SE: Drew Scott, Matthew McCrane Ride Successful K-State FB Careers Together to East-West Shrine Game
Jan 18, 2018 | Football, Sports Extra
By Corbin McGuire
Drew Scott can visualize the perfect field goal snap.
He can, with his eyes closed and noise eliminated, even feel it. The grip, perfected over the years. The cadence, heard hundreds of times. The spiraling football sent between his legs, which should rotate between two-and-a-half to three times before it reaches the holder.
"I can sit down and close my eyes and go through the whole play," Scott said. "Muscle memory is a big thing but understanding the muscle memory and the feel is most important."
When Scott's snap is placed back on the turf, laces facing the field goal post, Matthew McCrane takes over. He, too, has played this moment over and over in his head.
His eyes, focused on something small behind the goal — "aim small, miss small," he tells himself, a quote his favorite movie, "The Patriot." He sees the snap, usually perfect from Scott. His approach, body mechanics, foot-to-ball contact, follow-through, all coming together, all critically important pieces toward a successful kick.
"Coach (Bill) Snyder mentions it all the time to the players, about visualization the night before the game, to visualize what you're going to do," McCrane said. "In kicking, it's similar to golf. Probably every professional golfer visualizes their perfect shot. It's just like that for kicking."
What Scott and McCrane did not see coming was how far football would take them. They never envisioned ending up at K-State, nor did they picture themselves developing into special teams standouts and becoming the first Wildcat snapper/kicker duo ever to be invited the East-West Shrine Game, which will take place Saturday at 2 p.m., and be broadcast on the NFL Network.
But here they are, two of the best in the nation at their respective craft, chasing an NFL dream together.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Scott's first love was baseball. He hoped his pitching skills, which he said included throwing from three different arm slots by the time he was a senior, would earn him a college scholarship. He even tried to quit football his freshman year to focus on baseball.
"(My high school coach) just told me to go back to lifting. He wouldn't let me do it," Scott said. "It worked out for the best."
McCrane's first love in sports, not unlike most kickers, was soccer. He played on club circuits until high school, when he switched his dedication to football. Even then, his football dreams started out as a quarterback. McCrane did not seriously consider or try out kicking until Brownwood (Texas) High School's varsity kicker was injured going into his junior season.
"(The coaches) said, 'Who can kick?' I said I could do it and gave it a shot," he said. "I ended up playing that whole year on varsity."
Up in Iowa, snapping became Scott's shortcut to earning varsity playing time as a freshman. Still, any thoughts of it sending him to a Division I college took a while to formulate.
"I kind of thought snapping was something they just had a guy on the team do," he said. "I didn't really think that it was a recruitable position."
As a senior, at the urging of friends and family, Scott attended one of Jamie Kohl's kicking camps. While Scott initially thought it was more for beginners, he came away from the highly-respected camp with a five-star rating, the highest grade a snapper can receive.
From there, Scott said his recruiting "took off."
Likewise, McCrane did not initially view kicking as his ticket to college. When he
hit a 52-yard field goal in the state playoffs during his junior season, however, everything changed.
"That's kind of what spurred the whole recruiting process. I had never taken kicking seriously until then," he said. "I went to one camp just to work on technique but when I hit the 52, everybody just started calling."
Everybody included Air Force, K-State and a number of Texas schools. All were interested, but Air Force and K-State were the only Division I programs to offer a scholarship.
K-State's offer came in December 2012, about a week before McCrane said he was planning on committing to Air Force. He can still vividly remember the call he received from K-State Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Sean Snyder that changed his life.
"He said, 'Matt, we're excited. I talked to Dad and we want to offer you a full scholarship, but under one condition.' I was, like, 'Anything.' He said, 'We need you to start in January.' Luckily I had already planned to graduate in December, so I finished school in December and started at K-State a few weeks later," McCrane said. "I basically dropped everything in Texas, which I was familiar with, and came all the way up to Kansas, which I'd only been to one time. It was pretty surreal.
"I was probably going to live a different life if I had gone to the (Air Force) Academy. It would have been a good one, but it would've been a lot different. I definitely wouldn't have met my fiancé, so it worked out pretty well."
Scott, McCrane's eventual trusting long snapper, was not as fortunate out of the recruiting gate. He wanted to play in a Power Five conference but, because of the rarity of scholarship offers for long snappers out of high school, he knew he would have to start as a walk-on wherever he decided to go.
At K-State, however, he saw a path to earning a scholarship.
"K-State is a place where I saw an opportunity to snap for multiple years," he said. "They had told me that if I became a starter I could earn a scholarship."
