Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/396685
UNDER THE DOME Hunter Smith Holds On In football, there is no greater compliment to the work of a long snapper and holder than anonymity. Their work is so taken for granted that once they become known, then there usually is a problem. Notre Dame walk‑on ju‑ nior Hunter Smith — no relation to 1995‑98 Notre Dame punter and 12‑year NFL veteran Hunter Smith — discovered that during the 17‑14 victory against Stanford Oct. 4 when two mishandled snaps led to botched field goal attempts by senior kicker Kyle Brin‑ dza. Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly said a number of factors contributed to the snafus, including snaps from junior Scott Daly. "The first snap was not a very good snap," Kelly said. "The second one, Scott wanted to make up for a bad snap and fired that thing at about a hun‑ dred miles an hour." S m i t h n o t w e a r i n g gloves in freezing and slippery conditions didn't help, so on the third at‑ tempt, from 45 yards out with the score tied 7‑7 and 7:32 left in the game, Kelly had Smith wear gloves — "a revolutionary concept," joked Kelly sarcastically afterwards. They executed perfectly, and those three points proved to be the difference in the 17‑14 win over the Cardinal. Football has become extremely specialized, and that now includes snappers Smith, a junior walk‑on holder, had an eventful game versus Stanford Oct. 4, mishandling a pair of snaps on botched field goal attempts before finally getting one down for a successful kick in the 17‑14 Irish win. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA