'Living his dream:' Oregon football's Luke Basso earns praise for prowess at long snapper
On Tuesday night, the Oregon football team released a highlight package of its recent scrimmage held Saturday afternoon. There were big hits, celebrations, quarterbacks throwing passes - the usual for players that typically enjoy the spotlight.
There was even Camden Lewis attempting a field goal, with what looked like punter Ross James holding the ball in place for him to kick, with another zoomed in shot of a player making a hold for a placekick.
Nowhere in the video was Oregon’s likely new starting long snapper, Luke Basso, who has earned praise from several of his coaches and teammates.
But that just comes with the position.
“As a specialist, at least for a long snapper, you don’t want your name to be called,” Basso said. “That’s just part of the job. It’s going out there, executing and having fun with it, really. I’m not really worried about everyone knowing me, that’s just part of it.”
And it’s true, long snappers will likely only hear their names called on broadcasts when a snap flies over the head of a holder or punter, or if they’re lucky, when they make a tackle in punt coverage.
Still, Oregon special teams coach Joe Lorig and starting placekicker Lewis have raved about Basso’s strengths since before fall camp began.
Lorig, who arrived from Penn State to join head coach Dan Lanning’s staff last season, coached long snapper Chris Stoll before arriving in Eugene, the winner of last year’s Patrick Mannelly Award, given annually to the best long snapper in the nation.
Though Lorig said Basso hasn’t earned the job yet but has the “upper hand” in the long snapper battle, the special teams coach said Basso was “markedly better than (Stoll),” at this point in his career.
“He can’t be satisfied with where he is at,” Lorig said. “He’s very talented, very good and really committed to the craft. It’s one of those things that nobody cares about until you don’t have one. I’ve been doing this long enough to have years where I haven’t had one, and it’s not fun. Very important position. It’s very undervalued. If you don’t have one, then you’re in big, big trouble.”
A standout from Lakeridge High
Basso sat behind five-year starter Karsten Battles for the majority of his first two years on campus after a standout prep career at Lakeridge High School in Lake Oswego. He rotated in on extra points and a few punt scenarios to get some experience last season, where Lorig estimated he played about 50 snaps in 10 games.
Mostly working as a center early in his football playing days, his high school football coach sent him to a Rubio Long snapping camp as a sophomore, and Basso quickly realized that was how he’d get an opportunity to play in college.
“My dad was a Duck fan,” he said. “He was the reason I wanted to play in the first place. So growing up I saw how he was a Duck fan and that motivated me. During the recruitment I knew this was where I wanted to go.”
Rubio ranked Basso as the third-best long snapper in the country coming out of high school in his class after several camps and three years of experience at Lakeridge.
'That kid is really good'
Throughout the spring and fall Basso has taken advantage of his extra reps.
“He’s been good enough to start the past two years,” Lewis said. “The only reason he didn’t was because of Karsten. His position doesn’t really grant him many eyes, but if you guys knew how good he is at what he does, you’d be like, ‘that kid is really good.’”
In high school, Basso was targeting getting the ball to the punter on a snap in less than 0.8 seconds. In college, he’s been able to get that number down to around 0.68, which he says makes a massive difference on the field.
On field goals, the Ducks shoot for around 1.25 seconds on snap-to-kick field goal attempts.
“It seems microscopic but at the end of the day it means a lot and it matters,” he said.
The repetition and practice has been frequent enough he can distinguish between snaps that take 0.68 seconds or 0.75.
“When you have a tight spiral and it's perfectly on the hip, you know it's going to be a 0.75 or that’s going to be a 0.68,” Basso said. “If there’s a slight wobble it might not be as fast. Its little things like that you can feel after so much practice.”
Though Basso hasn’t been named the starter yet, his coaches and teammates have gone out of their way to talk him up, even when he might not hear his name called on a broadcast – unless he makes a mistake.
And for Basso, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“He’s really talented and just a fun kid to coach,” Lorig said. “He grew up in Oregon. He’s living his dream right now. It’s cool to be around him.”
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, women's basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon football's Luke Basso earns praise for prowess at long snapper
