This is ‘one less thing’ for TCU coach Gary Patterson to worry about in 2018

TCU coach Gary Patterson has consistently praised the play of the offensive line so far in fall camp. He’s done the same for one other player – long snapper Antonio Ortiz.

Patterson again mentioned the freshman from Virginia last weekend as being better than expected for the Horned Frogs early on in camp. Ortiz is quick to deliver the ball to punters in less than two seconds, usually in the high 1.8s or low 1.9s, and on field goal tries in about 1.7 seconds.

“Our freshman snapper has been awesome,” Patterson said. “If everything in the package is going right, it’s hard to get that thing blocked.

“So that’s one less thing for a head coach to worry about.”

Patterson also likes the size Ortiz, listed at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds, brings to the field goal and punt units.

The Frogs didn’t have any of their 16 field goal attempts last season blocked, and just one of 70 punt attempts blocked. The blocked punt happened in the Texas game last season.

As Patterson said, though, teams don’t want games to be decided because of a botched snap and that’s why TCU is happy to have Ortiz. Last year’s snapper, Lucas Gravelle, is now with the Miami Dolphins.

Ortiz played tight end, defensive end and snapper in high school, and also competed in basketball and track and field. His twin brother, Marco, is the snapper at Florida, and his father, Fred, played football at UT-Arlington in the 1980s.

Fred Ortiz is now a principal designer at HKS and overseeing the new Rangers’ ballpark that is scheduled to open in 2020.

This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 10:00 AM.