Football Feature | The Specialist, an All-American Kid
10/17/2018 2:55:00 PM | Football
Chris Wilkerson shares his journey to becoming one of the nation’s elite long snappers
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – A unique and specific skill set, that is what gridiron star Chris Wilkerson possesses. His path to one of the nation's elite long snappers in college football has been just as unique as his craft.
An aspiring college tennis player while also lettering in football at Waller High School in Waller, Texas, Wilkerson dreamt of playing collegiate football but didn't think he would get the opportunity. Primarily playing defensive end and tight end throughout junior high and high school, Wilkerson began to short snap in middle school as a center. However, as a freshman and sophomore in high school, Wilkerson knew long snapping would be the key to be able to contribute on his team at the class 4A level in Texas.
"I was originally going to go play tennis at the Division II level starting my junior year and going into my senior year of high school," said Wilkerson. "I didn't have any looks to snap, it wasn't existent and it wasn't a thing in 2013. It really didn't get big to start offering long snappers until 2014/2015."
Not having any intentions of being recruited to play college football and planning to get a tennis scholarship to a NCAA Division II school, Wilkerson capitalized on a tweet he was sent.
"Coach (Bill) Best was here and he tweeted out that SFA was looking for a long snapper," Wilkerson commented. "The tweet said, 'If you can snap the ball 15 yards in .78 seconds, run down the field and rip someone's head off, direct message me.' It turns out he and coach (Matt) Kubik were in Houston recruiting and a guy by the name Shawn Bell, who is now an offensive line coach at Baylor and was at Magnolia West High School at the time, saw the tweet and went and found me on Twitter and tagged me. My friend, Elijah, was actually being recruited by SFA to run track and play football and when coach Best saw me get mentioned in response to his tweet, he reached out to Elijah and asked who I was. The coaches got my number from Elijah and gave me a call, the next day coach Kubik was at my school. After meeting with me, they offered me to come up and visit the following weekend. I came on the visit and they offered me a scholarship on Saturday, the weekend before signing day."
After being offered by SFA, Wilkerson received a couple additional official visits but turned them down and signed to be a Lumberjack on national signing day.
"I wanted to play football deep down," Wilkerson added. "I knew if I was going to play, I wanted to play at the highest level possible. Coming out of high school I was 190 pounds, not 250 like I am now so I thought I would have a better shot being a Division I walk-on in tennis."
Heading toward the end of his high school career, Wilkerson only had a couple of Division II scholarship offers for tennis and he knew he would jump at an opportunity to play Division I football.
"I'm a realist," stated Wilkerson. "People always tell you you're good but I don't really believe it until somebody comes down and says here's a scholarship. SFA was the first to come down and offer me a visit and a scholarship."
After arriving on campus as a true freshman in 2014, Wilkerson has had plenty of ups and downs. He had to redshirt his true freshman year after battling illness and being unable to compete for the starting job due to throat surgery. However, throughout his time in Nacogdoches, Wilkerson has developed into one of the most highly regarded long snappers in all of FCS football. A total of 21 NFL organizations have already spoken with Wilkerson about playing at the next level and been on campus to chart his abilities.
In his third season as the Lumberjacks' starting long snapper, Wilkerson has appeared in each of SFA's last 27 games and played in a total of 37 games since 2015. Last fall, he claimed a tackle in punt coverage and recovered a fumble. In August, Wilkerson was named preseason All-American First Team by both STATS FCS and Phil Steele FCS Magazine.
"You just put your head down and keep trying to get better at what you do," said Wilkerson. "As far as snapping, it's accuracy and speed. You're just trying to improve that as much as you can. Every year you are grading yourself and trying to have a better season. For me, it was a lot of lifting, a lot of getting bigger too because I was told the same thing here as I was in high school. 'You have a ton of potential but you have to get bigger, stronger, faster and be able to snap better, but you have the basis for it'."
Getting better each year, in addition to dedication to the weight room and working on his speed, is exactly what the preseason All-American snapper has done. Not only has his sacrifice on the field and in the weight room been evident, but his involvement on campus and effort in the classroom has been well recognized.
