As has been Tulane's luck in recent weeks, the Green Wave moved its morning practice indoors because of expected rain--in this case at the Saints facility--and were greeted with sunshine by the time the workout ended and for most of practice if they peaked outside. They probably could have conducted it at Yulman Stadium without a hitch, although the benefit of practicing outdoors is lessened this week because the temperature is supposed to be in the 60s Saturday at SMU.
"I thought we had a really good one today," Willie Fritz said. "Once again, it was 60 percent (chance of rain) and I saw the garage door open at the Saints and I was God Almighty, it's a beautiful day out here, but it was good."
I am doing a feature on Geron Eatherly today. In four years at Tulane, he has snapped for every punt, field goal and extra point except for two or three that legally blind Aaron Golub took in 2016, and he has not botched one. That means he has been virtually flawless on 461 or 462 snaps entering the SMU game.
"He's excellent," Willie Fritz said. "The analogy would be that he'd be like the Maytag repairman, so reliable that you don't even notice. That's what you want out of a long snapper, a guy that you never notice because he does such a good job. We really nitpick with him, too. If it's not completely in the cylinder, we give him a minus. We're looking for stuff. He's very, very accurate and has been very durable and a high-effort guy."
When you signed him in April of 2016, you mentioned you had a coaching friend who recommended him to you?
"Robby Discher. He had been at Oklahoma State (as a grad assistant in 2015, he has been at Toledo as tight ends coach and special teams coordinator since then; he was a grad assistant under Fritz at Sam Houston State for two years and then his special teams coordinator the next two), and they were trying to get him to come as a preferred walk-on. After going through spring ball, I knew I needed somebody. He's just been great. He came in and visited, jumped on it and is going to graduate with his degree and is just a great kid.
"Sometimes they don't get the notoriety, but he's gotten some notoriety. He was a semifinalist for the Mannely Award, which goes to the nation's best long snapper (he did not make the cut for finalists) and was a fourth-team All-America pick by Phil Steele (in 2018 and again this preseason. He does a good job. I'm hoping he's going to be able to get into a camp and show what he can do. He's been selected to play in an All-Star game."
What do NFL teams look for in a long snapper?
"They like somebody with size (Eatherly is 6-0, 235), they like somebody who can snap accurately with speed and they like someone who can cover (Eatherly has three tackles in his career and forced a fumble against Houston on a punt return this year). The thing that we do with Geron is we're one one of the few teams that runs a shield type punt where the snapper also has to be involved in protection. That's what you have to do in the NFL. In the NFL only the end two men on the line of scrimmage can release on the snap, so you're snapping and having to move and block where most people in the (college) shield snap it and run down the field and cover. We've worked with him (on snapping and blocking) all the time and he's very good with it."
I talked to Eatherly for nearly 10 minutes. Here is that interview:
How did you end up at Tulane?
"Signing day I was originally going to go to Oklahoma State as a preferred walk-on and coach Fritz called me after he got a recommendation from a coach that he knows and he just offered me a scholarship and had me up on an official visit, I couldn't turn down the education here."
When you heard those words "full scholarship," what was your initial reaction?
"Getting a full scholarship here, it's something you always dream of playing football as a child, and as a long snapper you never really expect it as much. I had a scholarship offer from an FCS school (Portland State), but I wanted to play FBS football. Coach Fritz called and gave me the full scholarship here and it was like a dream come true."
Have there been any punt or field goal or extra point snaps you weren't on the field for?
"I haven't been hurt, but Aaron Golub did two or three field goals I believe."
So that means you've had 461 or 462 snaps. Do you recall an errant one?
Every snap we've gotten off and there's nothing on the ground or over the head. Just not getting called out by media about doing anything is the best part about long snapping, and since you haven't interviewed me since I was a freshman, I assume it's been a good career."
Before you arrived, Tulane has massive problems with long snapping. That pre-dated Fritz, too, but how much pride do you take in your accuracy?
"It's not so much like a sense of pride. I look at it as it's my job to be perfect every time, and a lot of times I'll snap a ball that normal people or even the coaches will see and say that's a good snap, but I go off and am unhappy about it because of something small that happened about it. I take pride in my work but I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. I always think I can do better than what I've done. I'm just glad I can help the team get to where we are now compared to where we were in the past."
Were you the first-teamer right away?
"I was. The first practice of fall camp I was taking all the reps and everything."
You forced a fumble against Houston on a punt return this year. What happened on that play?
"That was fun. I just kind of dove and my hand hit the ball in the right place and the ball came out. I saw the returner running and I knew that he was a little faster than me and I was going to have to dive to catch up to him, so I ended up diving and knocking the ball out."
At Ohio State last year, you hit a guy hard.
"Yeah. I was running down the field and I see the returner catch the ball, and it was going through my mind, OK. get a tackle, get a tackle. I think it was Donnie Lewis or Rod Teamer grabbed a hold of his leg and he couldn't move, so I ended up tackling him and he couldn't get away. From my angle It was the left side of the field around the 50-yard line, but from the offensive perspective it would have been right middle going in about the 50-yard line."
