It's only natural that former Montana Grizzly kicker Chris Snyder has watched the rookie success of another ex-Griz kicker, Dan Carpenter, with a certain amount of envy.
Sure, Snyder also got his shot at pro football, and performed well during the game situations he got into both stateside and in Europe.
But timing and circumstances didn't align like they did for Carpenter, who, so far at least, has more than taken advantage of his opportunity with the Miami Dolphins.
"I'm definitely envious of the opportunity that he got," Snyder admitted. "When it comes to kicking, it is just being in the right place at the right time. You (also) have to come through and make the most of your opportunity, which he's done a phenomenal job of.
"Dan's a great kicker and he's a great person, too, which definitely helps," Snyder said.
People are also reading…
Snyder is happily married to high school sweetheart Megan, is the junior varsity offensive coordinator at Deer Park High School on Spokane's north side, works with kickers (even though they are harder to find these days), and enjoys the mental challenge of golf, which he says is not that unlike the mental challenge of kicking a game-winning field goal.
Snyder laughs when he talks about the "tradition" that so many UM kickers have established: that of missing the last field goal try of their Grizzly careers.
For Snyder, it was a field goal at the end of the second overtime in a 43-40 loss to Western Illinois in the first round of the 2003 playoffs. He joined the likes of Carpenter and Kris Heppner among UM kickers who missed their last tries as Grizzlies.
"It's a nasty, nasty tradition," Snyder stated.
But the misses didn't keep them from getting their shots at pro ball.
A three-time All-America and all-Big Sky Conference first team kicker, Snyder signed as a free agent with the Detroit Lions. Unfortunately, they already had standout kicker Jason Hanson on their roster.
But Hanson, a former Washington State star and a friend, promised Snyder he would get all of the second-half kicks during the Lions' three exhibition games. Snyder converted five of six.
"Detroit was a really good experience for me," Snyder said, adding that he came out of camp thinking he would have a great shot at being signed by another team.
Some time later, Snyder signed an NFL Europe contract with the Houston Texans that required that he compete with 15 kickers for six available spots. He hooked up with the Amsterdam Admirals, coached by former UM player and current Toronto Argonauts coach Bart Andrus, and they won the World Bowl that season, in 2005.
While he was still overseas, Houston signed their current kicker to a four-year contract extension.
Snyder got a tryout with the Kansas City Chiefs, but they also decided to keep their veteran kicker. He got a few nibbles from other teams, but finally decided it was time to move on and achieve a more stable lifestyle.
Snyder returned to UM to finish his education degree in fall 2005, then moved back home to Spokane where he got his first teaching and coaching job.
His teaching career is varied, including marketing, computer courses and graphic design.
The coaching move to offense came this year following three years on the defensive side, so there's been a lot to learn. He's been to a coaching clinic in Portland, Ore., and recently had his players at a team camp at Central Washington University.
"I was really kind of thrown to the wolves," Snyder said of the move to offense. "Grab the play book and learn it, kind of like being a player, (but) on a different end of it."
He and Megan had dated all through high school at Mt. Spokane, but were separated when he went to UM and she to Washington State. They got back together after three years mostly apart, during his senior season, and were married two years later.
Megan teaches elementary school in Mead, Wash., and is currently working on a master's degree in education with an emphasis on English language learning.
Snyder is the youngest of eight children in his family, and five of his siblings still live in Spokane, so there's no question living and working there provides a comfort zone for him. Megan's family also lives there.
They try to get together as a group about once a week.
He also wants to be near his mother, who just turned 70. Four of the Snyder kids were still at home when her husband died when Chris was 10 years old.
"She's an amazing woman," Snyder boasted, "the stuff that she's done, the support that she's given myself and my brothers and sisters, and the support she's now giving to all of her grandkids.
"It's definitely an inspiration," he added. "She's been retired for six years, and I think she's working harder now, raising the grandkids and being with them every day, than she was when she was working. She enjoys the heck out of it. You never hear her complain about how busy she is."
Snyder does admit that, every time he returns to Missoula, he thinks about how nice it would be to live there, too.
"(But) that involves finding another teaching job, which is kind of tough right now," he said.
He also thinks it would be great to be a special teams coordinator at a level higher than high school, but "that requires a lot of sacrifice and a very understanding wife.
"For right now, I'm very happy where I am," Snyder stated.
Snyder's current recreational outlets aren't restricted to golf. Megan is into triathlons. They mountain bike and run together, but he leaves the swimming part to her.
He also takes advantage of organized seven-on-seven workouts with his high school players during the summer, finding himself "running a few (pass) routes."
Chris and Megan also spend a lot of time at her parents' lake, something that having the summer off as a teacher certainly lends itself to.
Snyder is a bit frustrated that a lot of young kicking prospects are lost to soccer these days. While it's a spring high school sport, a large number of the area soccer players continue into the fall as club players.
