April 16, 2014
By Matt Winkeljohn The Good Word
If it did not already seem like Broderick Snoddy is just about always on the go, he has the next three days to demonstrate otherwise as Georgia Tech’s rising junior running back/track star will do the multi-sport thing to the max.
Snoddy missed football practice Wednesday as he packed a bag and traveled to Chapel Hill for the ACC Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the University of North Carolina.
Today, he’ll compete in the preliminaries of the 200-meter run, and then pack his bag again.
Friday morning, he’ll catch a flight back to Atlanta so that he can compete Friday evening as an A-back in the Yellow Jackets’ spring game in Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Then, he’ll pack his bag again, “and then fly back to North Carolina Saturday . . . to finish up the ACCs; I’ll run in the 4×100 [relay] and hopefully I’ll make it into the finals in the 200 so I’ll finish there,” he said. “Yeah, I multi-task.
“I’m just always busy with sports and in general, going back and forth from football to tracks and weights. Most of the time, I’m upstairs making sure I’m taking care of school work.”
Snoddy has taken care of plenty since arriving from Carrollton High in 2011 as a scholarship football player. He redshirted that fall, and did not participate in track that spring. An honors student in high school, he’s made Dean’s List at Tech while majoring in business administration.
That’s not all.
In 2012-’13, he jumped into both sports with both feet, rushing 13 times for 50 yards and a touchdown as a B-back in the fall, while picking up nine tackles and assists on special teams.
That winter, he resumed his track career and after a layoff of a couple years he set the Tech record several times in the 60 meters (6.67 seconds) during an indoor season in which he won four times and finished 13th nationally.
His outdoor track season fell incomplete because early in spring football practice he broke a hand, and, “I really couldn’t get down in the [starting] blocks with it [in a cast].”
Last fall, Snoddy rushed 24 times for 150 yards, and now he’s changing positions. Actually, he’s returned to the spot he was recruited to play, A-back, or wingback. At first, it might seem that he would be a smoother fit because A-backs spend so much more time operating in wide-open spaces than a B-back (fullback).
Yet many times when the B-back is called upon to run the ball in Tech’s stylized offense, he will take off almost straight up field immediately. A B-back can – in theory – get up to full speed faster than an A-back often might as A-backs typically sweep left or right as a play involving them begins.
A 5-feet-9, 190 pounds, Snoddy is not as big as many Tech B-backs.
As A-back, he looks like a snug fit.
“Everything is coming together as far as learning my blocking assignments,” Snoddy explained. “At B-back, it was more using my speed and just going downhill. At A-back, I’m getting the ball on the edge. That’s nice. Being able to get speed in space, a lot of things can happen.”
Depending on your age, it’s easy to look at what Snoddy and former football/track star “Bullet” Bob Hayes have in common. He ran for Florida A&M, won an Olympic gold medal in the 1968 Mexico City games, and then played wide receiver in the NFL, chiefly for the Dallas Cowboys.
The late Hayes was the only man to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. He wore No. 22, like Snoddy.
Football caused him to miss last week’s Florida Relays, but the smiling young man is back on track today taking a shot at personal atonement.
Two weeks ago, he was named ACC Track & Field Co-Performer of the Week after winning the 100 meters at Tech’s Yellow Jacket Invitational with a personal-best time of 10.28 seconds. That was 10th-best nationally at the time.
He also ran a personal-best 20.70 in the 200, which at the time was fastest of the season in the ACC and seventh nationally.
Snoddy won’t get the opportunity to triple up in the outdoor season.
He’ll miss the 100 meters at the ACCs because prelims will be Friday while he’s in Atlanta tending to football. Still, he’s looking ever so forward to the conference meet after not finishing as he’d hoped in the ACC Indoor Championships. Snoddy wound up third in the 60 and fourth in the 200.
So, the outdoor meet is more than a chance to break away from football for a bit; it will afford another chance to become an individual champion.
He claims not to have a favorite sport, although Wednesday was the only football Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday practice he missed because of track (his class schedule, however, has interrupted him). Yet he’s only been working with the track team on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“Hopefully, the goal is to stay healthy through all this. And I’ll hydrate to make sure I can compete,” Snoddy said. “I would say the spring game will be more wear and tear.”
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