Some thoughts on Alabama C Seth McLaughlin, his case of the bad snaps, and why it stinks
PASADENA, California – Alabama football center Seth McLaughlin had a case of the bad snaps in 2023.
It lasted up until the very end of the season, on the last play against Michigan. His issues getting the ball to quarterback Jalen Milroe continued popping up. It wasn’t every snap, but it happened far too often for a collegiate center at a program like that of Alabama.
Why did he continually struggle so much to complete the fundamental task that’s paramount for the position he plays? That question persisted. And it wasn’t a new role. It was a position he played in seasons past. McLaughlin didn’t just move there in 2023.
It has perplexed anyone watching the Alabama football offense all season. Whenever it seemed like McLaughlin had ditched the nasty habit, it would happen again.
Just in the Rose Bowl, McLaughlin first had two poor snaps that stalled the offense on an otherwise productive drive to start the second half. Then, in the moment when Alabama could least afford a bad snap, McLaughlin sent the ball low to Milroe on fourth-and-3 with the season on the line. It appeared to affect Milroe, and he was ultimately tackled short of the goal line. That sent Michigan to the College Football Playoff championship and Alabama back home to Tuscaloosa.
Few answers have been offered via interviews throughout the season, and that didn’t change after the Rose Bowl; McLaughlin didn’t take part in any postgame interviews with reporters during an open locker room period. So, the mystery spills over into the offseason as to why McLaughlin never could quite figure out how to get consistent and alleviate worry for the offense.
It's fair to speculate, though, that no one is frustrated about it more than McLaughlin.
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Your stomach sinks when you realize your quarterback had to pull off some kind of magic to make the play work because of your snap. It’s even worse when you realize your snap prevented the play from happening. Sometimes you know during the play, and sometimes you find out after. There’s nothing more disheartening than letting down your quarterback when he trusts you to get him the ball.
I never played college football, much less high-level college football. I didn’t even play high school football in the south. Just in Minnesota. And I’ve never been in a high-pressure situation like McLaughlin on a stage like that. So I can’t say I know exactly what he’s going through.
But I do have a slight, slight, slight sense of what it’s like to be a center with a snapping problem.
Simply put, it stinks.
I played center from the moment I joined the third grade football team. I was too heavy to play anywhere but on the line; they called us “line captains,” a kind way to label us boys who liked to eat.
Our offenses always started under center, so I didn’t have to worry about snapping through the air for much of those youth football days. Then 10th grade arrived. The offense, integrating more of the varsity system, began running out of the gun. That meant the quarterback wouldn't be under center as much. We didn't run exclusively out of shotgun, but a lot more was added.
Sometimes, I snapped it just fine. Other times I was off the mark. Velocity was not much of an issue. Location could be, though.
Sometimes I was right on the money, hitting the quarterback in the chest. Other times, he had to find ways to corral it. Occasionally, it flew too low. And really the only way to tell if it traveled wrong was how the defenders reacted. You could see it in their eyes if there was an errant snap. They looked like wolves who spotted a wounded deer.
The problem is, the more snaps you mess up, the more it gets into your head. If you're thinking about not messing up the snap, you can't think as much about blocking. And when you think about not messing up, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. You mess up more.
Bad snaps can snowball and things only get worse. That seemed to happen to McLaughlin in 2023.
Perhaps a position change might be good for McLaughlin, but that will likely have to come on another roster via the transfer portal considering what Alabama has at guard with Tyler Booker and Jaeden Roberts. Or maybe McLaughlin just needs an offseason to shake off 2023 and reset mentally. Or he might need to rep his snapping again and again and again until he can't get it wrong anymore.
No matter what his future holds, change must happen. The inconsistency that occurred in 2023 can’t occur again. Something must be done, whether it be change to McLaughlin or change at the position.
It’s perplexing the coaching staff didn’t make any changes during the season. Sure, there wasn’t necessarily a five-star blocker in waiting, but the fact the coaching staff didn’t try other options, even if not great ones, remains puzzling. Clearly McLaughlin wasn’t getting the job done, and it only hurt him and the team to keep trying to make it work.
A center, first and foremost, must be able to snap. If he can't do that, it doesn't matter how well he can or can't block.
Without the snap, the offense doesn't function. No one was likely more discouraged when that happened in 2023 than McLaughlin.
Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Seth McLaughlin: Some thoughts on Alabama football center's snapping
