He’s started nearly every game for the UNC football team since 2019, yet most Tar Heel fans probably don’t know his name.
He’s performed his job nearly flawlessly in his four-plus seasons with Carolina, yet ESPN isn’t using him in any promotional imagery.
His name is Drew Little. He is effectively the catalytic convertor on the automobile that is the UNC football team. Normally, his utility is hardly noticed. But without him, the warning lights come on.
Take it from one of the most successful football coaches in the history of the game: long snapping is no joke.
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was in the middle of one of his infamously un-informative press conferences when a reporter asked him, out of the blue, to discuss the value of the long snapper position.
Belichick, himself a long snapper in his playing days, suddenly broke into a monologue. It covered everything: the history of the position, the thought process behind devoting one of 53 precious roster spots to the role, famous long snappers of yore, etc.
“Is it that hard?” Belichick said. “Yeah. It’s a pretty hard job… that guy’s gotta block somebody, or you’re a guy short.
“Nobody knows or cares who the snapper is until there’s a bad snap, and then all of a sudden it’s a front-page story. So there’s a decent amount of pressure on that player.”
This went on for nearly 10 minutes. When Belichick finally stopped, everyone in the room could count themselves smarter.
When Drew Little was… well, little, he didn’t think he’d be a longtime long snapper. In fact, Little told Chapelboro his favorite position to play as a kid was linebacker. It wasn’t until he got to North Stanly High School in New London, N.C., where his dad was also a coach, that Little tried out the position.
“The only reason I got into it was because my dad was like, ‘We need somebody to do it for the team,’” Little said. “He was like, ‘I’m the coach, I’m making you do it.’ I was like, ‘OK, fine.’ But I never did it in middle school. We’d practice it, but we’d always just play around.”
As fate would have it, Little turned out to be a more-than-capable long snapper. He began to prove himself against bigger, older opponents who held offers from Division 1 schools. Inspired by his strong performances, Little attended clinics in the summer, where he got even more encouragement from scouts.
“I went to a couple of camps and they were like, ‘Hey, you’re a rising sophomore. We really like you. You could potentially do this. We’d like to see you next year to see how much you’ve improved,’” Little remembered.
“Next thing you know, I got my first offer. That was nice to see.”
The New York Giants were on the brink of a great escape.
They had seen a 38-14 third-quarter lead evaporate against the San Francisco 49ers in the 2002 NFC Wild Card Game. And yet, they were still one play away from advancing to the next round. Trailing 39-38, the Giants set up shop for a 41-yard field goal with six seconds left. Even in Candlestick Park’s notoriously unpredictable weather, this is a walk in the park for an NFL kicker.
There was just one problem: New York’s normal long snapper wasn’t on the field. Dan O’Leary had taken over long snapping duties for the Giants over the season’s final five games, but an injury kept him out for the Wild Card Game. New York signed journeyman Trey Junkin practically off the street to do the job in a pinch.
Though a capable long snapper over the course of his nearly 20-year career, Junkin was now old and, more importantly, rusty. He hadn’t suited up for an NFL game since 2001. Now, in front of a cacophony of San Franciscans, all he had to do was perform the job he’d done for 280 previous professional football games, and the Giants would win.
Junkin’s snap went wide of holder Matt Allen’s mark. Kicker Matt Bryant never even made contact with the ball. The 49ers won. The Giants’ season was over.
It was Junkin’s final NFL game.
By 2019, Mack Brown had been a college football head coach for more than three decades. In that entire time, split between four schools, he never offered a scholarship to a long snapper. Then Drew Little came along.
“[Former head coach] Larry [Fedora] offered him a scholarship, and I thought, ‘Hm. I’ve never offered a deep snapper before,’” Brown said.
The Tar Heels were in the middle of a coaching change that offseason. Fedora and his five wins in the last two seasons were out the door, replaced by Brown, who hadn’t coached since 2013. Brown would have been within his rights to disregard Fedora’s scholarship offer to Little, but instead chose to honor it. Little would be the first scholarship long snapper to ever play for the Hall of Famer.
As Little remembered it, he and his family initially didn’t quite believe that fun fact. Despite being ranked as the No. 7 long snapper in the country by 247 Sports, Little had already committed, signed and visited Chapel Hill before being guaranteed a scholarship. It was on that official visit that Brown gave him the good news.
“Mack was telling us all about it,” Little said. “I was like, ‘Wow… that’s a unique accomplishment that most people don’t really know about.’”
But among those who study the art of the long snap, Little is a known commodity. 2023 marks the second consecutive season he’s been named to the preseason watch list for the Patrick Mannelly Award, given annually to the top long snapper in college football.
Little’s remarkable durability is doubtless one reason for this recognition; he’s missed three games in four seasons. But it’s the razor-thin margins of long snapping that make the good ones stand out. According to Little, the difference between being an elite long snapper and sitting on the bench is a matter of inches.
