Keeps head down
» A&M deep snapper Austin Frey prefers anonymity.
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M’s Austin Frey is happy you probably haven’t heard of him.
“Even if I do a good job, I still don’t want people knowing my name,” Frey said “If I mess up, I don’t want them to know who it is. Thankfully, that hasn’t happened this year.”
No, it hasn’t, and it’s one more reason why Aggies should know their longtime deep snapper’s name. That — and because Frey owns a remarkable story.
“It’s crazy,” A&M fullback Cullen Gillaspia said. “For a kid to go from playing sixman football while being home-schooled to being a four-year letterman in the SEC while earning a scholarship … it’s been really cool to see how he’s blossomed into the player that he is today.”
Frey is one of 17 seniors A&M is honoring at Kyle Field on Saturday, when the Aggies (6-4, 4-3 SEC) host non-conference foe Alabama-Birmingham (9-1, 7-0 Conference USA) at 6 p.m.
Frey was home-schooled from the time he was in kindergarten. When he was in junior high, his parents, Jack and Jennifer Frey, started up a home-school football team that competes among private schools and other home-school programs. Jack coached the players, and Jennifer coached the cheerleaders for the Tomball Christian Warriors.
“It gave our family a way to all be on the field together,” Jennifer said.
The couple raised two boys and two girls, with the youngest daughter graduating from high school last year. The couple stepped away from the program, but it’s still going strong with 11man competition since 2013, along with cheerleading and a baseball team.
Austin played six-man football his first few years with Tomball Christian, which prepared him for deep snapping in college.
“In six-man football, everyone is eligible to catch, and I played center,” Austin said. “The snap in the shotgun formation in six-man is about 10 to 12 yards, so I got a lot of practice at what I’m doing right now.”
Austin’s father played football at West Point and encouraged his son to pursue deep snapping to punters and kickers because of the uniqueness of the skill.
“I started snapping about 100 balls a day,” Austin said of his early high school career. “Week after week, just every single day I’d get out in the backyard and snap to a target.”
His single-mindedness paid off with an offer to walk on at A&M, where his grandfather, Dick Frey, played in the early 1950s.
“Playing at A&M was always the dream,” Austin said. “I’ve been coming to A&M games since I was about 6 years old. I never thought I’d be able to wear the maroon and white, with ‘Texas A&M’ across the chest and ‘Frey’ across the back.
“I still can’t believe it to this day — just a 6-year-old kid, living a dream.”
Frey, who’s held the gig since 2015, has developed into one of the best in college football at his thankless duty. But first-year A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said he was grateful to inherit a solid snapper.
“The only time you ever notice them is if there are bad snaps,” Fisher said. “But Austin does a tremendous job — and he’s a tremendous human being, first of all.”
Frey’s home-schooling background and his specialized duty aren’t the only two things that make him stand out on the A&M roster. He’s also the lone married player.
“It’s pretty special,” Frey said of having wed the former Maddie Gaines this past June. “It’s been cool to be an example of having a positive relationship with a girl.”
He added with a grin, “I don’t always get to hang out with teammates, but that’s OK. She’s definitely worth hanging out with.”