ODU long snapper: One task, and do it very well

NORFOLK

Dustin Phillips realizes his job as Old Dominion's "dedicated" long snapper is about as unrewarding as they get.

"Long snappers aren't famous until they mess up," Phillips said. "Then they are the talk of the town."

"Dedicated" long snapper. That means he plays nothing else. He's the specialists' specialist, the guy placekicker Drew Hareza and punter Jonathan Plisco count on to make their lives easier.

Phillips certainly has made ODU coach Bobby Wilder's life easier.

A year ago, the almost-always upbeat Wilder was as close to Debbie Downer status as he could be every time his special teams units took the field. Nobody on the squad could make a consistently decent - and more importantly quick - snap to the punter or place holder.

It quickly became evident the Monarchs needed to fill a void, so they beat the junior college bushes until they found Phillips, who was "ready to quit football and get a job. Not a lot of schools offer scholarships to a guy just to snap a ball."

Then again, not a lot of snappers are as quick or as consistent as Phillips, who regularly gets the ball into Plisco's hands in 0.7 seconds.

The Monarchs offered Phillips a half-scholarship - Football Championship Subdivision teams are allowed to offer partial scholarships, while Football Bowl Subdivision teams must offer only full rides - and Phillips bit.

As it turned out, ODU got a deal: Phillips said that a month after signing with ODU, the University of Oregon, a Pac-10 school, called to see if he was interested.

There isn't much Phillips does by the book. He's a technical nightmare for a coach, so unorthodox that the Monarchs' staff has taken the if-it-isn't-broken approach when it comes to coaching him.

"I have a hitch in my delivery," said Phillips, who played two seasons for Yuba Community College in California. "My stance is too wide. I fidget with the ball. My butt's too high and my back is curved when I hike it."

Yet, he is so accurate with his snap that he can knock a ball from a teammate's hands from 14 yards away.

"I'm 2-for-2 this fall on that trick," Phillips said with a grin. "I don't do it much."

One might imagine Phillips as somewhat of a lay-about at practice. Seriously, how do you go about practicing such a skill? And yet, the 6-foot Phillips spends his days doing a variety of exercises designed to keep him sharp. He took to ODU's offseason conditioning program, dropping from 220 pounds to 199.

Phillips even relishes the task of working on the chain crew when the Monarchs scrimmage. The moment Wilder blows the whistle and calls the team together, Phillips can be heard singing the Sam Cooke classic "Working on the Chain Gang" as he picks up a yardage marker.

Phillips learned his lesson in junior college about what happens if he doesn't take practice seriously.

"One week, I decided to really just take the week off," Phillips said. "Coaches don't really check on long snappers at practice to make sure they are working, and I spent the whole week's practice playing Hacky Sack with a football. That week, I snapped a ball over my punter's head.

"I haven't taken a week off since."

There is a direct correlation from Phillips to the successes of Plisco, who is averaging 47 yards, and Hareza, who is among the nation's FCS leaders in scoring.

Wilder said there were some blocking breakdowns on ODU's punt squad the past two weeks, but Phillips' unique talent cleaned them up.

"If it wasn't for Dustin firing missiles back there to Plisco, we might have had some real issues on our hands," Wilder said.

Rich Radford, (797) 446-2463, rich.radford@pilotonline.com