So Scott went to work, on and off the field.
He redshirted in 2013, played in four games the following season and one game in 2015. He used any spare hours between football and classes to work for a landscaping company and umpire local baseball games to help pay for his tuition.
Scott's breakthrough came in the spring of 2016, when he cemented himself as the Wildcats' starting long snapper and was also put on scholarship. From there, between punts, field goals and extra points, he went on to successfully connect on 260-straight snaps for the Wildcats.
"As a snapper, you're not seen a lot. What's good about Drew is people don't know his name because he's never messed up. I've never had a bad snap from Drew on the ground or anything to worry about," McCrane said. "Drew's as close to perfect as you can get."
The same could be said for McCrane.
A three-time All-Big 12 performer, the first Wildcat kicker ever to do so, McCrane started his career by making 18-of-19 field goals as a redshirt freshman. He went on to tie or break six school records, including his 57 made field goals to eclipse Martin Gramatica's mark of 55. McCrane's career field goal percentage (86.4) is another school record. It also ranks second in Big 12 history and sixth in NCAA history.
All the awards and records, McCrane said, stem from his preparation and response to adversity. He takes pride in the fact that he never missed consecutive field goals in a game at K-State. Even better, McCrane never missed a field goal in consecutive games. Plus, he made 105 consecutive extra points to end his career.
"I respond, I think, in a positive manner when I do miss a field goal. The reason why is I'm able to change what I'm doing. I watch my kick, and Sean mentions that all the time, to watch your kick, to focus on what you're doing and watch what you're doing. Because if I miss a ball right, there's a reason I missed it right — my foot angle was wrong or my plant foot was off. So I'm able to go back and compensate for that and make the next kick. I think hopefully that's what sets me apart from other guys is I'm able to respond better off of a missed kick as opposed to staying in a slump."
McCrane also pointed out that consistent kickers have consistent
snappers.
Scott, like McCrane, used failure on the field to develop his consistency. The one example Scott goes back to, as a turning point in his career, is a low snap on a field goal in K-State's loss to Auburn in 2014.
"I think failure can be the best thing for you," Scott said. "That, by far, helped me the most and taught me a lot about composure, how to zone everything out and how it's not that big of a deal, just go out there and do it and go back to the sideline."
For both of them, watching film became extremely important throughout their years at K-State. Knowing something went wrong, on a snap or a kick, is not enough. Seeing what went wrong is a crucial step, each agreed.
"That's a tribute to Sean, it really is. I know he was a punter in college, but he helped me tremendously," McCrane said. "If you go back and you watch the film from spring of 2013 up to now, it's a tremendous change and I give Sean all the credit."
"Knowing what you did wrong, if you did something wrong, is extremely important," Scott added. "Matt was a huge help. If he saw something, he wasn't afraid to tell me, and I think that helped me a lot."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
When McCrane received his invitation to the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Florida, he immediately accepted, hung up the phone and called Jamie Kohl, one of his personal coaches, for some advice.
"He said, 'Sometimes at those games, you might have a snapper that's not what you're used to. Your operation times are different and that makes a difference on the kick,'" McCrane said, joining Jamie Rheem and Gramatica as only Wildcat kickers to play in the East-West Shrine Game. "I thought about that and I said, 'I've got this perfect snapper I've had for four years at K-State. I might go ahead and see what I can do.'"
So, McCrane said he called the director of the East-West Shrine Game and made a pitch for Scott to be invited. McCrane, who graduated with a degree in marketing and is currently working on his MBA at K-State, was evidently persuasive. Scott received an invitation a few weeks later.
"It was humbling to know that he was sticking up for me," Scott said. "It was pretty cool being invited to that. This is something I didn't realize was possible because I kind of took every day one day at a time. Seeing that was, like, 'Wow. Maybe I actually did something with my career here.'"
"I know that Matt has probably the best shot out of any of us because he really is one of the best kickers in the country," Scott said. "Just being around a guy like that has kind of pushed me to go even farther and know that this is something that is possible. Why not try, right?"
"To have the perfect snap is crucial in the kick. It's probably more than 50 percent of why the kick is good or no good. I think Drew has a really good future in the NFL. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll make it," McCrane added. "It's pretty surreal to think that now it might be an obtainable goal, to play in the NFL. I'm ready for the journey. It might be a long ride but I'm excited for it."
Drew Scott can visualize the perfect field goal snap.
