When Mark Langston started long snapping, he intentionally misfired.
He wanted to play punter in middle school, but his coach put him at long snapper. He wasn’t keen on the move, initially. So in Langston’s mind, if he purposely messed up on his snaps, his coach would move him off snapping duty and over to punter. His coach soon sat him down and told him, ‘You’re not going to do either, now.’
It all worked out eventually. Langston played outside linebacker at Kennesaw State in 2019 and 2020, though he didn’t see any game action. He kept long snapping on the side with the Owls, and the side hustle soon became the main gig. He transferred to Georgia Southern and played long snapper for two seasons, missed his senior year with an injury, and then transferred to IU.
After a solid 2024 season with the Hoosiers, Langston was named an All-Big Ten honorable mention. Entering this year, he earned preseason watch list status for the Mannelly Award, given to the top long snapper in college football.
An unusual training method helped him improve his snapping accuracy and grow as a player.
“My dad built me a target,” Langston said on Monday at a media availability. “He went mailbox shopping at Home Depot. I got a mailbox, and I stuck it on a post, and I would learn just to snap it into that mailbox.”
Langston meticulously tracked his results while trying to snap footballs into the regular-sized mailbox, which he said was around 14 yards away. He’d fine-tune his mechanics and routine when his numbers were lower, which helped him develop consistency.
To new IU punter Mitch McCarthy, that type of commitment is what separates the best long snappers from the rest of the pack.
“It’s the obsession, the craft,” McCarthy said. “I think you need that mentality to be a specialist, in general, but more specifically, long snappers. It’s such a particular craft. But I think it’s just obsession with what you’re doing. You can’t not care about it. There’s so much that goes into it.”
Radicic’s range
Placekicker Nico Radicic was one of many underrated key pieces of the program’s historic 2024 season.
He was utilized for far more extra points than field goals as a redshirt freshman last year, but he proved reliable on both kicks. Radicic went a perfect 69 for 69 on extra points, setting a single-season program record; he also set a single-game record against Western Illinois with 11 extra points.
On field goals, Radicic made 16 of his 17 attempts. He kicked field goals in just eight of IU’s 13 games, and his lone miss didn’t occur until the penultimate game of the season against Purdue, from 46 yards out. Most of his field goals came from close range, as IU head coach Curt Cignetti and offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan regularly displayed aggressiveness on fourth downs from reasonable distance. Radicic hit three field goals from 30-39 yards, and four from 29 and under. He made two from at least 40 yards — both in clutch situations against Michigan.
But the lack of long-distance usage last year doesn’t mean he couldn’t hit from further away. Radicic said he’s extended his range a bit going into this year, which is tedious to build up.
“It’s a very long process. You’re playing with centimeters, basically, where you want to hit the ball,” Radicic said. “I’d say last year, I was probably capping off in-season at like 53 (yards away). … And then right now, I feel pretty comfortable at 55 — which means I could hit it further than that, but I feel comfortable sitting at 55. I know I can make that kick.”
It would be surprising to see Cignetti and the Hoosiers back down from the aggressive strategy on fourth downs that became part of the team’s identity and helped fuel its offensive success last season. But if he decided to unleash Radicic more this year — or if more game opportunities arose with fourth-and-longs from more ambitious field-goal distances — IU could add another weapon to its arsenal.
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