2008 snapper finds a home

Patience pays off.

Just ask Chris Kirkegaard of Scottsdale (Ariz.) Saguaro. Kirkegaard, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound, pound long snapper has found a home. While Signing Day had long passed, Kirkegaard didn't let his dream of college football fade with the passing days. Nearly six months since national letters of intent were signed and faxed into colleges across the country, Idaho State received one more just before the start of fall camp.

"I committed to Idaho State," said Kirkegaard. "I was planning on walking on at Arizona State, but I got the official offer from Idaho State yesterday and I actually signed this morning. Camp starts on Monday, so there wasn't too much time to deliberate. That's not the reason I committed though, I wanted to make sure that the campus and everything else was right, so I visited, and I loved it there."

After Signing Day, most recruits put the recruiting process behind them, but that certainly wasn't the case with Kirkegaard. The process hit the fast lane just before it ended.

"I flew out yesterday morning," he said. "I got there at noon, and took a tour of the campus and the facilities. They gave me my paperwork that night, I thought it over, and then I signed in the morning."

Long snapper is a position often overlooked. While it doesn't get nearly the attention of a skill position player, it is undoubtedly a position where you need consistency.

"People don't know how important long snapping is," Kirkegaard said. "Special teams are a key part of the game. You get extra points with it, and field position. With long snapping you don't get noticed for doing good, only doing bad. You don't want to be well known as a snapper, when you do wrong you get known."

Kirkegaard doesn't have any plans to wait for playing time. He made it very clear he's looking the see the field early for the Bengals.

"I'm coming in to play," he said.