As kids, many aspiring football superstars dream of being the next Joe Montana or Tom Brady, throwing perfect spirals to fleet-footed wide receivers and racking up touchdowns.
That wasn't the case for Anchorage's Jeff Overbaugh, who is a prime NFL prospect after four years at San Diego State as one of the nation's top long snappers.
"I was the exception," said Overbaugh, who played on the offensive and defensive lines at Service High, where he helped lead the Cougars to the 2008 and 2011 Alaska state championships. "I never really was big into the quarterback, running back, wide receiver skill-position deal."
Overbaugh said his dad, Bill, often tells a story from Jeff's Pop Warner days. When the coach asked the team who wanted to play center, 7-year-old Jeff quickly volunteered.
"My dad says I shot my hand up immediately and (he) was on the sidelines like, 'Oh no, I should have told him quarterback,' " Overbaugh joked.
Overbaugh, now 22 years old, doesn't play a high-profile position, but his skill as a long snapper earned him a spot in college football's most prestigious all-star game — Saturday's Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, where he hoped to catch the eyes of the numerous NFL scouts, coaches and general managers.
But what exactly goes into being a long snapper? And why does a guy whose primary job is chucking a ball between his legs deserve a Division I scholarship or a roster spot on an NFL team?
The answer: Special-teams plays — field goals, punts, PATs — can be the difference between a win and a loss, so specialists are a valuable asset.
"… Some coaches label it as the most (important) play in football," Overbaugh said. "I think if you're a coach that shares that sentiment, you probably want some pretty good specialists and a pretty good unit on the field for you."
Disasters can happen
Overbaugh's job is to snap the ball quickly and smoothly to the holder for extra points and field goals and to the punter on punt plays — seemingly simple tasks.
But look no farther back than an NFL wildcard playoff game in early January to see what can go wrong at even the highest level of football.
In the game between the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks, Vikings long snapper Kevin McDermott twice snapped the football with the ball's laces facing the kicker — a big no-no in snapping, because the laces can affect both the trajectory of the kick and the mindset of the kicker, Overbaugh said.
Vikings kicker Blair Walsh nailed the first field goal with the laces facing him, but he missed the 27-yarder that would have won the game.
In the same game, Seahawks long snapper Clint Gresham fired a low snap to punter Jon Ryan, causing Ryan to try to run for a first down instead of punt the ball. The result: a broken nose for Ryan on the ensuing tackle and good field position for the Vikings.
Fans and media are quick to point out special teams disasters like those, but it's often only coaches and teammates who congratulate a specialist when things go right.
"Those guys only get noticed when they mess up," said Bobby Hauck, SDSU's special teams coordinator during Overbaugh's senior season. "When they're good nobody says anything about it. It's a little bit backwards that way."
Overbaugh hasn't experienced the types of failures seen in the Vikings-Seahawks game, which is one reason he was named a Rubio Long Snapping College Second-Team All-American in January. He was perfect this season in snaps, going 156-for-156 (includes punt snaps, PAT snaps and field goal snaps). He also added two tackles and a fumble recovery on the year.
For his career, he was a perfect 510-for-510 while recording six tackles and a fumble recovery.
Overbaugh's hard work also carried over into his psychology studies in the classroom, where he won numerous academic awards, including the SDSU's President's Award for High Academic Achievement.
"Jeff is a great guy," Hauck said. "He was perfect snapping the ball this year for the most part. Really a detailed guy and a hard worker and it showed in the way he played this year. It was fun to be around him mostly because of the guy he is."
The path less traveled
Overbaugh wasn't just handed a Division I football scholarship, and his rise to the top of the position is no accident. He started working toward his goal at a young age.
"That was probably Pee Wee, somewhere in there, we got to the age where we were gonna start punting and they looked to the center and said, 'Hey, figure it out, get it back there,' " Overbaugh said.
"That's kind of how the long snapping thing started."
Though his specialty was snapping, in high school most of his focus was on other positions. He was a team captain and a stud at both offensive tackle and defensive end for the Cougars.
"He had a passion for long snapping but he did a lot of other things for us as well," said Jason Caldarera, Overbaugh's football coach at Service.
Overbaugh couldn't focus too much attention on snapping during the high school season, but during his freshman year, he and his family learned about "specialist camps" in the Lower 48 specifically geared for kickers, punters and long snappers.
Overbaugh started going to the camps, most notably the Chris Rubio Long Snapping and Chris Sailor Kicking camps.
"Year to year he just got serious about training, serious about doing all the right things, getting good grades in school," Caldarera said. "He just always had that perspective."
Overbaugh said attending the summer camps was a "two-for-one deal" because his family traveled to the Lower 48 anyway to vacation or visit relatives.
"I kind of found out about these camps and found out that specialists were getting full scholarships to play DI football," he said. "And I kind of knew that my (chance) at the offensive tackle or defensive end was not as high as maybe some other kids' so I kind of exploited my ability as a long snapper to get down to these camps in the Lower 48."
