FAYETTEVILLE — Don’t know Rhett Richardson?
That’s fine with him.
Being anonymous is the goal for deep snappers like Richardson. Not knowing Richardson means calamity has most likely been averted on special teams.
“That’s how it works,” he said. “Every other position, you try to get your name in the marquee lights. Deep snapper, the less people know about you, that means you’re doing a good job.”
Richardson, No. 59 in your game program, has snapped 135 times this season - for 58 punts, 58 extra-points attempts and 19 field-goal attempts - with no major malfunctions.
“He’s been very, very solid,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said. “He puts the ballwhere it’s supposed to be.”
Where it’s supposed to be is right at the hip of punters Dylan Breeding and Briton Forester and a foot from the bellybutton of holder Austin Tucker for place kicks.
“From time to time, he moves it to the left a little, but you can always improve on anything,” said Arkansas special teams coordinator John L. Smith. “He’s been pretty darn good all year long.”
Richardson is a little tougher on himself, saying he has not been 100-percent accurate.
“As far as not making it look too bad in the game, yes,” he said. “As far as me personally, no. One-hundred percent would be right in the hip every single time.
“We’ve done well all year, but there’s always room for improvement. You can never be satisfied.”
Richardson won the deepsnapping job as a freshman in 2007, so he has now snapped about 385 times with very few glitches. He recalled a low snap to punter Jeremy Davis in 2007.
“The only snap that really made the headlines for me was my freshman year at Alabama, and I had a low snap, probably at Jeremy’s ankles,” Richardson said. “He dropped it, didn’t field it right and the ball hit the ground.
“Because it hit the ground, Jeremy got laid out. It made me look bad that it was low.”
Richardson also recalled that Alabama return ace Javier Arenas brought the punt back 38 yards to the Arkansas 2 to set up a Tide touchdown.
While Richardson’s snapping has been very close to perfect, he gets ribbed by coaches and teammates for having only one assisted tackle in punt coverage this season.
“We’re always complaining about his coverage, wanting him to get down there and make some tackles,” Petrino said.
“It’s an on-going joke here, everyone’s trying to get me a solo tackle,” said Richardson, who is listed at 6-0, 214 pounds.
Richardson fell into deep snapping at the end of his junior year in high school the way probably dozens of other players do - by chance.
“One of my friends was trying out for snapper at my high school, and I was going to make fun of him and snap it out to the receivers,” Richardson said. “My coach saw it and said, ‘You’re not going to play any football for the rest of your life. All you’re gonna do is snap it.’”
Richardson said his first snap in 2007 in front of then-Arkansas special teams coordinator James Shibest “was over the goal post,” but he eventually beat out Barrett Reynolds that year.
Now, he labors in obscurity, and is hardly ever recognized while hanging out with teammates.
“It’s kind of a joke, whenever people ask me if I play football, I say, ‘No, I’m just an equipment manager,’” Richardson said. “And they usually believe me. That’s the funny part about it.”
What isn’t funny is how seriously special teams are taken by the Petrino regime.Richardson and holder Austin Tucker have done precise measuring in an attempt to set up a rotation of the seams of the football on Richardson’s snaps that make it so Tucker doesn’t have to turn the seams after he catches the ball.
“Everything has definitely gotten a lot more precise,” Richardson said. “That’s the thing about Coach Petrino is it’s not good enough just being good, you’ve got to be perfect.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 12/21/2009