Long snappers don’t generally get much praise, but Pitt redshirt junior Byron Floyd is one that is receiving recognition for his play.
Pro Football Focus, also known as PFF, named Floyd to their midseason All-American team, during their ranking of the best special team players in the country. They gave Floyd an 81.7 grade for FBS long snappers, the best in FBS, which is also based on his zero bad snaps on 21 field goal attempts and two tackles, tied for third most at the position. The only blemish on his record is “one slightly off target snap on one of his 20 punt snaps.”
“So, if you’re thinking this Heisman race is just going to be down to Michael Penix Jr. and Caleb Williams, count Byron Floyd in that as well because he has been the best long snapper in the college football,” PFF writer Max Chadwick said.
Floyd is in his second season starting full time at long snapper. In 2022, he worked with placekicker Ben Sauls, who was also in his first season kicking field goals, to accrue 107 points, which is the third-highest single-season kick scoring kick total in Pitt history. Outside of just serving as a long snapper, Floyd also recovered two fumbles, one against Tennessee and another against Duke.
Pitt’s punting game has also improved immensely this season with the performances from redshirt sophomore Caleb Junko showing throughout 2023. He is third in the ACC with 47.8 yards per punt, second with three touchbacks and with 10 punts of 50 yards or more.
“Oh, I think you just need to be able to work off of each other really well,” Junko said on his relationship with Floyd. “Just be honest with each other if snaps are off or punts are off, stuff like that and I think we have such a good relationship off the field that it translates on the field and we’re able to work together really well.”
He has to have the most punt snaps out of all LS in the country at this point.
Maybe we can become known as Long Snapper U.