Snap Chat

Serving as the long snapper for a football team is often the most overlooked position in football. Blink once and you probably missed them. No matter what, these athletes are some of the most important players on special teams, as they are responsible for snapping the ball at high speeds in order to allow their kickers or punters to get a kick off. Too slow and the opposing team has a good chance of blocking or disrupting the kick.

Despite playing from the background, seniors Corey Lerch and Joshua Lang have fun and enjoy their roles on the team as the first- and second-string deep snappers, respectively.

"We try to have a good time with it," Lerch said. "Whenever you're not on the field, you're locked in. We try to motivate the other guys and juice them up."

"Especially during the games we try and motivate the other guys and let them know we have their backs," Lang added.

Corey Lerch has been a long snapper his entire football career. While playing for La Salle College High School, he was a three-year varsity letterman due to his long snapping duties, helping his team towards two Philadelphia Catholic League championships. After enrolling at Temple, Lerch did not anticipate he would ever return to football.

"I honestly did not think I would play football here until I tried out at Coach (Matt) Rhule's camp," Lerch said. "So, I came and looked at the school from an academic standpoint and I fell in love with it. Football was kind of the cherry on top of everything."

Lerch would end up joining what would be one of the youngest special teams units in the NCAA in 2014. He would join fellow walk-ons kicker Austin Jones and punter Alex Starzyk, and the trio flourished in their role. Since walking on as a freshman, he has appeared in every game across four years, good for 51 straight games to date. He's even recorded seven total tackles in those years. His favorite moment from his years playing for Temple happens to be when the lights shined the brightest.

"Being on College Gameday playing against Notre Dame in front of a full Lincoln Financial Field," Lerch said was his most memorable moment. "Playing in front of a national TV audience."

Joshua Lang saw himself take a different route to join the football team.

"I was actually a regular student at West Virginia University," Lang said. "Credit a YouTube video that I sent to essentially every Division I football team. I actually got offers from Oregon and Temple and other schools as well. I chose to come here because it has the best education and it is close to home. It was a great fit for me."

In high school, Lang played multiple positions at Point Pleasant Beach High School. He helped lead the team to their best winning record in school history. Football, however, would not be his lone sport, as he played basketball and was a part of the wrestling team.

After graduating from Point Pleasant, he attended West Virginia University as a student. He created a video of himself long snapping to shop around to other college teams.

Joining the team in 2014, he redshirted his sophomore year. In 2015, he made his collegiate debut in Temple's homecoming game against Tulane. The next year he saw game action against Stony Brook and Charlotte. So far this year, he has not seen game time. He cherishes any time he sees the field.

"For me, not being able to play as much and finally getting a shot to show what I can do is my biggest moment here," Lang said.

Upon being asked how he's seen the program grow in his years here, Lang had one name come to mind.

"The person I think that brought this whole team together is (former Temple Owl) Tyler Matakevich," Lang reflects. He was the biggest influence on the program in my time here."

Practice for long snappers is more or less stop and go. They go through countless snap repetitions, film sessions, and live snaps for special teams' periods.

"Specialists are out here first before practice every day to go through our stretches, warm up snaps and to prepare for practice," Lerch said. "When everyone comes out then we do our punt period which is nice to get out of the way. Then we'll go to the film room to watch film from the previous day or from the previous game. Then we come back down and warm up again for our other special teams periods such as field goals. And then we get to watch the others practice.

This is both Lerch and Lang's final year on Temple's campus. They both have some thoughts on how Temple has helped grow them as people.

"For me, Coach Rhule and Coach Collins were big influences on me," Lang said. "They made me the man I am today and laid the groundwork for me to be successful in what I do."

"When you come in, you have a different mindset and look at things differently," Lerch said. "I'm grateful for the things we went through here and those experiences made me more confident moving forward."

Temple University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Austin Jones

Corey Lerch

Alex Starzyk

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