Last night I took a trip out to York, Nebraska, to check out York-Lexington in Class B action.
York is led by Nebraska 2018 3-star defensive tackle commit Masry Mapieu and 2019 Huskers target tight end/linebacker Garrett Snodgrass. Due to injuries, Snodgrass had to fill in at quarterback for the team according to his father and head coach, Glen Snodgrass.
“Garrett’s been a wildcat quarterback 25 percent of the time," Coach Snodgrass said. "Our starting quarterback has been battling a hamstring injury all summer and he pulled it again pretty bad last week against Elkhorn South. So Garrett had to play the whole game there.
"Then probably our best player [senior running back] Simon Otte dislocated his elbow in the first quarter. Then our next running back dislocated his shoulder on the first play of this game. So we were pretty low in the backfield tonight but our backup guys played pretty well.”
Coach Snodgrass said that Otte averaged 9 yards per carry as a junior last season and had nine tackles last week before injuring his elbow.
The Dukes won comfortably, 59-18 against Lexington despite dealing with multiple injuries to key players. Mapieu thought the team responded really well after a tough loss last week to Elkhorn South. After the game, I asked Garrett what it was like throwing the passes instead of catching them.
“It was different for sure but I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates," he said. "My o-line made it very comfortable for me in the pocket. I got rushed maybe twice the whole game so that was fantastic and receivers were making plays downfield. My teammates really helped me out.”
On the recruiting end, Coach Snodgrass says Nebraska has invited his son to all of the home games and he was invited to the spring game and junior days. He’s unsure at this point if they are looking at him for a walk-on role but he does know they’d want him to play tight end or linebacker. Garret says he’s ready to play wherever, but there is a spot he’s most comfortable.
“I’ll play where any team wants me to play but I think I feel most comfortable at tight end or H-back.”
Garrett is a very intriguing preferred walk-on target for Nebraska. There is a lot of talk about tight end but I could see him projecting as a nice outside linebacker with a couple of years in a college strength and conditioning program.
As we reported earlier in the week, Coach Snodgrass, Garrett and Mapieu will all be attending Nebraska’s season opener against Arkansas State.