Long wait for Citadel's long-snapper Jarvis

Nobody in The Citadel locker room was happy after a 4-7 season ended with a 13-6 loss at Georgia Southern last year.

And at least one Bulldog, long- snapper Bobby Jarvis, decided right then and there that his career would not end that way.

"I remember that we were not sure if Bobby would come back for his fifth year," football coach Kevin Higgins said this week. "But after that game, Bobby came up to one of our coaches and said, 'I'm not going to go out like this. I want to play again.' "

The Citadel opens the 2010 season Saturday against Chowan at Johnson Hagood Stadium, but that decision already is paying off for Jarvis, a fifth-year senior from Beaufort. Jarvis will again serve as the Bulldogs' long-snapper on field goals and extra points, and also has won the job as The Citadel's starting center.

It's a dual role the 6-2, 260-pounder has long coveted, but one that Citadel coaches were reluctant to award, for obvious reasons -- an injury to Jarvis would hurt the Bulldogs at two positions.

"He's been after us for four years to play on the offensive line," Higgins said. "But we always told him he was too small and too valuable as a long-snapper."

"Who wants to be the long-snapper?" is one of those questions that's usually met with stony silence on practice fields. But observant high school players have come to learn that the singular skill can lead to a college scholarship. Such was the case with Jarvis.

"I remember my coach at Beaufort, David Pratt," Jarvis said. "His exact words were, 'You're pretty good at this, you might be able to get a scholarship at this in college.' I was like, 'Pfffft, no way.' "

Sure enough, The Citadel recruited Jarvis as a walk-on, with the promise

that he would earn a scholarship after winning the starting job at long-snapper. After starting as a sophomore, Jarvis earned a scholarship his junior year, and then ran into his former coach, Pratt, at a RiverDogs game.

"I told him about my scholarship, and that I was a long-snapper," Jarvis said. "He said, 'Hey, I did that.' He was pretty proud of that."

But long-snapping was not enough for Jarvis, who was a football team captain and also lettered in wrestling at Beaufort. While Citadel offensive linemen sweated through practices and played 60 or 70 snaps per game, Jarvis hung around with the kickers.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

"I practiced all day long with the kickers," he said. "And that can get kind of boring. Camp was a breeze the last four years, but not this year. It kicked my butt."

Citadel coaches resisted Jarvis' pleadings until this year, when the loss of center Tommy Suggs and the Bulldogs' move to the triple option opened the door for Jarvis, who had gotten down to about 245 pounds as the long-snapper.

"I always wanted to do more for the team, to feel like I was contributing more," Jarvis said. "I know long-snapper is an important role, so I tried not to complain too much. And I understood that all of our starting linemen were 280, 290, 300 pounds."

The move from the spread to the triple option opened the door for smaller linemen, and has required adjustments from veterans such as Lincoln Kling and Jameson Bryant, who have gone from popping up to pass block to firing out low and hard.

"It's good for me, because I don't have to re-learn everything," Jarvis said. "Some of the other guys have had to re-learn their stance, how to fire off, a lot of things I didn't have to do. We didn't run the option in high school, but we fired off low and everything was going forward. In the spread, they need heavier guys because most of the time they are pass-blocking."

Though Jarvis will be starting for the first time at center, he's been in plenty of pressure situations as the long-snapper. When a kick is missed, the first thing under the coaches' microscope is the snap.

"You just have to practice so much that it's routine," he said. "But you know the pressure is there. If I have a bad one, I know I will get chewed out. It's just expected that everything will be perfect -- the snap, the hold, the kick. When you have a good snap, you don't really look for praise. But when you have a bad one, it comes down on you."

If anything, there will be more pressure on Jarvis this season. But he wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm ecstatic," he said. "I know I've got a big role this year, and that's what I've wanted. I've been asking for it for three years."