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Snapping to It: Bechtel has quickly become favorite to take over from Jarvis as Deacons' long snapper
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Published: August 7, 2008
It's hard to repeat perfection, but somebody on the Wake Forest football team has to try.
The lucky candidate will apparently be Greg Bechtel.
A goal of Coach Jim Grobe this preseason is to find a snapper for kicks and punts when the Deacons open their season at Baylor on Aug. 28. Grobe was admittedly spoiled by Nick Jarvis, originally a walk-on from Lexington, who graduated last spring.
"Nick Jarvis was our guy for four years and we never had a bad snap," Grobe said.
The search for a replacement was complicated in the spring by the absence of Bechtel, who was Jarvis' backup the past two seasons. Bechtel, whose father is Kenneth Bechtel, a social-science professor at Wake Forest, was in Los Angeles at the time attempting to forge a career in film production.
But when his project didn't move along fast enough to keep him busy, Bechtel returned to Wake Forest and the football team. He will be a walk-on junior this season.
"I wasn't doing any kind of film thing, and I didn't have football either," Bechtel said. "So I felt almost lost in a way. I decided that college and football last a couple of more years.
"Careerwise, I have the rest of my life. So I just decided for right now if I can help out with any kind of internships in film I'm going to try to balance that and football. But right now I thought I'd come back and enjoy my time with all the guys."
Preseason practices began with Bechtel competing with Lee Malchow, Ryan McManus, Collin Granger and freshman Joe Looney. Grobe said Tuesday that Bechtel has taken the early and perhaps prohibitive lead.
"I think he's the guy right now," Grobe said. "He's looked the best so far and he's done it more than the rest of the guys.
"I kind of liked Lee Malchow. He's done some good things snapping the ball, and of course Ryan is still trying to compete. But we'll find somebody.
"I feel much better now than I did back in the spring."
Bechtel is anxious to play again, if nothing else to make amends for his one snap in college.
Last year at Duke, Bechtel's snap over the head of punter Sam Swank spotted the Blue Devils a safety and a 2-0 lead. Wake Forest won 41-36, so Bechtel can afford to smile 10 months later.
"I would like to erase that, but you know what, things happen special-teamswise," Bechtel said. "You always get one chance to go out there and you'd better not mess up or people notice.
"It's kind of something that we all look back on and laugh at."
Grobe said that Bechtel was not the first college player to succumb to nerves of a first play. Nor will he be the last.
Grobe recalled a similar instance in 1990 when he was an assistant coach at Air Force. The Falcons played Ohio State in the Liberty Bowl, and stunned the Buckeyes 23-11.
"We had to use a backup linebacker to snap because our long snapper got hurt in bowl practice," Grobe said. "He went out and on the first snap he shot it over the punter's head. We started out down 2-0 to the Buckeyes and he was perfect the rest of the game and we beat them.
"Had Greg been able to go back out and do it again he would have probably been fine. He would have settled down. He was so nervous on the first one. But we'll give him plenty of reps. He'll be fine."
Bechtel, who played with running back Josh Adams at Cary High School, is pursuing a major in communications and minor in film. He moved to Los Angeles to work as an intern on a production of The Fifth Quarter, based on a screenplay by Rick Bieber. It's about the death of Luke Abbate and its impact on his brother, Jon Abbate, an All-ACC linebacker with the Deacons, and the Wake Forest community.
Bechtel said he's unsure of the status of the project. It was originally scheduled to be released this year.
"A big goal of mine is to become anything with production," Bechtel said. "Directing would be great, but everybody wants to be a director.
"So you kind of have to pick and choose."
Note: A straggler from the 2008 recruiting class showed up Tuesday when Kevin Smith reported for his first practice at Wake Forest.
Smith is a 6-4, 210-pound defensive end from Plano, Texas, who was required to pass another class in summer school to be eligible to play this season. Smith caught 49 passes last season as a tight end for East Plano High School and was also good enough in basketball to be nominated for the McDonald's High School All-America team.
"He can really run and he's really explosive," Grobe said. "If I'm not mistaken he had some Division I basketball offers. He's a really good basketball player too."
Smith, like most of his class, is expected to be redshirted this season to preserve a season of eligibility.
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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