Football
Collin Springer is the player you don’t want to hear about
STATESBORO – The life of a long snapper is a lonely one. Looking between your legs, seeing the world upside down, and then throwing a football back to your punter is a routine they’ve practiced thousands of times. It becomes second nature to many. And like any good long snapper, Collin Springer doesn’t want you to know who he is. If you hear his name on the air, it probably won’t be for a good reason.
Springer entered football at a young age, like many boys, but switched to long snapper early in high school for a simple reason: he stopped growing.
“To be honest with you, I grew up playing offensive line at center and guard,” Springer said. “We went to late middle school and early high school, and everyone started to grow up, and I didn’t. I still wanted to contribute, and I found a place to be a long snapper and started practicing it in my finally, I found some coaches, and the camp circuits started going to them to improve my snapping.
Springer, who is listed at 5-11, 210 pounds, didn’t get a ton of offers from Newberry High in South Carolina, but Wofford gave him a chance, so he headed an hour northwest. for what happened in the next five years of his life. After redshirting in 2018, he played in 39 games for the Terriers and helped them win two SoCon titles.
“I really enjoyed my time at Wofford and made a lot of memories there,” Springer said. “I think I needed more time to develop physically, and I had a great strength staff there that helped me get stronger physically. After I got through the NCAA Portal after my fifth year at Wofford , one of my coaches asked me if I had interest in Georgia Southern.”
He knows a lot about the Statesboro school because, in his sophomore year at Newberry High, he helped block a quarterback named Shai Werts, who would start four years behind center for the Eagles. Springer also attended Southern’s camps while in high school and always enjoyed his time on campus.
“I told my coach I was really interested and told him they would call me,” Springer said. “I finally got on the phone with Coach West and had a couple of really good conversations with him and then went to campus, and here I am.”
For many in Eagle Nation, they won’t know who the No. 1 is. 94 was on the punt team, and Springer was okay with that. If you hear his name, it’s not a good thing.
“I don’t have to be a showy kind of person to feel good about my performance, and that’s not really a big deal to me,” Springer said. “Besides, you don’t want to see me do a celebration dance. So I’m going to go out there, and I’m going to do my job. I want to go under the radar and come back from the radar. My teammates and my specialists are ‘ My biggest fans. They give me high fives on the sideline and then help me coach during the game with in-game adjustments.”
Springer has a unique family situation because she and her sister, Ansely-Brooke, are Division I college athletes. Ansely-Brooke is a junior on the Wofford rifle team and has qualified for the Junior Olympics. this past summer. Spending two years together at Wofford was something Collin cherished.
“It was a lot of fun. Obviously, he’s family, but he’s also one of my best friends,” Collin said. “It’s great to have him there.”
This Sunday, Wofford’s rifle team will travel to Statesboro to take on the seventh-ranked Eagles at the Shooting Sports Education Center. With the football team scheduled to return to town from Texas around 3 a.m., it’s an early wake-up call for Springer to get to the game that starts at 8 a.m. But there’s no doubt in his mind that he goes there.
Don’t blame Springer if he’s not wearing the blue and white on Sunday.
“I may or may not be wearing a Wofford rifle shirt,” he confessed.