Hunter Rogers living dream as Gamecocks fan, player

Gamecocks snapper Hunter Rogers always figured he would be a college baseball player.

He had some talent as an infielder, pitcher, and catcher, and had the look of a prospect that could transition to the outfield for a smaller college.

His love for the diamond actually led him to the football field at Spring Valley High in Columbia. As a tenth grader, he tried out for the team in an effort to get stronger and better prepare his body for baseball season.

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“Never did I think I was going to play football,” Rogers said during an appearance on the Garnet Trust Hour on 107.5 The Game. “Coach (Robin) Bacon wanted me to try out for long snapper.”

Rogers was immediately taken back to his childhood, where he had stumbled into a penchant for launching the ball between his legs playing neighborhood ball.

“I was like, I remember back in the back yard I was pretty good,” said Rogers.

Bacon was impressed, and Rogers had the job, one he kept – but did not really take seriously – until much later. He had drawn some looks from smaller schools as a specialist, but a significant opportunity was about to come his way.

“I actually did it kind of as a joke until November of my senior year,” Rogers said of the snapping. (Bacon) ended up making some phone calls after I told him, if I do play football in college, I want to go to South Carolina. He said, I’ll call the coaches and get you on special teams.”

To the high schooler’s bewilderment, Bacon was able to swiftly get the South Carolina Gamecocks to offer a preferred walk-on spot.

“At this point, I still don’t know anything about long snapping. Just teaching myself off of YouTube videos,” Rogers said.

He arrived in Columbia in time for the 2020 season, where he redshirted as a reserve and began to prepare for what would end up being a significant role.

For Rogers, it was a dream scenario.

“Whenever it was a noon kick, I’d wake up at like eight o’clock as an eight year old, go play Sandstorm in the front yard, blaring, acting like I’m scoring touchdowns. Looking back, I’m like dang, I actually did that.”

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Rogers took over as the long snapper midway through the 2021 season, then added short snapping duties last season.

After his regular season performance resulted in him being named All-SEC by the league’s coaches, Shane Beamer placed Rogers on scholarship.

In the Gator Bowl against Notre Dame, Rogers scored a touchdown on a fake punt.

Adding another layer of delight to the play was the fact that Rogers essentially called his own number. During the game’s first extra point, Rogers took note of some on-field conversations being had by Notre Dame’ defenders about watching a fake from Tonka Hemingway.

“Five minutes later I walk up to Beamer and I’m like hey, I know ya’ll want to run this play. If you want to run it, tell Kai (Kroeger) to look outside because they’re just going to be covering Tonka. He’s like alright, let’s get you a touchdown. I ran up to (Pete) Lembo after that and said, hey, just to let you know, I told Beamer this.”

The play, which had been in the playbook since Beamer’s first season with the Gamecocks in Columbia, had been practiced by the team roughly 25 times since then.

“One time did I get that ball every time we practiced. I was a dummy on that play. If you look at it, Tonka’s going right down the middle and it’s supposed to be a little pop pass to him,” said Rogers. “I was like, shaking. We line up, they had one guy over top of me and Mitch (Jeter) and Mitch is like dude, we’re really running this. As soon as they snap it, I take off and it worked perfectly like we all thought it would.”

The moment turned Rogers’ rich childhood imagination into reality.

“It was definitely hard to calm myself down. I didn’t realize I scored until like, four hours after the game, because I was so happy,” he said. “I controlled myself for the most part.”

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