When Miles Chapman walked out onto the field for Ohio’s season opener against Penn State, he realized a childhood passion that he thought would be tossed by the wayside after his high-school graduation.
When he drew back for his first long snap, Chapman, a redshirt freshman long snapper, said he relied upon something he learned during his inaugural season at Ohio: “Being able to block out the crowd, block out the other players and just do my job.”
Up until the spring, Chapman spent his days in The Convo, crafting his skills in Ohio’s dimly lit wrestling room. His job was different then, focused on bringing opposing grapplers to the ground instead of sending a spiral into the ready hands of a holder or punter.
Yet what he learned transferred directly to game play under the bright lights of Peden Stadium and other stadiums across the country that Chapman thought he left behind when he graduated from Hopewell-Loudon High School near Tiffin, Ohio.
Chapman, a two-time state wrestling qualifier in high school who also placed third in the state in his weight class during his senior season, was recruited to compete for the Bobcats at 165 pounds. Since then, he has bulked up 30 pounds in order to hold his own on the gridiron.
After redshirting on the wrestling team during his first season in Athens, Chapman began his second go-around with the Bobcats well, winning six of his first nine matches before falling in 11 of his final 13.
Less than two months after Chapman’s wrestling season came to a halt, he found himself in an informal tryout for the Bobcat football team.
“Really, just word of mouth is how we found out about him,” said Brian Haines, Ohio’s special teams coordinator. “He snapped a couple and was pretty darn good.”
The transition from mat to turf was fairly routine for Chapman, who is not on a football scholarship this season but is working toward obtaining one in the future.
Unlike many players who transition to special teams later in their careers, Chapman’s special-teams ties go back to his youth football days.
Football runs deep in Chapman’s family, as his father, uncle and brother all played collegiately. Chapman’s brother, Clay, is four years his senior and was responsible for breeding his interest in long snapping.
“When he got in high school and started long snapping, I was still in Pop Warner football,” Chapman said. “He taught me to do it then, so I’ve been long snapping ever since I was in junior high.”
Although the switch has not been particularly tough on Chapman individually, Ohio’s special teams — particularly its kicking game — have taken a bit of a hit this season.
Redshirt senior kicker Matt Weller, who is usually airtight offensively, has hit only 9 of 15 field goal attempts in 2012. Coming into this season, Weller had made 74 percent of his field goal attempts.
Although Haines was insistent that Weller’s shortcomings have nothing to do with his new snapper, Ohio coach Frank Solich implied there might be something left desired by the kicking unit as a whole.
“It’s no secret that we’ve got a new snapper and a new holder,” Solich said.
Nonetheless, Haines said his new long snapper has plenty of upside. He noted Chapman’s ability to mentally prepare as if he were competing individually makes his above-average mobility and blocking after the snap even more attractive.
Aside from any physical capabilities, Chapman echoed his position coach in saying his transition has been aided by the smarts and self-discipline learned on the mat.
“In wrestling, we spent a lot of time mentally preparing ourselves, and I think that carried over well to football,” Chapman said. “It’s a lot of pressure (because) a long snapper hardly ever gets noticed until he has a bad snap.”
jr992810@ohiou.edu