He can, with his eyes closed and noise eliminated, even feel it. The grip, perfected over the years. The cadence, heard hundreds of times. The spiraling football sent between his legs, which should rotate between two-and-a-half to three times before it reaches the holder.
"I can sit down and close my eyes and go through the whole play," Scott said. "Muscle memory is a big thing but understanding the muscle memory and the feel is most important."
When Scott's snap is placed back on the turf, laces facing the field goal post, Matthew McCrane takes over. He, too, has played this moment over and over in his head.
His eyes, focused on something small behind the goal — "aim small, miss small," he tells himself, a quote his favorite movie, "The Patriot." He sees the snap, usually perfect from Scott. His approach, body mechanics, foot-to-ball contact, follow-through, all coming together, all critically important pieces toward a successful kick.
"Coach (Bill) Snyder mentions it all the time to the players, about visualization the night before the game, to visualize what you're going to do," McCrane said. "In kicking, it's similar to golf. Probably every professional golfer visualizes their perfect shot. It's just like that for kicking."
What Scott and McCrane did not see coming was how far football would take them. They never envisioned ending up at K-State, nor did they picture themselves developing into special teams standouts and becoming the first Wildcat snapper/kicker duo ever to be invited the East-West Shrine Game, which will take place Saturday at 2 p.m., and be broadcast on the NFL Network.
But here they are, two of the best in the nation at their respective craft, chasing an NFL dream together.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Scott's first love was baseball. He hoped his pitching skills, which he said included throwing from three different arm slots by the time he was a senior, would earn him a college scholarship. He even tried to quit football his freshman year to focus on baseball.
"(My high school coach) just told me to go back to lifting. He wouldn't let me do it," Scott said. "It worked out for the best."
McCrane's first love in sports, not unlike most kickers, was soccer. He played on club circuits until high school, when he switched his dedication to football. Even then, his football dreams started out as a quarterback. McCrane did not seriously consider or try out kicking until Brownwood (Texas) High School's varsity kicker was injured going into his junior season.
"(The coaches) said, 'Who can kick?' I said I could do it and gave it a shot," he said. "I ended up playing that whole year on varsity."
Up in Iowa, snapping became Scott's shortcut to earning varsity playing time as a freshman. Still, any thoughts of it sending him to a Division I college took a while to formulate.
"I kind of thought snapping was something they just had a guy on the team do," he said. "I didn't really think that it was a recruitable position."
As a senior, at the urging of friends and family, Scott attended one of Jamie Kohl's kicking camps. While Scott initially thought it was more for beginners, he came away from the highly-respected camp with a five-star rating, the highest grade a snapper can receive.
From there, Scott said his recruiting "took off."
Likewise, McCrane did not initially view kicking as his ticket to college. When he
hit a 52-yard field goal in the state playoffs during his junior season, however, everything changed."That's kind of what spurred the whole recruiting process. I had never taken kicking seriously until then," he said. "I went to one camp just to work on technique but when I hit the 52, everybody just started calling."
Everybody included Air Force, K-State and a number of Texas schools. All were interested, but Air Force and K-State were the only Division I programs to offer a scholarship.
K-State's offer came in December 2012, about a week before McCrane said he was planning on committing to Air Force. He can still vividly remember the call he received from K-State Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Sean Snyder that changed his life.
"He said, 'Matt, we're excited. I talked to Dad and we want to offer you a full scholarship, but under one condition.' I was, like, 'Anything.' He said, 'We need you to start in January.' Luckily I had already planned to graduate in December, so I finished school in December and started at K-State a few weeks later," McCrane said. "I basically dropped everything in Texas, which I was familiar with, and came all the way up to Kansas, which I'd only been to one time. It was pretty surreal.
"I was probably going to live a different life if I had gone to the (Air Force) Academy. It would have been a good one, but it would've been a lot different. I definitely wouldn't have met my fiancé, so it worked out pretty well."
Scott, McCrane's eventual trusting long snapper, was not as fortunate out of the recruiting gate. He wanted to play in a Power Five conference but, because of the rarity of scholarship offers for long snappers out of high school, he knew he would have to start as a walk-on wherever he decided to go.
At K-State, however, he saw a path to earning a scholarship.
"K-State is a place where I saw an opportunity to snap for multiple years," he said. "They had told me that if I became a starter I could earn a scholarship."
So Scott went to work, on and off the field.
He redshirted in 2013, played in four games the following season and one game in 2015. He used any spare hours between football and classes to work for a landscaping company and umpire local baseball games to help pay for his tuition.
