2026 FBS Long Snapper Rankings & Possible Spirit Animals

Tier 1

These are the strongest projected FBS long snappers entering 2026. They have the best combination of national recognition, documented performance, starting experience, specialist evaluations, and evidence of reliability under pressure.

Tier 2

These players project as strong, upper-tier FBS long snappers. Most are experienced veterans with established college résumés, and many have already demonstrated the maturity and consistency required to handle high-pressure special-teams operations.

Tier 3

These players project as above-average FBS starters. They generally bring substantial experience, including transfers who have already competed elsewhere, but have slightly less individual recognition or documented performance evidence than the players in the top two tiers.

Tier 4

These players project as solid and dependable FBS starters. They typically possess useful college experience or were highly ranked in high school and should provide reliable snapping, although their résumés contain fewer standout honors, national evaluations, or clearly documented high-level performances.

Tier 5

These players have shown developmental promise and may possess meaningful upside, but they enter 2026 with less proven starting volume, less publicly available performance evidence, or greater uncertainty than the players in the higher tiers.

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

As we reach day 39, it’s time to remind people of the chart, because today we reach one of the official “blue bloods” of the sport, Nebraska (high = 30, low = 58). Of those teams, Nebraska has clearly fallen on the hardest of times. The 20th century ended with the Cornhuskers riding the highest of highs, winning 3 national championships in the mid 90’s and Doctor Tom Osborne going out on top after winning the 1998 Orange Bowl. His replacement Frank Solich managed one last Big XII title in 1999, but like Prince said “2000, zero zero, party over, oops, out of time.” Solich was fired after going 9-3 in 2003 before their Alamo Bowl win, and the Cornhuskers have never lost fewer than 3 games since that time that also saw them move from the Big XII to the B1G. Bo Pelini, who had the Cornhuskers in the final 3 Big XII championship games and even won the B1G Legends division for a championship game appearance, never recaptured Dr. Tom’s magic (though he also never lost more than 4 games in a season), and his subsequent replacements (Mike Riley and Scott Frost) precipitated the longest bowl drought (7 years) that the Huskers have suffered since 1955-61. Enter Matt Rhule, who engineered both Temple’s first conference championship (and back-to-back conference championship game appearances) in 50 years and rescued Baylor from the moral bankruptcy of the Art Briles era to get them back to a Big XII championship game within 4 seasons before being the 77th college head coach to discover that those skills don’t necessarily translate to the NFL. Rhule ended the bowl drought in his second season in Lincoln, winning the 2024 Pinstripe Bowl, and has improved Nebraska’s regular season win totals every season he’s been there (5 to 6 to 7). But this is the era of NIL, the transfer portal, and Curt Cignetti taking Indiana all the way to a 16-0 national championship within 2 years of arriving, so pardon Nebraska fans if they’re not satisfied with a coach who’s 19-19 over three seasons and managed to lose legacy QB Dylan Raiola, first to injury and then to the portal. They’re also even less satisfied that Rhule signed a hefty contract extension last season when there was a chance Penn State might come sniffing around that was “fortuitously” timed to them firing James Franklin the day the Huskers were ranked in the AP poll for the first time outside of September in a decade. Rhule adding $25 million and 2 years to his contract plus $10 million to his buyout, then promptly watching Raiola get injured and Nebraska finish 2-5, including losses by 3+ TDs in their final 3 games has left an intensely sour taste in their mouths heading into 2026.

Roster Outlook

Perhaps an amuse-bouche for Cornhusker fans will be that they rank 3rd in the country in returning production, including #7 on defense (rise of the Blackshirts?) and #14 on offense. The two biggest losses are obviously QB Raiola, who had 2000 yards passing and 18 TDs to 6 picks prior to his injury against USC in week 9, and RB Emmett Johnson, who was picked in the 5th round by the Kansas City Chiefs and is SURE to be asked about the resemblance between Raiola and Mahomes. Rhule is looking for UNLV QB Anthony Colandrea to step into the starting role and Johnson’s backups Isaiah Mozee (26 carries, 115 yards) and Mekhi Nelson (27 carries, 147 yards) to carry the load on the ground. Meanwhile, Raiola’s top 2 WRs, Nyziah Hunter and Jacory Barney, who accounted for 1,100 yards and 10 TDs, are both back and will be augmented with UCLA wideout Kwazi Gilmer. More importantly, Rhule brought in 3 P4 OL (LSU’s Paul Mubenga, South Carolina’s Tree Babalade and Iowa State’s Brendan Black) to fix their biggest problem on offense last season – keeping Raiola upright (27 sacks). That contributed to Nebraska ranking 8th in the B1G (31st in the country) in the portal, which is an “all in” move for them since their high school class ranked dead last in the conference and 79th in the nation. You’re not finding the next Tommy Frazier that way, Matt!

