The less you notice Charlie Flint on the football field, the better the job he is doing.
“If they know your name, you’re not doing your job,” the Bryan County senior laughed after signing with Georgia State as a long snapper.
Mario Mincey, Bryan County’s head coach last year, agreed.
“It’s a key position, but you never notice long snappers until they do it wrong,” he said. “Sometimes a coach can take a long snapper for granted, but when it goes wrong, they can cause your team a whole lot of hurt.”
Flint said he played center when he started playing football in elementary school, then became a long snapper in middle school.
“I tried it in sixth grade and loved it,” he said. “As I got older and knew I wanted to play college football, I realized being a long snapper was the way to go since I wasn’t going to be 6’7” and 300 pounds.”
At 6’2” and 225, Mincey thinks Flint will have to get a little bigger for the college game, but not much.
“You want your long snapper to be big but not too big because they have to run down field and make tackles on punts,” he said. “Charlie can also play center and tackle, so they’ll be able to use him in a lot of ways.”
Flint said he often would work on long snapping at his house or at Bryan County’s football field on weekends.
“There isn’t a lot of time during practice for it because you’re running plays, but you do have to work on it to be consistent,” he noted. “I’d mark off 15 yards from a tree at home and snap at it.”
Flint is excited about the Georgia State program and the prospect of going to school in Atlanta.
“They’re coming off of a bowl win and the program is looking up,” he said. “And I love Atlanta. I used to go to Braves games at Turner Field as a kid and I can’t believe I’m going to get to play there now.”
The Panthers finished 2017 at 7-5 overall and 5-3 in the Sun Belt, beating Western Kentucky 27-17 in the Cure Bowl. They play their home games at Georgia State Stadium, the former home of the Atlanta Braves when it was Turner Field.
Flint said he plans on majoring in marketing in hopes of getting a job in the Atlanta area after graduation.