You also had a tackle against Houston your freshman year. Do you remember that one?
"I remember the tackles better than the snaps. I kind of black out when I snap the ball and let muscle memory take over, but I do remember all of the tackles. Houston was about the same thing where I was running down the field and a few people got there first and I jumped on at the end."
How did you get good as a long snapper?
"At a lot of positions, you learn how do to a lot of different things well. A quarterback learns how to throw a good deep ball and a good short ball and at some point they become elite at all of those and go on to play in the NFL. In long snapping, you have to learn how to do one thing but you have to learn how to do that one thing perfectly and do the exact same thing every time. For me, it's just been taking thousands of reps."
When did you start?
"I started seventh grade. If I counted all the reps I'd taken, I don't know what it would be."
Did you have a mentor?
"Yes. Chris Rubio and John Finch really helped me out."
What are the keys to being a consistent snapper?
"For me over the years the biggest keyI've learned is to be confident in yourself and to be confident in your form and to know that you worked as hard as anybody else on the field to get where you are, and for me it's just knowing that whenever I snap a ball, I can snap the ball. Like I've done it a million times. I can get it back there. I can have a good snap, so it's really the confidence aspect."
Ryan Wright says you're like a big brother to him.
"Yeah, Ryan came in last year and I was pretty old. We weren't really expecting him to play but we had an injury and he really stepped up and did an amazing job coming in and actually getting true freshman All-American honors, so that was awesome. Ryan is such a good guy to be able to work with and I'm glad I get to work with him every day. I try to mentor him a little bit, but at this level it's more about working relationship. We talk about what each of us can do better or worse."
He says you can do some corny jokes at times.
"In order to stay laid back, I don't like to get too uptight for games so I'm always in kind of a laid back mood. I always like to joke around and stuff and it's not everybody's style but it helps me not to get too uptight for games."
You are almost done. What are you going to remember the most about your career here?
"I'm going to remember that it was almost a leap of faith coming here to a team that really hadn't had much life before coach Fritz got here. It was like I'm trusting that we are going to go to a bowl game. I'm going remember the first year that really didn't go so well, the second year when we were an inch away and my junior year when we won our first bowl game. I'm going to remember this year when we go to another bowl game. I'm just so thankful to have been part of the transition and the changing culture that Tulane's kind of seen over the past few years."
Do you have pro aspirations?
"Yes, do. Hopefully that works out. I'm going to do my best."
You are a political science major. When did you graduate?
"I graduate in December."
"I thought we had a really good one today," Willie Fritz said. "Once again, it was 60 percent (chance of rain) and I saw the garage door open at the Saints and I was God Almighty, it's a beautiful day out here, but it was good."
I am doing a feature on Geron Eatherly today. In four years at Tulane, he has snapped for every punt, field goal and extra point except for two or three that legally blind Aaron Golub took in 2016, and he has not botched one. That means he has been virtually flawless on 461 or 462 snaps entering the SMU game.
"He's excellent," Willie Fritz said. "The analogy would be that he'd be like the Maytag repairman, so reliable that you don't even notice. That's what you want out of a long snapper, a guy that you never notice because he does such a good job. We really nitpick with him, too. If it's not completely in the cylinder, we give him a minus. We're looking for stuff. He's very, very accurate and has been very durable and a high-effort guy."
When you signed him in April of 2016, you mentioned you had a coaching friend who recommended him to you?
"Robby Discher. He had been at Oklahoma State (as a grad assistant in 2015, he has been at Toledo as tight ends coach and special teams coordinator since then; he was a grad assistant under Fritz at Sam Houston State for two years and then his special teams coordinator the next two), and they were trying to get him to come as a preferred walk-on. After going through spring ball, I knew I needed somebody. He's just been great. He came in and visited, jumped on it and is going to graduate with his degree and is just a great kid.
"Sometimes they don't get the notoriety, but he's gotten some notoriety. He was a semifinalist for the Mannely Award, which goes to the nation's best long snapper (he did not make the cut for finalists) and was a fourth-team All-America pick by Phil Steele (in 2018 and again this preseason. He does a good job. I'm hoping he's going to be able to get into a camp and show what he can do. He's been selected to play in an All-Star game."
What do NFL teams look for in a long snapper?
"They like somebody with size (Eatherly is 6-0, 235), they like somebody who can snap accurately with speed and they like someone who can cover (Eatherly has three tackles in his career and forced a fumble against Houston on a punt return this year). The thing that we do with Geron is we're one one of the few teams that runs a shield type punt where the snapper also has to be involved in protection. That's what you have to do in the NFL. In the NFL only the end two men on the line of scrimmage can release on the snap, so you're snapping and having to move and block where most people in the (college) shield snap it and run down the field and cover. We've worked with him (on snapping and blocking) all the time and he's very good with it."
