UCLA Football Recruiting: Bruins Pick Up Key Specialist Commitment

Early this morning, UCLA picked up a key future commitment, when long-snapper Jack Landherr of Chino Hills High School announced his commitment to the Bruins.

Specialists are always hard to rate, specifically they are, well, special. Rodger Sherman wrote about the world of specialists like kickers, punters, and long-snappers back in 2013 for the Atlantic, and the gist of it is that recruiting services just don’t have the tools available to accurately judge the technique required to excel as a kicker, so a cottage industry has risen up to help train and rate specialists in high school.

With that said, we’re going to turn to Bret Culbertson of Kohl’s Professional Camps with some analysis of Landherr. In his profile on Landherr, Culbertson notes that “when he snaps the ball, it jumps off his hands with power and velocity. He is one of the best prospects in the 2019 class and has all the attributes you want in a snapper.” Also listed are a host of awards Landherr has earned, including an invitation to the Polynesian Bowl All Star Game, and a mention that Landherr carries a 4.33 GPA, which fits with Landherr’s announcement, as he stated that academics were a top priority.

Kohl’s Professional Camps has Jack Landherr listed as the #3 ranked longsnapper in the nation (if you’re looking for other sources, Chris Rubio’s Longsnapping has Landherr ranked #7), so UCLA appears to be getting an incredibly good player.

The plan appears to be for Landherr to walk-on to the team next year, as current longsnapper Johnny Den Bleyker is a junior, and then to take over fully in 2020.

Here is a video of Jack Landherr courtesy of Kohl’s Professional Camps:

Welcome to Westwood, Jack!

Go Bruins!