The Beavers are unlikely to take a very specific skill for granted after the debacle of this season.
CORVALLIS — At Oregon State, it’s been a terrible year for long snapping. But that may work out well for the long snapper.
You know how much money Dylan Black has earned in NIL and revenue sharing as the linchpin of the Beavers’ special teams?
“I have not received a dollar other than a scholarship,” Black said.
The Beavers probably won’t make that mistake again.
Who is the most important player on a college football team? The quarterback?
Oregon State spent extravagantly last year on Maalik Murphy, benched him after seven straight losses and promptly won two games.
Black, the uncompensated senior long snapper, broke his right hand at the end of the season opener and everything went to pieces.
Has anyone ever done so much to increase his value by doing so little?
“It’s funny,” Black said on Tuesday, “I’ve actually had at least five teammates say, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize how much you really mattered.’”
So, if there’s been a silver lining to Oregon State’s season-defining avalanche of special teams debacles, it’s that long snappers everywhere are finally getting their due.
“It’s been great to get a little more publicity onto the role and how important it is,” Black said.
These days, Black gets recognized around town in Corvallis. The long snapper!
“If somebody knows your name as the long snapper,” Black said, “it’s usually not for a good reason.”
On Saturday, the Beavers will conclude arguably the dreariest season in school history with a trip to Pullman. At 2-9, they are 13.5-point underdogs against Washington State. Oregon State has endured an unfathomable number of mini-disasters this season, from dropped touchdown passes to blocked field goals.
But no single moment has had a greater impact on the Beavers’ fortunes this season than when Black ran in to help tackle Cal punt returner Jacob De Jesus on August 30 at Reser Stadium. He grabbed De Jesus with his left hand, then swung his right arm to wrap up and, in the process, punched the helmet of teammate Mason White.
Third metacarpal, snapping hand. Broken. A season-ender.
You want to consider a real sliding doors moment?
If Black doesn’t break his hand, the teammates next in line for his job, Jackson Robertson and Will Haverland, don’t struggle a week later against Fresno State. The Beavers don’t botch six snaps. Bray doesn’t call Oregon State’s special teams a “(expletive) joke” on national television and the Beavers don’t lose to the Bulldogs.
Maybe the Beavers finish the season 6-6. Or 5-7.
Special teams coach Jamie Christian likely doesn’t get fired.
Neither, presumably, does Bray.
Black is human. He has tortured himself with these thoughts, too.
“It’s tough to live in the hypothetical for sure,” Black said, “but I would definitely would like to have had more of an impact on this year.”
He added: “I can’t help but feel like I’m responsible for some stuff.”
Is he? Injuries happen. It’s not his fault his backup got the yips or that Bray didn’t have a better solution than to absurdly have starting center Van Wells execute a 10-yard snap to the punter at Texas Tech.
Bray’s firing bothers him the most. For all of the issues the Beavers faced in the alum’s brief tenure as head coach, he was beloved by players.
“I don’t think a single person on our team thought that that was the right move to be made at that point,” Black said.
You can chalk it all up as just the latest turn in Black’s topsy-turvy career. He is 25 and the longest-tenured player on the OSU roster.
This is his seventh year of eligibility after missing all of last season while battling testicular cancer. After undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, he was declared cancer-free last October. He was named a semifinalist for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year award.
Beating cancer has helped him keep the challenges of this season in perspective.
“As much as I want to be a football player and I want to be on this team,” Black said, “at the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world if I’m not.
“The world revolves around a lot of other things than just football.”
Black believes he is in line to earn yet another year of eligibility after redshirting his first year and earning a Covid year in 2020. The paperwork has been submitted to the NCAA.
There is little question in his mind that if the NCAA comes through and grants an additional medical redshirt, he will return to OSU.
“I’ve got a lot of reasons to stay here,” he said.
His parents, Brett and Shanon, moved from Reno, where Black attended high school, to Salem when he enrolled at OSU. He earned a degree in environmental science two years ago and now is thinking of a medical career. He may just be good enough to give the NFL a try whenever he eventually leaves college.
Until then, could the Beavers next coach get the guy a piece of the revenue pie that has so dramatically reshaped college football?
“I would absolutely appreciate it,” Black said, smiling. “I could use it for sure. I’m still in debt from student loans (as a walk-on) and everything that happened last year. So, I’m in need of some money.”
He hadn’t thought of it this way before, he said. He’s not complaining. Long snappers are used to being overlooked and underappreciated. Right up until they mess up.
“It’s not glamorous,” Black said.
As he told his teammates when they marveled about how much his position mattered, “You guys just expect perfect results every single time.”
That probably won’t be taken for granted ever again at Oregon State.
Not after this season.
