March 30, 2013
By Jon Cooper
Sting Daily
A lot of young college football players relish the point that the game slows down.
Broderick Snoddy is not among those players.
For the redshirt sophomore B-Back, the faster the game, the better. It’s a theory he thought through thinking back to his first spring and collegiate season in 2012, during which he played 13 games, seeing some duty at B-Back and a lot of plays gunning it on special teams.
As he embarks on his third spring he’s determined not to over-think things. In 2013, he plans to act more on instinct as he fights for playing time amongst the crowded field of B-Backs that includes incumbent starter David Sims, and juniors Matt Connors, Zach Laskey and Charles Perkins and redshirt freshman Marcus Allen.
“It’s just kind of hard trying to play fast and thinking so I want to be able to play fast without thinking,” said Snoddy, who has shown he has the ability to get solid results when thinking things through as he’s a Dean’s List student. “I’m just going to go in taking more coaching, getting my blocking down, being able to play fast, just playing with fewer mistakes, trying to stay healthy.”
When healthy and at his best, the 5-9, 190-pound St. Louis, Mo., native can be among the fastest players in the nation, let alone the practice field. He proved that with his exploits on the track this year.
In his first season on Tech’s track team, Snoddy broke the school record in the 60-meters his first time out, running a 6.75 at the Auburn Invitational. He would break the record two more times before the season ended, leaving it at 6.67. He also finished 13th at the NCAAs. Snoddy also excelled in the 200, where he won the 200 meters a week after the Auburn Invite, at the Rod McCrary Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky.
While he won’t always have an unimpeded path when running in football he’s ready to re-adjust to contact. Potential tacklers beware.
“I’m just going to either get by him or give him a move or run him over,” he said, with a laugh.
Snoddy didn’t get to unveil his full offensive repertoire in the B-Back rotation last year, as he made only 13 carries for 50 yards and a touchdown (a fourth-quarter, two-yard jaunt against Presbyterian) and caught only one pass for 11 yards. He actually showed more on special teams, chalking up nine special teams tackles (eight solo), three of them coming in the Nov. 10 win at North Carolina.
Redshirt-sophomore quarterback Vad Lee knows what Snoddy can do and would like nothing better than to watch his roommate’s No. 22 fade into the distance as he goes on 60-yard jaunts… or longer.
“It’s awesome to have him lined up back there,” said Lee. “We’ve talked about doing some of the 49ers stuff. That’s pretty cool having me in the shotgun and having Broderick behind me, handing him the ball and seeing him go. Even in practice when he’s going 50 percent it looks like 100 percent. So it’s great to have him back there.”
Snoddy feels the same way about playing with Lee and looks forward to big things as the team starts practicing in pads and moves toward the Spring Game on April 19.
“Our chemistry is pretty good,” he said. “We came in together. I came in as an A-Back but then I switched to B-Back. We’ve been getting snaps together. We’re pretty straightforward. I’m looking forward to showing what I have.”