“It’s all about technique,” he said. “Inches of how our feet are aligned. You’ve gotta have parallel feet, because if it’s an inch off at the O-line, it’s a foot at the punter. Trying to be overall good at whatever the coaches need you to be. Angle snapping, rugby snapping. There’s a lot of different things you’ve got to go through to actually learn how to snap. But it all works out in the end.”
It all works out in the end? That’s easy for a Mannelly Award nominee to say.
Or maybe we should just listen to Little’s head coach.
“He’s had a great snap every time since he’s been here,” said Brown. “He’s gotten bigger and he’s gotten stronger and he’s really a force in our coverage now. He’s a leader. He’s confident. Drew’s sure earned his scholarship. He’s been more than worth it.”
The long snapper has to do more than just snap.
No. 12 Michigan was one punt away from handing No. 7 Michigan State a satisfying loss at the Big House in Ann Arbor. Leading 23-21 with 10 seconds left and facing a 4th-and-2, all the Wolverines had to do was execute a basic punt play. The hang time of the ball would run out most of the clock, and accurate placement of the punt within Spartan territory would make a Hail Mary impossible.
Any college football fan can tell you what happens next. Michigan punter Blake O’Neill has trouble with a very accurate long snap and is quickly enveloped by the Spartans, who had gone all-out to block the punt. Michigan State returned the loose ball for a touchdown as time expired
But O’Neill is not entirely at fault. On the play, Michigan’s long snapper gets the ball out of his hands quickly and accurately, but then can’t even get out of his stance to block before the Spartans zip past him. As O’Neill bobbles the ball and 100,000 spectators gasp, his long snapper is mid-somersault on the ground ten yards in front of him.
Yes, O’Neill should have caught the snap. But he might have had trouble with the punt anyway.
The relationship between a long snapper and his punter is something sacred. Just ask UNC punter Ben Kiernan, who like Little is entering his fifth and final season with the Tar Heels. Also like Little, Kiernan’s durability sets him apart; he hasn’t missed a single start since arriving on campus. As one of Kiernan’s blockers, Little likely has something to do with that.
The pair have formed a reliable team. Kiernan made third team All-ACC last season, his first such honor as a Tar Heel. To hear Kiernan tell it, he and Little have become practically inseparable.
“Me and him have built a relationship that I don’t think anything else will break,” Kiernan told Chapelboro. “Hopefully we’ll be at each other’s weddings and then sitting in rocking chairs when we’re 80 years old, just hanging out.”
Ben Kiernan is entering his fifth and final season as the UNC punter. He and Drew Little have been teammates in all five of those seasons. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications/Brian Westerholt)
Place yourself in Kiernan’s cleats for a moment. When the time comes to punt, you stand all by yourself 15 or so yards behind the line of scrimmage. It’s an incredibly vulnerable position to be in for – let’s face it – one of the smallest guys on a football team. Your only contact with the line of scrimmage is the long snapper, right in the middle of the mass of humanity in front of you. The football is merely a dark dot. Not only that, you’re wearing an uncomfortable helmet which partially obscures your vision.
The art of punting is also the art of the trust fall. Luckily, Kiernan and Little know each other so well by now that trust is the easy part.
“It’s a sixth sense, Spider-Man thing going on when I see him go down [over the ball],” Kiernan said. “I can have a feeling that he’s about to do it.
“We’ve been on the same page since freshman year. We’ve both made a pretty good career out of what we do.”
For all the press the pairing of R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot gets, Little and Kiernan are just as steady. But at least Kiernan has the possibility of recognition. If he booms a punt down to the opponent’s one-yard line, he’ll be mobbed by teammates and praised by the TV commentators. For Little, there’s hardly ever an opportunity for such celebration. On the contrary, likely the only time a long snapper gets on TV is if something’s gone horribly wrong.
For some reason, Little is perfectly fine with that.
“There’s not a lot of name-calling out there, but I’m not in it for that anyway,” he said. “I’m here for the love of the game of football, and I love the University of North Carolina. Just being here and being a part of this team is really what it’s all about.”
Not too bad for a guy who’s only doing this because his dad told him to.
Carolina has a chance to pull off a titanic upset and shake up the college football landscape. The Tar Heels are tied, 28-28, with No. 3 Miami. The Hurricanes’ undefeated season is on the ropes.
Freshman kicker Connor Barth trots onto the field and sets up shop for a 42-yard field goal attempt. Everything has to be perfect for this to work: snap, hold, kick. If the snap is even a bit shaky, the other two are thrown into peril.
With four seconds left in the game, the machine goes into motion. The snap is right on target. The hold is sure and steady. Barth swings the leg.
Right down the middle.
UNC kicker Connor Barth celebrates after making a game-winning field goal against No. 3 Miami (Image via UNC Athletic Communications)
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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I believe UNC has had at least two other “long snappers” go on to long NFL careers over the past 15-20 years ….. one with the Steelers and another with the Redskins/Commanders. I think was one was maybe “Greg Warren” … can’t recall the Redskin. Chansky should know …