Scott's breakthrough came in the spring of 2016, when he cemented himself as the Wildcats' starting long snapper and was also put on scholarship. From there, between punts, field goals and extra points, he went on to successfully connect on 260-straight snaps for the Wildcats.
"As a snapper, you're not seen a lot. What's good about Drew is people don't know his name because he's never messed up. I've never had a bad snap from Drew on the ground or anything to worry about," McCrane said. "Drew's as close to perfect as you can get."
The same could be said for McCrane.
A three-time All-Big 12 performer, the first Wildcat kicker ever to do so, McCrane started his career by making 18-of-19 field goals as a redshirt freshman. He went on to tie or break six school records, including his 57 made field goals to eclipse Martin Gramatica's mark of 55. McCrane's career field goal percentage (86.4) is another school record. It also ranks second in Big 12 history and sixth in NCAA history.
All the awards and records, McCrane said, stem from his preparation and response to adversity. He takes pride in the fact that he never missed consecutive field goals in a game at K-State. Even better, McCrane never missed a field goal in consecutive games. Plus, he made 105 consecutive extra points to end his career.
"I respond, I think, in a positive manner when I do miss a field goal. The reason why is I'm able to change what I'm doing. I watch my kick, and Sean mentions that all the time, to watch your kick, to focus on what you're doing and watch what you're doing. Because if I miss a ball right, there's a reason I missed it right — my foot angle was wrong or my plant foot was off. So I'm able to go back and compensate for that and make the next kick. I think hopefully that's what sets me apart from other guys is I'm able to respond better off of a missed kick as opposed to staying in a slump."
McCrane also pointed out that consistent kickers have consistent
snappers.Scott, like McCrane, used failure on the field to develop his consistency. The one example Scott goes back to, as a turning point in his career, is a low snap on a field goal in K-State's loss to Auburn in 2014.
"I think failure can be the best thing for you," Scott said. "That, by far, helped me the most and taught me a lot about composure, how to zone everything out and how it's not that big of a deal, just go out there and do it and go back to the sideline."
For both of them, watching film became extremely important throughout their years at K-State. Knowing something went wrong, on a snap or a kick, is not enough. Seeing what went wrong is a crucial step, each agreed.
"That's a tribute to Sean, it really is. I know he was a punter in college, but he helped me tremendously," McCrane said. "If you go back and you watch the film from spring of 2013 up to now, it's a tremendous change and I give Sean all the credit."
"Knowing what you did wrong, if you did something wrong, is extremely important," Scott added. "Matt was a huge help. If he saw something, he wasn't afraid to tell me, and I think that helped me a lot."
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************
When McCrane received his invitation to the East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Florida, he immediately accepted, hung up the phone and called Jamie Kohl, one of his personal coaches, for some advice.
"He said, 'Sometimes at those games, you might have a snapper that's not what you're used to. Your operation times are different and that makes a difference on the kick,'" McCrane said, joining Jamie Rheem and Gramatica as only Wildcat kickers to play in the East-West Shrine Game. "I thought about that and I said, 'I've got this perfect snapper I've had for four years at K-State. I might go ahead and see what I can do.'"
So, McCrane said he called the director of the East-West Shrine Game and made a pitch for Scott to be invited. McCrane, who graduated with a degree in marketing and is currently working on his MBA at K-State, was evidently persuasive. Scott received an invitation a few weeks later.
"It was humbling to know that he was sticking up for me," Scott said. "It was pretty cool being invited to that. This is something I didn't realize was possible because I kind of took every day one day at a time. Seeing that was, like, 'Wow. Maybe I actually did something with my career here.'"
Both specialists, who still train together at K-State, now look to do even more with their careers. They want to make it in the NFL. Like a perfect snap or kick, they can visualize it and know their success will always be similarly tied together.I had an amazing experience with Riley, Alec, Taylor, and Blake! Thank you to President Jerry Gantt. @shrinershosp is phenomenal! @Shrine_Game #morethanjustagame pic.twitter.com/1fbIzKiupW
— Matthew D. McCrane (@mmccrane16) January 14, 2018
"I know that Matt has probably the best shot out of any of us because he really is one of the best kickers in the country," Scott said. "Just being around a guy like that has kind of pushed me to go even farther and know that this is something that is possible. Why not try, right?"
"To have the perfect snap is crucial in the kick. It's probably more than 50 percent of why the kick is good or no good. I think Drew has a really good future in the NFL. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll make it," McCrane added. "It's pretty surreal to think that now it might be an obtainable goal, to play in the NFL. I'm ready for the journey. It might be a long ride but I'm excited for it."
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