"You try and convert an athlete that can do it," Snyder explaining, adding that, "you'd be surprised how many athletic people can't kick a ball."
Snyder actually started his football career as a linebacker, something that won't surprise Grizzly fans who watched him put the lumber to numerous kick returners during his years in Missoula.
He played prep linebacker for three years and also was a back-up quarterback.
"Fortunately I didn't ever have to really play quarterback," he laughed.
When it came to college possibilities, however, kicking was Snyder's ticket. He ended up booting for the Grizzlies despite the fact that they entered the recruiting battle for him somewhat late, in late December-early January of 1999-2000.
One contributor
to UM's effort was Snyder's high school coach, Larry Stranahan, a
former Griz defensive lineman who was close friends with then-Griz
coach Joe Glenn.
Heppner was graduating, and Glenn didn't have anybody behind him, so he called Stranahan to ask about Snyder, who also had interest from Nevada-Reno, Washington State and Eastern Washington.
All it took to convince Snyder that UM was the place for him was a recruiting trip to Missoula and a conversation with the head coach.
"Joe was pretty tough to say 'no' to," Snyder laughed.
In addition to his All-America and all-conference honors, Snyder remains UM's single-season points leader with 124 scored in 2003. He also ranks fifth and 15th in that category.
He's now second behind Carpenter in career scoring (413 to 394) and shares the top mark in career point-after conversions mark with Carpenter at 182, also a national record.
Snyder also holds the record for UM's longest field goal, a 57-yarder against Albany in 2002. Always humble, he said the situation was perfect to attempt the kick.
"There were two seconds left (in the game), and we just happened to be in a spot where we could try it," Snyder said. "(And) the scoring record just shows how potent an offense that we had. My four years there, our offenses were phenomenal. We scored a lot of points."
True to kicker form, Snyder also had high praise for his holders, T.J. Oelkers and Dane Oliver.
"That's something that's often overlooked," Snyder pointed out. "Those are two of the best. Those guys were amazing."
Snyder had no illusions coming to Missoula that he would finish his UM career with the status he achieved. He considers it an honor to have his name "up there" in scoring stats with the likes of Carpenter, Yohance Humphery and Kirk Duce.
"Would've liked that (career) scoring record to last a little longer," Snyder joked, "but I knew right when he (Carpenter) got there . . . he (was) going to beat that scoring record."
Asked about significant, personal UM memories, Snyder admitted there were both good and bad ones. That's where the missing-the-last-kick one comes up.
While he said winning the national championship in 2001 was right up there, Snyder also noted that the playoffs weren't always good memories as a kicker.
"When we lost, I had a lot of failure," Snyder noted. "That was tough as a true freshman (when the Griz lost the national title game to Georgia Southern, 27-25) going in there and looking guys like Jimmy Farris and Andy Petek and Drew Miller in the face and knowing that I really didn't do my part."
While he dreamed of making a last-second kick to beat the Bobcats, he had to settle for a 2-2 mark against the arch rival. He also recalled a 12-7 win over Weber State during which he accounted for all of Montana's point with four field goals.
Snyder also remembers good kicks with eventually bad outcomes, like when he booted a 54-yard field goal to send a game against Idaho State into overtime. But ISU ultimately prevailed, 43-40.
Snyder said those situations definitely helped him develop into a better kick and a stronger person.
Also important to him are the bonds he formed with so many teammates, many of whom he continues to communicate with on a regular basis.
The ones he was closest to were those that he lived with while in school. Jonny Varona and Blake Horgan ended up being groomsmen in his wedding, and he still stays in close touch with former housemate Nick Vella, along with Oelkers and Oliver, and former UM assistant coach Knutsen, who helped recruit him, along with Chad Germer.
Snyder still gets a big kick out of the fact that fans responded more to his savage hits on return men than they did to some of his most important kicks.
As for getting permission to hit people, he recalls looking bad when Tanner Hancock got by him during a return drill in practice, and having assistant coach David Dorn unload on him.
"He basically said, 'just because you're a kicker doesn't mean you can't be an athlete,'" Snyder recalled. "'You're our last line, and if you let him go, that's you're fault.'"
That led to an entirely different approach on Snyder's part as he brought back some of his linebacking mentality and skills.
As a freshman, in a playoff win over Appalachian State, Snyder sent a return man flying in front of the visiting bench.
"Those kick returners never expect you to go hit 'em," Snyder noted. "They expect you to run 'em out of bounds. So whenever I had 'em on the sidelines I'd just kind of throw it at 'em and see if I could get 'em down."
He usually did. And eventually, the coaches got used to it.
Snyder looks back on his days at UM as one of the highlights of his life. He still talks to two of the families that took him under their wings while he was in Missoula. He sees the Dalpiaz and Manning families at least once a year. Both families traveled to Amsterdam to watch him play there.
