Joe Neumann looked at his badly bruised right wrist, the one rendered black and blue by a swift kick from his horse. He was terrified.

In three days, Neumann, then a football long snapper in junior college in Texas, was scheduled to visit Syracuse on a recruiting trip. What if they wanted him to snap the ball? He could hardly bend his swollen wrist, much less snap a football.

Luckily for Neumann, his wrist healed just enough for him to demonstrate some snaps, a skill that made him a hot commodity for Syracuse this off-season. His workout was flawless. Now, Neumann, a junior walk-on from Blinn College in Texas, finds himself as SU’s new long snapper.

‘All spring we were training long snappers,’ special teams coach Chris Rippon said. ‘They were working very hard but not where we wanted it to be. Then he comes in and does exactly what we want of him.’

Punter Brendan Carney raves about his snaps. Holder Jared Jones gushes about the softness of his tosses. The coaches love his demeanor.

‘He’s a very good kid,’ Rippon said. ‘He’s down home from Texas. He’s a ‘yes sir, no sir’ kid; it’s nice to have that.’

‘He’s awesome,’ Carney said. ‘He throws nothing but strikes. He just whizzes it back there.’

Neumann still takes a little flak for his Texas twang − and the horse incident, which took place last November. A few members of the offensive line still won’t forget that embarrassing encounter – or the giant bandage he used to conceal it.

He has only seen snow a couple times, when skiing in Colorado. He said he has a jacket and a couple of windbreakers, but has no idea what kind of winter is ahead of him.

He’s not alone. The coaches snatched one of his Blinn teammates, Kurt Falke, who backs up at offensive tackle. Neumann took over for Dave DeAmato, who graduated last year. He may also play some kickoff coverage. At Blinn, he played fullback as well as long snapper.

Syracuse had some competition in its courtship. Neumann received offers from a few Division-II schools, including Oklahoma Christian University.

‘I realized I could go to D-II and play fullback or go to D-I and play long snapper,’ he said. He chose Syracuse, where he could ‘get an awesome education and get the crap kicked out of (him).’

In the preseason, Neumann said he was snapping 80 balls a day, enough to make his arms feel like Silly Putty. Still, his teammates tease him that he has the easiest job in the world.

But in his first action for Syracuse, he bounced a snap back to kicker Collin Barber on an attempted field goal. Unable to place the ball, holder Jared Jones took off running. He ended up throwing an interception. Neumann was demoralized.

He was quick to recover. He was instrumental in Barber’s three field goals last week against Buffalo.

‘Two things that jump out are the velocity he has on the snap and the accuracy,’ Rippon said. ‘It’s a very catchable ball. It’s soft. Those attributes we’re all excited about.’

Published on September 15, 2004 at 12:00 pm