Jacob Bobenmoyer was a two-way player in high school, playing tight end on offense and linebacker on defense at Cheyenne East. Because of his size (235 pounds), Bobenmoyer was unlikely to make it to the NFL either as a tight end or as a linebacker.
He’s poised to be a special teams starter for the Broncos this season due in part to an injury he suffered while in high school.
“It all started when I broke my foot in high school and had to be in a boot for six weeks,” Bobenmoyer told The Scorecrow‘s Jacob Dunne in a recent interview. “I obviously couldn’t do the workouts during fall camp, so I would just go do the long snapping drills. Even though I couldn’t play in the first three games, I still went out there and did pre-game warmup snaps.
“During my freshman year of college, I told one of my buddies I could snap better than UNC’s starter, so he stood up in the middle of our special teams meeting and said: ‘Hey, Jacob Bobenmoyer can snap!’ Next practice, the coaching staff had me snap the ball and after about 10 snaps, they named me the starting long snapper.”
Bobenmoyer went on to play linebacker and long snapper for the Northern Colorado Bears and he fully committed his training to special teams work going into the 2018 season.
“The summer going into my senior year, I took the time I would have spent working out as a linebacker and worked on my long snapping,” Bobenmoyer told Dunne. “I knew if I wanted to make it to the NFL, I needed to come out every day and work on my long snapping and blocking.”
If not for that injury in high school, Bobenmoyer might have continued focusing on LB and TE — and he probably wouldn’t have ended up in the NFL. To read his full interview with The Scorecrow, click here.
