TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
FootballSaturday, October 5, 2018
4B

A

ndrew Robinson 
remembers his debut 
for the Michigan 
football team. You 
probably don’t. 

In the penultimate game of the 2015 
regular season at Penn State, starting 
long snapper Scott Sypniewski 
was sidelined with an injury. So 
it was Robinson, then a redshirt 
freshman, who quietly filled in and 
executed — his first of just five career 
appearances.
The fifth-year senior walk-on knows 
recognition is hard to come by as a 
backup, let alone as a long snapper, 
perhaps the most anonymous 
position in football. 
Being seen was never his concern. 
Praise and frustration are heaped 
upon guys like Rashan Gary and Shea 
Patterson. Their potential lies in 
making the NFL — the NCAA being 
a given. But Robinson, like so many 
on the Wolverines’ roster, has an 
unnoticeable career. 
“I remember seeing a tweet and 
someone said ‘Oh, Sypniewski’s been 
banged up, they might get Andrew 
Robinson a chance,’ ” he recalled. 
“And someone tweeted, ‘Who is 
Andrew Robinson? I’ve never heard 
of him.’ And I was like, ‘Exactly.’ 
“You don’t want to be known.”
***
Andrew admits that long snapping 
wasn’t his, nor frankly anyone’s, 
first choice. But it was his ticket 
to accomplishing what seemed 
unimaginable — playing college 

football. Choosing which school 
to play for was a far-flung, second 
objective. 
At Athens High School in Troy, 
Mich., Andrew played football and 
lacrosse. His younger brother by 
two years, Bradley, played the same 
positions, and his father, Brad, was an 
assistant coach for the football team.
“Bradley and Andrew always worked 
their tail off in the weight room 
for me, dedicated to the program,” 
said Josh Heppner, the brothers’ 
high school coach. “They worked 
hard, played offensive line, did some 
things on defensive line for us, but 
they found their niche with long 
snapping.”
Starting in youth leagues, Andrew 
played as an offensive lineman. 
But his short stature — currently 
at 6-feet and 218 pounds — was an 
early indicator that he wouldn’t fit 
the prototypical lineman build. None 
of Michigan’s scholarship linemen 
weigh under 300 pounds.
He also started long snapping in 
eighth grade. His coach didn’t like 
his form, but Andrew was the only 
one who could snap the ball at least 
13 yards. So he assumed the role, and 
it stuck when Heppner needed a long 
snapper. 
During his sophomore year of high 
school, rotating between offensive 
lineman and long snapper, collegiate 
aspirations weren’t gaining traction. 
Thus began the reckoning of an 
uncertain future.
“I wanted to play college football, 
so I knew I needed a niche,” 

Andrew said. “My dad had done 
a bunch of research and saw 
a (long snapper) had gotten a 
scholarship offer from Notre 

Dame, Nebraska. So he’s like, ‘Okay, 
let me figure out more about this.’ 
And then next thing you know, I got a 
Twitter (direct message) from Chris 
Rubio and he just said ‘Hey, my name 
is Chris Rubio, check out Rubio Long 
Snapping.’ So I checked it out and 
was like ‘Let’s go to a camp.’ ”
Added Brad: “We came back from 
the Chicago trip and he sat down 
with his mom and myself and said 
‘I want to do this. I want to do more 
camps, get better at it.’ And that’s 
what we did.”
The Rubio Long Snapping camp 
began 14 years ago, starting with six 
participants and growing to as many 
as 300 at the most recent camp. 
Six years since their first meeting, 
Rubio — a former long snapper at 
UCLA — still has lasting impressions 
of Andrew.
“Honestly, one of my top snappers,” 
Rubio said. “He wasn’t silent, I’m a 
big fan of that because I don’t like 
when long snappers are tense. When 
they’re tense they never do well. … If 
he never hears his name, he’s done a 
great job.”
And being heard was difficult, 
anyway. Rubio compiled film and 
offered a communication channel 
for his long snappers to find open 
roster spots at the collegiate level. 
Andrew sent his own edited tapes 
to schools, even making a trick shot 
video in 2013 — a YouTube clip that 
still rouses laughter amongst his 
teammates. 
He doesn’t mind them poking 
fun. How else was a long snapper 

supposed to make himself known 
when doing so is the very antithesis 
of the position? 
***
Andrew traveled to Grand Valley 
State and Ferris State. Lehigh called. 
Then Butler and Central Michigan. 
Michigan State inquired, followed by 
radio silence. The attention he finally 
earned was humdrum. 
Then, Brady Hoke and Michigan — 
which hadn’t recruited a player from 
Troy Athens since 2002 — chimed in. 
“One day, I got a text message from 
Allen Trieu from Scout.com and 
he said, ‘Hey, I don’t want to jinx it, 
but Michigan just called me about 
you. They’re coming to visit you 
tomorrow.’ ” Andrew remembered. 
“And I was like, ‘You know this is 
Andrew Robinson, right?’ He goes, 
‘Yeah, I know.’ I was starstruck. I 
was like, ‘Really? I got on Michigan’s 
radar?’
“I remember running down into the 
basement where my dad was. I told 
him, ‘Hey, I just got told Michigan is 
gonna come visit me tomorrow.’ He 
was like ‘Yeah, right. You’re kidding.’ 
… I got called out of class and people 
are like, ‘A-Rob’s meeting with 
Michigan?’ It was a big joke, like, ‘Oh, 
it’s snapper Rob.’ No one thought 
that I’d end up where I was.”
Neither did his father. He never 
envisioned Andrew making it to the 
next level. Both Andrew and Bradley 
making it as long snappers was 
unthinkable.
But when Andrew got his walk-on 
offer from Michigan shortly after, it 
also represented a foot in the door 
for Bradley. 
Between the two brothers, Bradley 
is the taller, leaner one. It’s why 

Andrew only calls him his “baby 
brother” instead of “little brother.” 
It’s also why, with Andrew’s 
experience to guide him, Bradley’s 
D-I offers were proactive and 
not reactive — Illinois, Louisville, 
Auburn, Wisconsin, Penn State and 
Michigan State all reached out.
The attention gives Brad and 
Andrew a laugh — Bradley didn’t 
even want to long snap. He wanted 
to be a quarterback. His stature said 
otherwise. 
“He 
really 
fell in 
love 
with it 
when 
he 
first 
met 
Chris 

Rubio,” Brad said. “Andrew’s 
participating (at a camp) and 
Bradley’s going, ‘I could do this.’ … 
On his way home from camp he says, 
‘I want to do this too. I want to start 
going to camps.’ ”
From there, the “consistency” of the 
Robinson brothers, as Heppner puts 
it, elevated Bradley into a greater 
spotlight. After wading through 
offers and one year as a Spartan, 

ETHAN WOLFE DAILY SPORTS WRITER