field and hop back in when your lap is over.”
Clary isn’t training for the cross-country team. In the first two practices, Clary had one bad snap — in Friday’s opener — through what he estimated was more than 100 plays.
“It kind of ruined my day, because snapping has been such a focus for me,” Clary said. “I lost focus for just a little bit and I had a bad snap. But that’s one bad snap too many. In a game, if you have 70 reps and 69 are great, but on that last drive if you snap it over the quarterback’s head, you’ll lose the game. So you can’t have any bad snaps.”
Clary struggled with snaps at times last season, resulting in Hjalte Froholdt — now a rookie with the New England Patriots — moving from guard to start the first three games at center.
“We have skills and drills all summer, so obviously that was a huge emphasis for me,” Clary said. “I stayed after and did extra snaps every day.”
Senior quarterback Ben Hicks said he’s been impressed by Clary’s work ethic.
“It’s something we worked on all spring and all summer, and Ty is doing a great job now,” Hicks said. “He’s hard on himself at times, but he wants to be great. He wants to be the best. You can appreciate that.
“To be great at center, you can’t have bad snaps, and I know he takes a lot of pride in that. He’s worked his tail off on it, and he’s going to be fine. I know I can trust Ty to get his job done every play. He’s just going to continue to get better as the fall goes along.”
Tackle Colton Jackson said Clary continues to make his snaps a priority even when he’s on the sideline during practice.
“When Ty’s not in there, he’s over there working on snaps with the equipment guys,” Jackson said. “The coaches are holding him accountable. He’s been doing a really good job.”