Interim head football coach Jeff Byrd says not only is Wilkerson a preseason All-American in football but he is an "All-American" guy off the field. In his senior season of playing football, Wilkerson graduated last May with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology. He is currently in his third year of serving as SFA's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) president and was the vice president of the university's Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity for two years, heavily involved in numerous community service projects throughout the school year.
"We spearhead a lot of community service projects through SAAC," Wilkerson shared. "The Big Event, the 'Be the Match' drive and Toys for Tots are some of the projects we like to host. Those are kind of the staples but there is also a lot that goes on every week with every sport that we try to get involved with. As far as football goes, we go over and read on Friday mornings at the charter school and on Thursday mornings, we greet and open car doors for kids when they arrive at Raguet Elementary School."
"I was voted in as president of the committee in the second semester of my sophomore year after serving as football's SAAC representative," continued Wilkerson. "Although I wasn't the vice president at the time, I probably did the most of anybody who wasn't holding one of the chair positions and knew what was going on more so than others. That first semester of being president came at me fast and I had to grasp a lot all at once, but after that it was pretty easy because I had taken on so much at first."
Wilkerson is committed, motivated and driven to be successful in everything he is involved with. On the gridiron, he wants to be sure he finishes out his collegiate career as the best he can be in order to have an opportunity to take his skills to the next level.
"You get named preseason All-American, you got to make sure you finish there too," Wilkerson added. "You go through five years here. Why would I put in all this work just to be the best in college, now it's time to try to be the best at the next level too."
His path to the NFL will also have to be unique as long snappers are rarely drafted, just seven have been drafted in the last 18 years to be exact and not more than one any given year.
"First, you go find someone who has been through the process and figure out what the heck you are supposed to do," Wilkerson commented on what he will be doing come January to get ready to play at the next level. "I've had enough people tell me what steps I'll take. Basically, I'll go start training with an individual coach just to prepare my body and myself mentally and physically for pro day moving into the draft and NFL free agency."
No matter what happens in Wilkerson's post-college football career, one thing is for sure. His impact as a leader within SFA's student-athlete community has set him up to be successful in any profession. It is Wilkerson's willingness to take on important and challenging roles and his ability to perfect a craft that make him an "All-American" kid.
-SFA-
An aspiring college tennis player while also lettering in football at Waller High School in Waller, Texas, Wilkerson dreamt of playing collegiate football but didn't think he would get the opportunity. Primarily playing defensive end and tight end throughout junior high and high school, Wilkerson began to short snap in middle school as a center. However, as a freshman and sophomore in high school, Wilkerson knew long snapping would be the key to be able to contribute on his team at the class 4A level in Texas.
"I was originally going to go play tennis at the Division II level starting my junior year and going into my senior year of high school," said Wilkerson. "I didn't have any looks to snap, it wasn't existent and it wasn't a thing in 2013. It really didn't get big to start offering long snappers until 2014/2015."
Not having any intentions of being recruited to play college football and planning to get a tennis scholarship to a NCAA Division II school, Wilkerson capitalized on a tweet he was sent.
"Coach (Bill) Best was here and he tweeted out that SFA was looking for a long snapper," Wilkerson commented. "The tweet said, 'If you can snap the ball 15 yards in .78 seconds, run down the field and rip someone's head off, direct message me.' It turns out he and coach (Matt) Kubik were in Houston recruiting and a guy by the name Shawn Bell, who is now an offensive line coach at Baylor and was at Magnolia West High School at the time, saw the tweet and went and found me on Twitter and tagged me. My friend, Elijah, was actually being recruited by SFA to run track and play football and when coach Best saw me get mentioned in response to his tweet, he reached out to Elijah and asked who I was. The coaches got my number from Elijah and gave me a call, the next day coach Kubik was at my school. After meeting with me, they offered me to come up and visit the following weekend. I came on the visit and they offered me a scholarship on Saturday, the weekend before signing day."
After being offered by SFA, Wilkerson received a couple additional official visits but turned them down and signed to be a Lumberjack on national signing day.