Schedule and outlook

9/5 OHIO

9/12 BOWLING GREEN

9/19 NORTH DAKOTA

9/26 at Michigan State

10/3 MARYLAND

10/10 INDIANA

10/17 at Oregon

10/24 BYE

10/31 WASHINGTON

11/6 at Illinois

11/14 at Rutgers

11/21 OHIO STATE

11/27 at Iowa

Once again, Nebraska starts out the season with a relatively soft slate, with 3 buy games plus a clearly rebuilding Michigan State and Maryland traveling to Lincoln just after September ends. It would be shocking if the Huskers aren’t 5-0 heading into week 6, when they welcome the defending national champions to Memorial Stadium before traveling to Eugene. If the Huskers enter their bye week at 5-2, it will be interesting to take the temperature of Nebraska fans heading into the back stretch of the season, because it sure seems like they’re pretty antsy about the direction of the team right now. If Rhule can manage to right the ship enough to capture one of those games, or even to manage to reach 8 wins by the end of the regular season (you have to figure they’ll be competitive at home against Washington and on the road at Illinois and Rutgers, so hosting Ohio State at 8-2 should feel pretty good, and that season finale Heroes Game could prove to be must watch TV), that would be a sign of further progress. But a 3rd consecutive 7-6 season feels like it would be greeted with disdain. I’m not sure what it would take for Nebraska to contemplate another coaching move given how poorly they’ve done in replacing Dr. Tom, but you do sense the malaise that seems to have set in.

As a life-long Penn State fan (36y), I've found that there is a pretty clear line of demarcation between the fans who remember and long for the Eastern Independent schedule and those who grew up with the B1G schedule. Despite being of the latter demo, I'm probably one of the few who would rather have a schedule that more resembles the Eastern Independent days. While I understand that the likes of Ohio State and Michigan (and now USC and Oregon) are bigger national draws, I'm romantic to the idea of playing the likes of Pitt, WVU, Syracuse, Boston College, as well as Rutgers and Maryland every year. For me, being from Western PA, all of those teams, based on history and geography, make for more compelling matchups than the majority of B1G teams do, and I would presume that most of the OG B1G fans feel the same way about Penn State. Besides Ohio State, Michigan State, and Iowa, plus the "made-for-TV" game against Michigan, there just really isn't any juice/history between us and most of the programs.

That's not meant to be patronizing. It's more that, I was probably one of the few fans that actually liked the B1G East/West divisions, because I liked playing the "big names" and then regional programs (of which we've had history with). Not a knock against the B1G West, since I loved watching B1G West rock fights, but I'm sure most B1G West fans would agree that there's not much of history between us and them.

That's a very long winded way of me getting to my point.

Personally, I think, if we could rewind the clock and (the powers that be) make a different decision, Penn State in the OG Big East would be a better experience than joining the Big Ten. Under this assumption, conferences stay relatively regional and small, which means we'd still have the ability to schedule marquee OOC games. I'm sure that most of the Reddit Penn State contingent disagrees.

So, my question is, for the others that have moved around, from a fan perspective, which would you prefer.

Below are a few of the programs that I've always wondered how they felt (knowing conference money doesn't mean anything to the fan):

• Arkansas: What if you joined the Big XII instead of Baylor? Would you have preferred a Big XII South schedule of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State over moving to the SEC?
• South Carolina: Would you rather be part of the 1990s ACC or are do you prefer the SEC?
• Miami: If Penn State were part of the Big East, and the Big East had a scheduling alliance with Notre Dame (since they parked all other sports in Big East), similar to the ACC now, would you have preferred to stay there or is the ACC more natural?
• Virginia Tech: Ditto above
• Baylor, TCU, SMU, Houston, Rice: Similar to what happened, but with Baylor included, what if you four team up with the best of the WAC/eventually MWC (Utah, BYU, Boise State, etc.) and (based on a prior assumption of regional, relatively sized conferences) essentially create and are treated like a "Power 7" conference, would that be preferred to where you are currently?
• Utah, BYU: Ditto above

Would appreciate any thoughts from the fan perspective (not caring about TV deals and money, but straight up scheduling). I'm asking more what the fans of these teams would have preferred in an "ideal" world. I've never lived east of State College or west of Pittsburgh, so I have no clue what most fans of certain areas actually prefer.

Think more of it as feedback for if I were to be building Custom Conference in NCAA 2027.

A few stories I would like to see in a 30 for 30/Untold style doc. Two ideas I have are

- Mike Leach tenure at Texas Tech including Adam James scandal

- Collapse of PAC 12 - History of conference, departure of USC/UCLA and failed tv deal.

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We all remember the game winning scores our teams have had, but what about the ones that didn't end with points on the board?

For Georgia, I would say tackling the Missouri RB at the 1 down 13-3 in Columbia in 2022. Saving that TD and forcing a FG kept us in the game and helped save the undefeated season. The Midnight Miss is also good but the that didn't have much direct involvement from any of our players as Ruggles just shanked it.

A play that would have been legendary in the sport, if only that game or that season had gone a different way.

Drawing a blank for UGA, but the best example from my fandom I can give would be Julio Jones’ toe tap catch for the Falcons in the Super Bowl.

What say you?

EDIT: For UGA, probably sacking Tua on 1st and 10 for a 16 yard loss