Coming out of Woodlawn High School, sophomore deep snapper Steve Damen thought he would spend his college career playing baseball for Southern University.
“Baseball was more my sport because I never thought that I would be able to play football at a college level,” Damen said.
He only played with the Jaguars for 2000 fall ball before deciding to change sports and schools. Former assistant strength coach Karl Dunbar asked Damen to walk on for LSU as a deep snapper at a time when Damen was looking for a change.
“I knew that I could deep snap, and when Dunbar offered to walk on and come on as a deep snapper, I really wasn’t having a good time at the position I was at Southern so I walked on here,” Damen said.
After transferring, Damen lost a year of eligibility and spent the season as a member of the scout team.
“Being ineligible a whole year was tough because I knew no matter what happened I couldn’t play,” he said. “But I had a goal of what I wanted to do. I just stayed focused for the whole year.”
LSU is allowed to put 85 players on scholarship, but there are many others who attempt to join the team without the benefit of a scholarship.
“We have lots of walk-ons we evaluate,” coach Nick Saban said. “Some guys we evaluate early. Some guys come out when school starts. We reevaluate those guys during the offseason program and we invite guys to spring practice.”
Not many players successfully make the transition from filling the scout team role to playing in the games. Saban said Damen’s energy and effort helped him make the jump and succeed as a player.
“Steve Damen has always been a high energy, tough guy that gives as much effort and tries as hard to do things as anybody on our team,” Saban said. “There’s only one common denominator for every walk-on that’s had success here, and that’s it.”
Damen began with intentions of just filling the role as deep snapper, but as time went on he said he began to want to do more – which led him to try special teams.
He then began working with former LSU deep snapper Wendell York and former specialist Ryan O’Neil.
“Wendell was always one of these guys that leads by example,” Damen said. “I used to watch him and figure out what he was doing, then I would go and do the same thing.”
York said Damen always worked hard and had an obvious desire to play for LSU.
“He really seemed like he wanted to get on the field,” York said. “He worked really hard in the offseason. Obviously it’s made a big difference and now he’s on the field.”
Damen replaced O’Neil on kickoff returns and had much to learn from the long-time specialist.
“We used to go against each other every day in practice and he used to just clown me,” Damen said. “He had been there so long and was so good that I would hate to go against him. But by doing all that, I would start doing all that he was doing.”
All of his hard work has paid off as he earned a starting spot in the kickoff return team and as the deep snapper. Saban said his improvement as a snapper is obvious and testament to his character.
“He improved himself significantly as a long snapper,” Saban said. “He always had great speed on the ball, but he didn’t have the accuracy. He worked on his own with Brian Kinchen to improve his technique to where he could be accurate. He’s a great example of hard work, perseverance and a guy really wanting to do something and overcoming a lot of adversity to do it through a lot of tremendous effort and intensity. And we reward him for it.”
Senior punter Donnie Jones has been able to depend on York throughout his career for a consistently good snap, giving Damen big shoes to fill. Jones said Damen has done a pretty good job filling those shoes so far.
“Well York just had so much experience and this year we were just trying to find a guy to do the job,” Jones said. “I can’t say enough about Steve Damen. He had not one year of experience. He stepped in and did a good job. For the first punt, I had total trust in him, but I didn’t expect it to be right here. It was perfect.”