"I wanted to play football deep down," Wilkerson added. "I knew if I was going to play, I wanted to play at the highest level possible. Coming out of high school I was 190 pounds, not 250 like I am now so I thought I would have a better shot being a Division I walk-on in tennis."
Heading toward the end of his high school career, Wilkerson only had a couple of Division II scholarship offers for tennis and he knew he would jump at an opportunity to play Division I football.
"I'm a realist," stated Wilkerson. "People always tell you you're good but I don't really believe it until somebody comes down and says here's a scholarship. SFA was the first to come down and offer me a visit and a scholarship."
After arriving on campus as a true freshman in 2014, Wilkerson has had plenty of ups and downs. He had to redshirt his true freshman year after battling illness and being unable to compete for the starting job due to throat surgery. However, throughout his time in Nacogdoches, Wilkerson has developed into one of the most highly regarded long snappers in all of FCS football. A total of 21 NFL organizations have already spoken with Wilkerson about playing at the next level and been on campus to chart his abilities.
In his third season as the Lumberjacks' starting long snapper, Wilkerson has appeared in each of SFA's last 27 games and played in a total of 37 games since 2015. Last fall, he claimed a tackle in punt coverage and recovered a fumble. In August, Wilkerson was named preseason All-American First Team by both STATS FCS and Phil Steele FCS Magazine.
"You just put your head down and keep trying to get better at what you do," said Wilkerson. "As far as snapping, it's accuracy and speed. You're just trying to improve that as much as you can. Every year you are grading yourself and trying to have a better season. For me, it was a lot of lifting, a lot of getting bigger too because I was told the same thing here as I was in high school. 'You have a ton of potential but you have to get bigger, stronger, faster and be able to snap better, but you have the basis for it'."
Getting better each year, in addition to dedication to the weight room and working on his speed, is exactly what the preseason All-American snapper has done. Not only has his sacrifice on the field and in the weight room been evident, but his involvement on campus and effort in the classroom has been well recognized.
Interim head football coach Jeff Byrd says not only is Wilkerson a preseason All-American in football but he is an "All-American" guy off the field. In his senior season of playing football, Wilkerson graduated last May with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology. He is currently in his third year of serving as SFA's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) president and was the vice president of the university's Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity for two years, heavily involved in numerous community service projects throughout the school year.
"We spearhead a lot of community service projects through SAAC," Wilkerson shared. "The Big Event, the 'Be the Match' drive and Toys for Tots are some of the projects we like to host. Those are kind of the staples but there is also a lot that goes on every week with every sport that we try to get involved with. As far as football goes, we go over and read on Friday mornings at the charter school and on Thursday mornings, we greet and open car doors for kids when they arrive at Raguet Elementary School."
"I was voted in as president of the committee in the second semester of my sophomore year after serving as football's SAAC representative," continued Wilkerson. "Although I wasn't the vice president at the time, I probably did the most of anybody who wasn't holding one of the chair positions and knew what was going on more so than others. That first semester of being president came at me fast and I had to grasp a lot all at once, but after that it was pretty easy because I had taken on so much at first."
Wilkerson is committed, motivated and driven to be successful in everything he is involved with. On the gridiron, he wants to be sure he finishes out his collegiate career as the best he can be in order to have an opportunity to take his skills to the next level.
"You get named preseason All-American, you got to make sure you finish there too," Wilkerson added. "You go through five years here. Why would I put in all this work just to be the best in college, now it's time to try to be the best at the next level too."
His path to the NFL will also have to be unique as long snappers are rarely drafted, just seven have been drafted in the last 18 years to be exact and not more than one any given year.
"First, you go find someone who has been through the process and figure out what the heck you are supposed to do," Wilkerson commented on what he will be doing come January to get ready to play at the next level. "I've had enough people tell me what steps I'll take. Basically, I'll go start training with an individual coach just to prepare my body and myself mentally and physically for pro day moving into the draft and NFL free agency."
No matter what happens in Wilkerson's post-college football career, one thing is for sure. His impact as a leader within SFA's student-athlete community has set him up to be successful in any profession. It is Wilkerson's willingness to take on important and challenging roles and his ability to perfect a craft that make him an "All-American" kid.
-SFA-
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