Overbaugh's persistence paid off, and he found himself as Rubio's third-ranked long snapper in the country coming out of high school in 2012. He quickly accepted a scholarship offer to play at San Diego State.
Handling the pressure
It didn't take long for Overbaugh to feel the pressure of Division I athletics. During the middle of his freshman season, the Aztecs were down by three points in a game at Nevada and had a chance to tie the game late.
"I was still a freshman — definitely wasn't treated with the same respect as some of the seniors who had proven themselves," Overbaugh said. "Some of the coaches were maybe not as comfortable with me.
"We go onto the field, I snap the first one, hit the holder in the hands, but the Wolf Pack had called a timeout to try to ice our kicker, so we had to run the play back. We go in for the next one, again I hit the holder in the hands, but they iced us again. I think our whole sideline thought it was comical at that point that they had tried to ice us twice."
After the lengthy delays, Aztec kicker Chance Marden and the field goal unit went back on the field for a third time. Overbaugh delivered his third-straight perfect snap and Marden's kick sailed through the uprights. San Diego State went on to win the game in overtime.
"That was a pretty cool moment for me," Overbaugh said. "The coaches gave me some love after the game. The strength coach said I had ice in my veins, so that was a fun moment."
Practice, practice, practice
To handle nerves, Overbaugh said he focuses on simple things like his breathing and snapping technique. Repeating his moves thousands of times in practice makes them second nature in high-pressure situations.
"I think I've definitely had a few of what people would call pressure snaps in my career," Overbaugh said. "But, I love playing the game so much that I get so involved playing the game that half the time, I don't even know that I'm doing a 'high-pressure play.'
"I think that's a big part to having success, is to treat every snap the same. Even if I'm in practice, I should be in the same mindset, I should have the same level of importance on every snap, so when it is the big situation, nothing has changed."
Similar to a batter in baseball, Overbaugh said some snappers and kickers go through elaborate routines before a big play.
Not Overbaugh. He prefers to keep it simple.
"Nothing too elaborate and nothing too crazy," he said. "Let's say everybody gets set with five seconds left, the long snapper who likes to stretch, reach between his legs, look up and survey the field — to have a lengthy ritual is not going to be beneficial in that situation. I try to keep my approaches as minimal as possible."
The science of snapping
Overbaugh has perfected his skill to a science. He can snap the ball exactly where he wants it to go time and time again.
"He did a lot on his own. You would find him in The Dome long snapping with his dad," Caldarera said of Overbaugh's high school days. "He can snap to a quadrant, he can snap it down to a millisecond. It's a science. It really is."
The speed and accuracy of a snap are critical, but several other factors go into being a good long snapper.
They must be skilled blockers, know how to read opposing coverages and be able to go downfield and make tackles, Overbaugh said.
This combination means that long snappers have unique body types. They must be big enough to block gigantic defensive lineman but flexible enough to snap the ball between their legs and fast enough to get downfield and make a tackle when needed.
"It's interesting, because I would probably describe myself, before I got into long snapping, as one of the least flexible people on planet Earth," Overbaugh said. "It's an interesting deal. As long as you work at it, you can get it.
"As far as body type, I would say for the college game, the ideal long snapper would be like a 6-foot-3, 230-pound long snapper who could cover the field well, because it's better for a college long snapper to have the ability to cover the field and make tackles.
"But for the pro game, probably the same height but inching up to 240, 250 (pounds)."
The ability to block becomes more important than the ability to cover at the pro level, he said. Because of different rules and formations, NFL long snappers stay in the compact formation longer than college players so they can block after they hike the ball.
The next step
Adapting to these changes and improving his size and speed are what Overbaugh is working on in the days leading up to February's NFL Scouting Combine and April's NFL Draft.
Long snappers are rarely drafted and usually only one is invited to the NFL Combine, Overbaugh said. His best chance to make an NFL roster will likely come in free agency after the draft.
Last year, Navy's Joe Cardona was drafted in the fifth round by the New England Patriots — a pick so rare that Yahoo Sports' Eric Edholm wrote an article titled "Patriots make most Patriots pick of all time, draft long snapper in Round 5."
Prior to Cardona, the last long snapper to be drafted was San Diego State's Tyler Schmidt by the Seahawks in 2008.
With the odds of being drafted against him, the invitation to play in the Senior Bowl was crucial.
"It's a huge deal to be involved with the Senior Bowl because every team is going to have their scouts, their directors of player personnel, their GMs and their coaching staffs there," Overbaugh said prior to the game.
After the Senior Bowl he'll wait to see if he gets the coveted invitation to the NFL Combine. After that, it's San Diego State's pro day.
In the meantime, Overbaugh is training with special teams guru Gary Zauner, who became the NCAA's first full-time special teams coordinator in 1981 — at, coincidentally, San Diego State.
As Overbaugh continues to develop relationships with experts like Zauner and players like Schmidt, he doesn't forget his roots as an Anchorage kid playing Pop Warner and high school football.
"Really happy to be from Anchorage and have grown up with the people I did," Overbaugh said, "because it's a tremendous deal in shaping the person I have become today."