FORT COLLINS — Josh Snyder is an open book. He just wishes some more college programs would pick the darn thing up.
“I mean, I’m trying to put myself out there,” Columbine’s senior tailback told me with a chuckle, his laugh a frosty cloud of breath after carrying the Rebels to a Class 5A state football title.
His X bio lists every meaningful digit but the kid’s cellphone and Social Security numbers, naked to Elon Musk and the world. Says right here he boasts a 4.5 GPA, 405-pound squat, 260-pound bench, 4.5 40-yard dash, 7.11-second 60-meter official track time.
Dude might want to add this stat: 226 page-turning, all-purpose yards at Canvas Stadium that stonewalled Dave Logan and Cherry Creek from nailing a historic five-peat.
“I wanted this so bad,” said Snyder, still grinning after dropping 128 rushing yards, a 98-yard kick return and three touchdowns on the bigger, badder Bruins. “And that’s what motivated me — that there’s no tomorrow with football. It ends (Saturday). And so I gave it all I got out here.”
Logan will be back. It’s what he does. It’s what Creek (13-1) does. Columbine (14-0) doesn’t get to play the underdog card very often, but coach Andy Lowry played this one to the absolute hilt.
At the start of this magical postseason run, Lowry wrote the words “junkyard dawgs” up on the board at the front of the room for his kids to see. It didn’t take long for Rebs to get the message and start baring their collective teeth. Columbine pummeled Fountain-Fort Carson, Legend and Chatfield by a combined count of 121-26 on the march to FoCo.
“I mean, we’ve lost every eye test before the pregame the entire year,” cracked Lowry, whose crew jumped out to a 14-0 lead and pounded away to a 28-14 victory. “(I had) somebody who was a college coach (visiting) and he said, ‘We’re waiting for your linemen to come out.’”
With that, Lowry nodded to the lunch-pail guys behind him, a motley crew of 6-foot-ish, try-hard types dancing on Cloud 9.
“He told us to play loose, play confident and just have fun,” Snyder recalled. “I mean, this is the last game for so many seniors and so many guys. And it’s a dream come true. And it’s one day that you’re never going to get back.”
Saturday’s 5A title game was billed as a battle of Goliath vs. Goliath, but only one giant had Lincoln Riley on speed-dial. Creek started an offensive line with road-graders who’ve got offers from USC, Iowa State and Purdue.
Our man Snyder, meanwhile, has an offer from Mines. Oh, and Western Colorado.
That’s it.
“They’ve got, what, 6-7, 6-8 linemen?” the Columbine star cracked. “And our nose guard’s 5-8. So it’s just it’s incredible what they did up front. And that’s what led us to victory (Saturday).”
That and special teams. It was the little things, ironically, where the Bruins fell short. Missed tackles. Bad fits. Fundamentals. Snyder even booted the longest punt of the game, a 37-yarder on a pooch kick. Meanwhile, three punts by two different Creek players managed to travel 34 yards … in total.
Freshman Jolan Quintana, in a show of frustration that summed up the Briuns’ afternoon, almost kicked the Creek bench farther than he kicked a ball Saturday, the poor kid.
One of those shanks gave Columbine the ball at the Creek 32 on the Rebs’ first offensive series of the tilt. Columbine ran it nine straight times, methodically, before Snyder showed those squat numbers were real by plowing over the line from the 1 to give the junkyard dawgs a 6-0 lead.
The guy’s 40 time was legit, too, apparently. Snyder broke free on the opening play of the second quarter for a 46-yard score, outrunning every Creek defender to the end zone and putting Columbine up 13-0 before the extra point.
“I don’t know how (Josh) doesn’t have those top Division I offers yet,” Rebs QB Reeve Holliday wondered. “With that 4.4 speed, and he’s just a dawg. He makes every play. He made a bunch of plays again tonight on offense and defense.”
Early on, Holliday fumbled a snap on third-and-2. He turned it into a 3-yard gain anyway. When it’s your day, it’s your day.
When it’s your year, it’s your year.
“We love our 98-yard drives, 97-yard drives, because they just eat the clock,” Snyder said. “But when we’re (starting) on the 30-yard-line, I mean, why not go score and make it a shorter drive?”
And if you’re a college recruiter looking for a dawg, you might want to give No. 21 in a blue a call before he plows over your line for somebody else.
“There’s some dudes (with better) times or maybe a little stronger or taller or whatever,” Lowry gushed, nodding at his tailback. “They’re not a better football player than he is. You know, we’ve got a whole whole group of them like that.”
Junkyard dawgs with tears in their eyes. And if Saturday was a tease of Snyder’s next chapter, the young man’s gonna be one heck of a read.
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