Colleges Are Fishing Around for Snappers

College football coaches have 85 scholarships to award, so it’s not surprising that they’re finally turning their attention to the most unglamorous position of all: long snapper.

In the past, most coaches wanted long snappers to earn a scholarship as a walk-on. But the position’s growing importance is creating scholarship opportunities.

Long snapper Christian Yount of Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro accepted a scholarship to UCLA this month. During the spring of his junior year, he was offered one by Boston College.

“Everyone is totally amazed,” Yount said. “I was the kid who stayed after practice and people made fun of me. I never thought in my wildest dream I’d get a scholarship as a long snapper.”

Yount benefited from working with Chris Rubio, a former UCLA long snapper who has a 3-year-old private tutoring business in which he works with some 100 aspiring long snappers. Thirteen have received college scholarships.

“The coaches are starting to realize they have to lock up a kid because it’s a crucial position,” Rubio said.

College coaches have been fired because their team lost a game because of a bad snap on a field goal or punt.

Rubio calls the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Yount one of the best long snappers he has worked with. His consistency and ability to snap the ball to the punter in less than a second made him an immediate recruit.

“Christian will never miss,” Rubio said. “His snaps are always on the hip, and that’s exactly where you want them.”

Parents desperate to have their children earn a college scholarship might want to direct them toward long snapping because it’s a skill every college football team needs.

“Without a long snapper, a kicker can’t kick,” Yount said.

The average salary for an NFL long snapper last season was $645,928, according to the NFL Players Assn. David Binn, the San Diego Chargers’ long snapper, has been hanging out with actress Pamela Anderson. How cool is that?

Rubio spent two years as a walk-on at UCLA before being awarded a scholarship. It’s still the primary way schools find their long snappers. This summer, former North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake long snapper Brent Newhouse was given a scholarship at Stanford after two walk-on seasons.

Rubio likes to tell his pupils, “We know our jobs upside down and backward. Who does the entire play start with? You control everything. You’re the most important person on the team.”

Except Yount’s own girlfriend didn’t know what he did during a football game as a long snapper.

“It’s kind of funny how I’m explaining it to people,” he said.

The long snapper is more anonymous than an offensive lineman. He won’t ever be recognized unless a ball is hiked over a punter’s head or poorly snapped on a field-goal or extra-point attempt.

“It’s an unnoticed position but could be one of the most important,” Yount said. “For any long snapper, you have to accept it. If you don’t get noticed, that’s gratitude enough because it means you’re doing your job right.”

Last year, Mark Sunga of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Mason Frakes of Santa Margarita received scholarships to Oregon and Villanova, respectively, as long snappers.

Laugh if you like, but long snappers are finally gaining well-deserved respect for what they do.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.