Jack Tarr
The N.C. State football team finished 3-9 and winless in the ACC in 2013, cementing the campaign as one of the most forgettable in school history. However, if you look hard enough, there are some bright spots among the mess.
One of those is junior long snapper Scott Thompson. The native of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., was named a first-team All-American by Phil Steele College Football on Jan 2. He has handled snapping duties on all punts, field goal attempts and extra point attempts for the past three seasons.
Thompson was named a preseason All-American by Steele, and he made it a personal goal this season to prove Steele right.
“I woke up to messages from my dad, my mom, my grandparents, and I wondered what the big deal was. Then I saw that I had been named a preseason All-American,” Thompson said. “I had to make sure I got it after the season, so I worked my tail off to make sure that happened.”
The long snapper is somewhat of an obscure position, and there are hardly any statistics available for the position. Most long snappers start by playing other positions in high school or earlier and morph into the position.
“I wasn’t too good at it at first,” Thompson said. “It was kind of a tradition for my dad and brother and I to go out every Saturday and mess around snapping and throwing the ball. One afternoon we saw a man instructing snappers.”
That man turned out to be Chris Rubio, a dedicated long snapping coach who runs camps across the country. In football circles, Rubio is viewed as the Phil Jackson of long snapping.
“I’ve worked with [Rubio] ever since that day,” Thompson said. “If you want to be a long snapper, go find him. I went to his camps since I was 14. He became like my second father. He’s the reason why I’m here.”
Thompson pitched himself tirelessly to programs all over the country in order to fulfill his dream of playing college football.
“I sent film to every Division I school in the country,” Thompson said. “State was one of those schools that kept responding. It wasn’t necessarily about just football, but also about the quality of the school and the coaching staff that was here. I really fell in love with the place.”
When Thompson made the cross-country trip to Raleigh to visit the campus, he was sold.
“They really rolled out the red carpet for me,” Thompson said. “I came out to Carter-Finley for the Thursday night game against Florida State [in 2010] and that sealed the deal for me.”
Not surprisingly, Thompson spends most of his time at practice working with the other first-string specialists, namely junior placekicker Niklas Sade and junior punter Wil Baumann. Sade made 19 of 23 field goal attempts and was named a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, also earning an All-ACC honorable mention for his efforts this season.
“Everyone says kickers are a little weird, but I love those guys,” Thompson said. “We came in together and have been working together all three years, and we can’t wait to start our fourth season as a unit. I wouldn’t trade those two for any other kickers in the country.”