#UNC long snapper Spencer Triplett

just kind of like what's it been like to

be under you know BC coach Belch and

Coach Bri.

Yeah, with long snapping I take a huge

pride in it because it's a really unseen

part of the game. Usually when a punt

comes on and Tom can attest, everybody

is usually going to get the concessions.

Um they're on their phone. No one's

paying attention to it. But for us, it's

a huge part of our game because that's

all we do. And so I put a lot of passion

into what I do in perfecting what my

craft is, whether it's snapping,

blocking, and uh having Tom as the

punter, it's been great because we work

with each other to figure out what's

good um for each other, where he wants

the ball, um you know, where he's

standing, where I need to snap it for

him. So I take a lot of pride in long

snapping as a whole.

Let's go to Jeremiah.

Yeah. Um I I wanted to ask you when did

long snapping from your vantage point

become your things? I know you all that

in high school, things like that. When

did it become this is going to be my

craft. This is what's going to, you

know, happen.

So, I originally picked it up in sixth

grade. Um, my brother was a kicker and

whenever him and my dad went out to the

field to work on it, being the little

brother, I'm like, I'm going too. Uh,

originally tried kicking, figured out

I'm not good at that. So, I learned how

to snap and I really started taking it

seriously about sophomore year, junior

year of high school. um when going to

camps, I figured out I'm really good and

can compete with other guys across the

country. And as I got into college and

worked on my own craft, I, you know,

started to get better and better and

really took pride in what I do.

Real quick follow to that, you said miss

you and what made you want to get into

the cooking?

Just just that thing of being the little

brother. You always want to do what your

older brother does. And you know, I

always looked up to my older brother

growing up. He was the smart one in the

family. Um the athlete, he ran cross

country and did soccer. So I was like,

you know what? I'm I'm going to give it

a try. and then shortly figured out it

was not for me.

Let's go to Brian.

Um, two two quick.

Are you on scholarship? I know you know

it's tough sometimes the specialist to

get on scholarship. And then secondly,

coach Bell talked about changing some of

the ways that you're blocking. Wondering

if you could go into detail about what

you worked on with that.

Yeah, so the first one I am on

scholarship. I got put on at the

beginning of the year and uh with

changing things up. I was originally

supposed to be a free release guy, snap

it and run. But then they realized I

could be a very uh lethal weapon in the

protection game and I take a lot of

pride in that because they see um I can

be of use in protection and so I put a

chip on my shoulder and trying to learn

and be as good as possible with that.

And I think through spring, you know,

summer into the um preseason training,

I've gotten really good at it. And you

know, they challenged me a lot in

practice to give me some tough looks to

make sure I'm prepared on Saturdays. And

I think it's um kind of been a test of

how good I am. They're trying to

challenge me more and more. And so it's

only going to make me better for

Saturdays and make Saturdays easy. So I

I love blocking honestly.

Tougher to block or go down there or try

to make an attack?

Uh tougher to block in terms of giving

me stuff that maybe team other teams

might not give or putting like a very

quick guy in there to try and get past

me. Just making it harder on me in

practice so that when games come it's a

lot easier to do.

Let's go to Adam.

Adam Smith in South Carolina. Spencer,

uh, you've been around here a while. I

think this is your sixth year.

Yeah.

U, it's kind of a multi-layered question

if you can bear with me. What made you

want to keep coming back cuz you could

go on and do something else? I'm sure

you were in early on Mac 2.0. I mean, it

was 2020 when you got here. How have you

seen maybe this program change over the

years, especially with the switch from

Mac to Bellich? Not trying to throw

anybody under the bus. and maybe how

have you seen the perception of football

change around here just just through

your eyes on sort of the ground level.

So in that first part what kept me

coming back is really more so the

academic side of the school. Um as

everyone knows it's a very prestigious

university and um sometimes that title

on the degree is very enticing to

employers and everyone knows football

isn't for long. Even in the NFL it

stands for not for long. So when

whenever my football career comes to an

end, which who knows hopefully it's far

from far from now, uh I want to put

myself in the best position possible to

be successful after football in whatever

career I choose. And going back to from

one staff to another. Um this staff

definitely puts a lot more

responsibilities on us. They're treating

us like pros and they're expecting us to

handle ourselves like pros. So, they're

encouraging us to always do, you know,

scouting reports on our own, figure out

what our potential matchups are going to

be for the week. Um, kind of get an idea

of what we're going to see and move into

practice kind of with that information

and try and prepare the best way. And

it's honestly been a lot more beneficial

because in the past it really wasn't

encouraged as much and now it's kind of

like this is what pros are going to do.

So, if you want to get to that level,

you got to get used to it now. And

that's what I really like about having

coach Bichc and the new staff in

especially with coach Briefer. He's the

same way. He wants us to know who we're

going up against, what their tendencies

might be, and try and figure out what

can we can do in practice to best

prepare for it.

So maybe more, just follow, sorry, maybe

more homework from the end of the game

to the start of practice next week, that

type of thing. Like you need to be

prepared whereas they're not screen

feeding it to you, that type of thing.

