By Mark Maynard / Prokickernews.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Three rising junior long-snappers made a big impression at the Ray Guy Prokicker.com camp here this week.
C.T. Leavell, Zack Jernigan and Patrick Douchette are on the right track, said Prokicker.com long-snapping guru Ben Fuller.
“What impressed me the most, all of them has two years left to improve,” he said. “All of them have some work to do but I thought the numbers were really good, speed-wise especially. They have minor adjustments to make and two years to work on it.”
Jernigan hit .81 three times and was 16 of 32 on accuracy. Leavell was .82 and 16 of 32 and Douchette was .77 and 14 of 32.
Douchette and Leavell are big and strong linemen for Farragut High School in Knoxville.
“They are studs,” Fuller said. “CT is a wrestler as well. They have tremendous flexibility in the lower back and hamstring, unusual for kids that are big up top. They’re not overweight, just big ‘ol barrel-chested guys.”
Fuller said that, with work, the speed will lower for both of the long-snappers.
“In another year or so, they could both be in the low to mid .7s,” he said. “Both of them have a shot at playing college football real quick.”
Jernigan, who is from Humboldt, Tenn., was “dead serious” about his long-snapping, Fuller said. He also has size.
“Zack is a horse,” Fuller said. “I’m 6-3 and I feel like I was eye-to-eye with him and he has to be 260 pounds. He didn’t talk a whole lot.”
Jernigan’s numbers were good but not what he thought they should be.
“I talked to his mom and dad and they were both disappointed with how he charted,” Fuller said. “The kid was visibly disappointed but never complained. He’d be the kind of guy that would be cool under pressure.”
Jernigan is strictly a long-snapper on his team because of the potential and skill he displays at the position. His goal is to one day play for the University of Tennessee.
His parents are diehard Volunteer fans and his grandmother is so much a regular at UT games that former coach Phil Fulmer would wave at her upon entering the field.
“It’s kind of his (Jernigan) dream to go to UT,” Fuller said.
