Special teams players have always searched for a way to announce their significance. With three of the four specialists on the Bobcats being underclassmen, they needed some way to come together as a unit. They wanted something that they could claim as their own. So they grew out their hair.
The three underclassmen, long-snapper Jake Hale, punter Michael Farkas and kicker Louie Zervos decided to gain their "flow" for the season as a way to come together.
For this special teams unit, it's certainly worked.
The hair
It's not clear who came up with the idea. But whoever did started a trend.
“We went through fall camp at the start of the season, we were like, ‘let’s do something we could all do,’" Farkas said. "We’re gonna be playing for the next four years. We said let’s try our hair, it was an easy one to do."
Farkas, a redshirt freshman from Mishawaka, Indiana, along with Zervos, are the only two left with the long hair. Backup long-snapper Ceth Miller never grew his out and Hale cut his just recently.
“Biggest thing with that was, I’m gonna be by myself when it comes to stuff like that," Miller said laughing. "I’m gonna do my own thing, they are my brothers, but that’s their thing."
The long hair — obviously not for everyone — is now only sported by half of the four-man specialists unit. For awhile, Hale was in on it too. But not before it became a hassle.
“Too much to keep up, too annoying," he said. "My mom didn’t like it either, so I kind of surprised her, that was nice.”
Maybe it's a Columbus thing. Hale, a redshirt sophomore, is from Powell and Miller, a redshirt senior, is from Mount Vernon, both suburbs of Columbus. Or maybe it's a part of the long-snapper code.
Whatever the reason, they're not alone in their thoughts.
“I grew mine out, we all had a pact to have flow for the season," Zervos said. "Jake cut it, he’s changed. I don’t think I’ll ever grow it back out after this, though."
A camaraderie
Just like a game, the specialists spend the majority of their time during practice on the sideline, snapping, kicking and keeping loose.
Just like coach Frank Solich might do during a real game, the unit gets called upon for a short time to go onto the field and perform.
But spending that time together is no problem for the group of four. They do it all the time.
“I’m roommates with Louie, right across the hall is Jake and his roommate Evan," Farkas said. "We’re all really close. It’s good, that’s huge for us with me being Louie’s holder, Jake is mine and Louie’s snapper, it’s huge to have a good relationship. We all trust each other, if there’s no trust it’s hard to succeed.”
Aside from living together and near each other, the group tries to be around each other as much as possible.
“We’re together, we work together, we do everything together," Miller said. "There has to be (camaraderie), if there’s not, there’s no chemistry, and you’re not gonna see made field goals, no punts inside the 20 (yard line). It wouldn’t work well. With us, we have great chemistry, you can see it on the field, you can see it off the field.”
Specialists at any level of football have to stick together and that's been no different for this group, who've found they're more in common than they originally thought.
“Little things brought us together, Louie, being from Tarpon Springs in Florida, my uncle lives in Tarpon Springs," Miller said. "We found that out, and I was like, ‘Wow, we actually have people from the same, small city, a suburb in Florida.’ And Farkas, well, we have to get along with him being a punter and everything, we have to get along with him, even though he’s from Indiana.”
National attention
Through three games, Zervos had kicked more field goals than anyone else in the country — he was in the early lead for the Lou Groza Award, the award given to the nation's top kicker.
“On a kicker’s part, it’s great that I’m hitting field goals and making them,” Zervos said after the Tennessee game.
Zervos is now 20-of-25 on field goal attempts this season, which places him tied for third in field goals made in the country. He also made a 51-yard field goal against Buffalo, an individual career-long for the redshirt freshman. It was the 10th longest field goal in Ohio history and the longest kick in the Mid-American Conference this season.
But it's not just Zervos that's received national attention before.
Hale made national storylines last season, as he snapped, and made, a football off of the roof of Peden Stadium.
Throwback to last year when we took part in the snapping war @jakehale30 pic.twitter.com/7imzp7rsTq
— OU Specialists (@OhioUspecialist) September 7, 2016
“I think Buffalo put something up, then I said ‘I can do that,’ " Hale said. "I snapped a water bottle off Louie’s head, and that got a ton of hits. Then we went to the top of the stadium to snap it off of there, I hit it, everyone went crazy.”
On the field
The play of the special teams has been noticed by everyone this season, including Solich.
“Until a guy gets out there and does it on the field, he can boom them all he wants in spring ball and practices and that," he said of Farkas. "His demeanor though was such that you felt all that was going to carry over into a game in a positive way. He doesn’t get rattled, doesn’t get excited. He’s got the perfect build for a punter."
Farkas isn't high on the list of averages for college football punting, but that could be attributed to situational punting, where Farkas has been asked to punt "rugby" style, as well as pooch punt. Against Buffalo, Farkas was praised in the postgame press conference by Solich for pinning two punts inside the Buffalo five yard line.
Solich had equally as kind words for Zervos.
“For a guy that’s come in —young player no experience — steps on the field and has gotten done what he's gotten done, that's tremendous," Solich said. "He’s gotten off to just a great start and he’s a guy who seems to be cool and collected and I think he admires the challenges of the game and so he handles pressure very well."
Farkas and Zervos both attributed the success of the special teams to the entire unit. That's expected though, the special teams unit works line a finely tuned machine.
If one of the parts messes up, if there's a bad snap, a bad hold or a bad kick, the entire play is doomed.
“I just try to get them the ball so they can do what they do best," Hale said. "For field goals, it’s just right where he can catch it, laces out. For punts, right on the tip every time so he doesn’t have to worry about it.”
And for the long-snapper, punter, or kicker, the game can come down to a clean snap, hold and kick. If not, Ohio might walk off the field with a loss instead of a win.
But there's two very different mindsets that go into that hypothetical final drive, that so many players have envisioned.
“I just try to not think about it," Hale said of the game resting on his snap. "I just try to do the same thing every time.”
Just seven yards behind the snap, Zervos takes a much different approach.
“That’s what I look forward to, I want to hit a game-winner," he said. "These games have been within seven points, I’ve been expecting it, I’m ready for it.”
Whether or not the game comes down to to a good punt or a field goal, expect the four to be able to deliver, to do their jobs.
For the hodgepodge group consisting of in-state long-snappers, a punter from northern Indiana and a kicker from Florida, they've certainly meshed well together. And with two and a half more years of Farkas, Hale and Zervos, don't expect that to change, even if their hair does.
"It’s funny walking down right now, wherever we are, people ask us ‘Oh, are you guys the specialists?’ " Farkas said. "Yup. That’s us.”