I talked to Eatherly for nearly 10 minutes. Here is that interview:
How did you end up at Tulane?
"Signing day I was originally going to go to Oklahoma State as a preferred walk-on and coach Fritz called me after he got a recommendation from a coach that he knows and he just offered me a scholarship and had me up on an official visit, I couldn't turn down the education here."
When you heard those words "full scholarship," what was your initial reaction?
"Getting a full scholarship here, it's something you always dream of playing football as a child, and as a long snapper you never really expect it as much. I had a scholarship offer from an FCS school (Portland State), but I wanted to play FBS football. Coach Fritz called and gave me the full scholarship here and it was like a dream come true."
Have there been any punt or field goal or extra point snaps you weren't on the field for?
"I haven't been hurt, but Aaron Golub did two or three field goals I believe."
So that means you've had 461 or 462 snaps. Do you recall an errant one?
Every snap we've gotten off and there's nothing on the ground or over the head. Just not getting called out by media about doing anything is the best part about long snapping, and since you haven't interviewed me since I was a freshman, I assume it's been a good career."
Before you arrived, Tulane has massive problems with long snapping. That pre-dated Fritz, too, but how much pride do you take in your accuracy?
"It's not so much like a sense of pride. I look at it as it's my job to be perfect every time, and a lot of times I'll snap a ball that normal people or even the coaches will see and say that's a good snap, but I go off and am unhappy about it because of something small that happened about it. I take pride in my work but I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. I always think I can do better than what I've done. I'm just glad I can help the team get to where we are now compared to where we were in the past."
Were you the first-teamer right away?
"I was. The first practice of fall camp I was taking all the reps and everything."
You forced a fumble against Houston on a punt return this year. What happened on that play?
"That was fun. I just kind of dove and my hand hit the ball in the right place and the ball came out. I saw the returner running and I knew that he was a little faster than me and I was going to have to dive to catch up to him, so I ended up diving and knocking the ball out."
At Ohio State last year, you hit a guy hard.
"Yeah. I was running down the field and I see the returner catch the ball, and it was going through my mind, OK. get a tackle, get a tackle. I think it was Donnie Lewis or Rod Teamer grabbed a hold of his leg and he couldn't move, so I ended up tackling him and he couldn't get away. From my angle It was the left side of the field around the 50-yard line, but from the offensive perspective it would have been right middle going in about the 50-yard line."
You also had a tackle against Houston your freshman year. Do you remember that one?
"I remember the tackles better than the snaps. I kind of black out when I snap the ball and let muscle memory take over, but I do remember all of the tackles. Houston was about the same thing where I was running down the field and a few people got there first and I jumped on at the end."
How did you get good as a long snapper?
"At a lot of positions, you learn how do to a lot of different things well. A quarterback learns how to throw a good deep ball and a good short ball and at some point they become elite at all of those and go on to play in the NFL. In long snapping, you have to learn how to do one thing but you have to learn how to do that one thing perfectly and do the exact same thing every time. For me, it's just been taking thousands of reps."
When did you start?
"I started seventh grade. If I counted all the reps I'd taken, I don't know what it would be."
Did you have a mentor?
"Yes. Chris Rubio and John Finch really helped me out."
What are the keys to being a consistent snapper?
"For me over the years the biggest keyI've learned is to be confident in yourself and to be confident in your form and to know that you worked as hard as anybody else on the field to get where you are, and for me it's just knowing that whenever I snap a ball, I can snap the ball. Like I've done it a million times. I can get it back there. I can have a good snap, so it's really the confidence aspect."
Ryan Wright says you're like a big brother to him.
"Yeah, Ryan came in last year and I was pretty old. We weren't really expecting him to play but we had an injury and he really stepped up and did an amazing job coming in and actually getting true freshman All-American honors, so that was awesome. Ryan is such a good guy to be able to work with and I'm glad I get to work with him every day. I try to mentor him a little bit, but at this level it's more about working relationship. We talk about what each of us can do better or worse."
He says you can do some corny jokes at times.
"In order to stay laid back, I don't like to get too uptight for games so I'm always in kind of a laid back mood. I always like to joke around and stuff and it's not everybody's style but it helps me not to get too uptight for games."
You are almost done. What are you going to remember the most about your career here?
"I'm going to remember that it was almost a leap of faith coming here to a team that really hadn't had much life before coach Fritz got here. It was like I'm trusting that we are going to go to a bowl game. I'm going remember the first year that really didn't go so well, the second year when we were an inch away and my junior year when we won our first bowl game. I'm going to remember this year when we go to another bowl game. I'm just so thankful to have been part of the transition and the changing culture that Tulane's kind of seen over the past few years."
Do you have pro aspirations?
"Yes, do. Hopefully that works out. I'm going to do my best."
You are a political science major. When did you graduate?
"I graduate in December."
