Getty Image / Ryan Day
Think back to the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal. You’ll remember that the last play of Nick Saban’s coaching career was a bad snap on 4th and goal.
Here’s a visual reminder. What a terrible way for a legend like Nick Saban to go out.
Alabama’s final play was an RPO
This ball should’ve gone to the swing pass to the RB
Bama had 2 blockers on the 2 DBs and the RB out leveraged the defender playing him man
But low snap forced Milroe to abort it and run himself pic.twitter.com/T84g9niTQ6
— Adam Breneman (@AdamBreneman81) January 2, 2024
As Adam Breneman said, if it’s a good snap then the play is going out to the running back on a swing route, and Alabama might have scored. Think of how many things would be different in both college football and the NFL.
A poor shotgun snap was not a rarity for Seth McLaughlin, who served as the Crimson Tide’s center last year. It was happening multiple times a game, and the athleticism of quarterback Jalen Milroe saved them from disaster plenty of times.
McLaughlin decided to leave Alabama after last season, presumably because he would’ve been harassed by his classmates because he couldn’t snap the football accurately. Now, he’s a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes as they look to return to the College Football Playoff.
Buckeye fans are understandably anxious about McLaughlin’s snap problems from last year. Head Coach Ryan Day spoke about the snap issues, and completely threw Jalen Milroe under the bus.
Ryan Day attributed Seth McLaughlin's bad snaps at Alabama to cadence issues with Jalen Milroe.
🗣️“Seth’s snaps have been great. I know that was a little bit of a concern. I think that had a lot to do with maybe the cadence or whatever. But so far, he’s been doing great.”
— Tony Tsoukalas (@Tony_Tsoukalas) March 19, 2024
I wasn’t privy to Alabama’s cadence calls last year, but I fail to see why that would cause McLaughlin to snap the ball inaccurately. Not snapping the ball on time would make sense! But inaccurate snaps? That doesn’t seem super logical.
The likely answer is that McLaughlin is worried about getting out of his stance quick enough and is rushing his snaps. Assuming that’s the case, I have bad news for Ryan Day. That’s going to show up on game day against excellent fronts like the ones Penn State, Michigan, and other Big Ten teams have. If it does happen, will he blame it on the cadence then?