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The Gramatica family to kicking. The Manning family to passing. The Moss family to catching. And the Crofoot family to ... snapping?
Unlike some of the aforementioned famous football-playing families, the Crofoots play a quiet but vital role in their team's success.
At USC, junior Ike Crofoot is in his third season as the Gamecocks' long snapper. At Auburn, where USC will travel this weekend, senior Chas Crofoot is one of the Tigers' long snappers.
"Coach (Lou Holtz) asked one day if anyone wants to try snapping," Ike Crofoot said this week, "and I did it then and I've done it ever since."
Ike, one year younger than his brother Chas, came to Carolina as a walk-on in 2003. He played quarterback his senior year at First Academy in Windermere, Fla., and wanted to give major college football a shot.
"I'd rather come here and have a chance to play in front of these people than go to a small school," Ike said.
The Gamecock snapper visited smaller schools such as West Point, Harvard, Yale and Princeton before deciding he wanted to play in the SEC. As a true freshman, he impressed coaches and won the starting punt-snapper job.
Chas, also a quarterback in high school, hadn't planned on playing major college football until he saw the noise his little brother was making in Columbia. He tried out as a walk-on his freshman year but didn't make the team.
Before the 2004 season, he got a call from one of the Auburn coaches saying that they needed a snapper, so Chas decided to give it another shot. More than a year later, Chas has started 14 games at field goal and extra point snapper.
As a senior at First Academy, Chas threw for 1,400 yards and 16 touchdowns, 11 of which came to little brother Ike.
On Saturday, for the first time ever, the two will be on opposite sides of the field.
"I'm sure I'll punch him in the stomach and slap him in the face, and he'll do the same to me," Chas said.
With more than 30 friends and family members coming to the game this weekend, the Crofoot family is excited, but the question is, who is the better long snapper?
"I'd say I definitely have the edge over him (in snapping)," Chas said.
Ike didn't seem to agree. "Nah," he said with a smile.
Ike and Chas are not the only Crofoots who have mastered the art of long snapping. Three other younger brothers have played football and have been long snappers.
Clayton Crofoot, 17, is a freshman at Auburn this year and will probably be a long snapper after Chas graduates, Ike said. Ike and Chas said that Clayton, at 6 feet 5 inches tall, is probably the most athletic of the family. Younger brothers John, 15, and Kyle, 12, are long snappers for their respective middle school and Pop Warner football teams. Butch Rowley, the Crofoots' cousin, is set to become Florida's long snapper in the next year.
The Crofoot boys' long snapping origins come from their father, Kroy, a close friend of Holtz.
During a conversation years ago, Holtz told Kroy that "there's always a spot on the bus for a long snapper." The father took it to heart and taught his sons the very unique way of getting to play major college football.
"He can probably teach snapping better than anybody in the United States," Ike said. "Pretty much everyone that's wanted to work on it he's put into a college."
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