Yeah, exactly. And I think for me

personally, I always like to they'll

always the coaches always break down

games and like tell you what they think

you did good or what you didn't. But I

like to take it personally to do it on

my own, you know, self-critique myself.

And I'm I'm very hard on myself. Um my I

think my room for error personally is

very small whereas someone else could

see a snap and like, "Oh, that was

good." But me, I'm like, "It wasn't

good. It definitely could have been

better." So, um that's something me

personally I like to do to make sure I'm

the best on the field so I can give my

teammates the best, give the coaches the

best, and hopefully give the team a good

opportunity to win the game.

No. No. Was off tail 24/7. I'm curious,

what's the story behind you getting on

scholarship? Was it like a fun like how

did you find out? I guess

uh I mean it was one of those things

they were like they kind of just told

me. I was like cool.

Like it it's one of those things like

it's it's great but I it was never

really that for me. I've always just

wanted the opportunity to play and both

coaching staffs with M. Brown and Bill

Bichc they've given me that opportunity.

So I'm forever grateful for that and the

you know the scholarship is just an

added bonus to it. Was it coach they

told you or was it

it was it was before the transition?

Okay.

But once once they got back in, they're

like, "Yeah, you're still going to keep

that." So I was like, "Great."

Tommy,

as a long snapper, I mean, who do you

look up to? Greg Warren played here.

He's played in the league forever. I

mean, I don't think that's a guy that

want to follow this footstep.

Oh, definitely. Um,

especially recently looking to like all

the guys across the leagues. You hear a

lot of names like Luke Rhodess, JJ

Jensen, local guy. He's been in the

league, you know, forever. John Weekes,

a lot of these veteran guys around the

league. But, you know, I like to look at

some guys that are maybe in similar

positions, similar similar body sizes

just to kind of compare games to see

like where I think I could stand

compared to them. But yeah, definitely

definitely Jansen being the local guy,

you know. Um, Manley obviously he's

considered widely as the greatest to

ever do it. Jansen's also in that

conversation weeks as well. Um, looking

up to those guys, it's like quarterbacks

looking up to Brady, receivers looking

up to Moss. That's that's what all the

guys want to do was trying to have that

longevity that those guys had.

Let's go to Shelby.

Uh, Shelton, the News Observer, I'm

curious if and I was just talking about

you've seen the Bill Bich 10 minute long

answer about the history of long

snappers and if so, just what were your

thoughts on that? Yeah, I think every

long snapper in the country has seen

that video because when the greatest

coach of all time goes that long about

talking about long snappers, they're

they're pretty tuned to listening to it.

But yeah, it's it's really cool how much

he cares about it and how much he

actually knows about it. We had a

conversation uh before one practice that

felt like 10 minutes just talking about,

you know, stuff I could do, stuff I

could add to my game, stuff that could,

you know, help the whole scheme out. And

it's it's really cool when you have a

coach who knows that much because you

you'll talk to like other head coaches

and like, "Oh, yep. Good snap. We'll

we'll move on." Bill will be like,

"Yeah, that was a good snap. Blocking

was good. Did you see this? What else

did you see?" If you see this, talk to

your teammates, you know, help help them

figure it out, you know? And it's it's

just awesome cuz having a coach like him

and especially like coach Briefer, guys

that have so much experience working

with, you know, the best to ever do it

in the NFL, it kind of encourages you to

like work harder and try and be the best

and perfect your craft. So it's it's

been really awesome.

A quick follow up. I mean assuming that

you and you know a lot of your teammates

when the news came that was being hired

you know excited about this is one of if

not the greatest coach alive but was it

a different maybe feeling for you as oh

I know this guy really cares about what

special teams in all?

Yeah. Much like everyone else it was it

was definitely a big shock when it

happened. But as I as I let it grow on

me, I was like, you know what? Having

having someone who cares about special

teams is gonna be awesome because when

you have coaches that care so much about

special teams, it's it's fun to play

for. You have guys coming up to them all

the time being like, I want to I want to

play. I've had some teammates come up to

me like, hey, can you talk to coach

about putting me on, you know, one of

these teams or one of the the scout

teams because, you know, I just want to

play special teams. I'm like, yeah, of

course. Like, that's what you want in

any program. guys who are so eager and

just want to play that they'll they're

going to go to special teams because you

have one of the best coaches who know

special teams values it and he's even

shown so many clips of um guys who have

been in the league solely on special

teams and made double digit year careers

out of it. So it's been really awesome

for team morale just bringing everyone

together and wanting to like be on

special teams.

Anything else with Spencer?

I guess they get like more guys coming

up to you on special teams. Would you

say that's different like from years

past than a number of coaches?

Oh, definitely. I mean, from years past,

you'd have some guys who just like like

most people, they were like, I don't

really care. I want to play my position.

I came here to my play my position. I

don't want to be right guard on the punt

team or or the L1 on kickoff. You know,

guys just want to play their position.

But now guys are like, oh, playing for

this guy. Like, that's that's a plus in

my book.

That was Mcen's fault in the drop

against TCU. Not

no comment.

Okay.

Good stuff, Spencer. Appreciate