2018 Gameday Program Senior Feature - Jordan Ober

As a four year starter for the Nebraska football team, one might hope to be a household name across the state, and maybe even the country. However, for senior long snapper Jordan Ober this is not the case, and he is ok with it.

According to Ober, the biggest challenge of being a long snapper is being able to stay anonymous and this is key to the success of any long snapper.

“You don’t want anyone to know who you are,” Ober said. “I know that can be a problem for a lot of people because when you come play football, especially for a big university like this, you want to be a superstar. You want everyone to know who you are. If no one knows who you are as a long snapper, then you’re doing your job.”

Ober has been able to maintain his anonymity throughout his career, all while contributing to the success of some of the most well-known Husker specialists, including punter Sam Foltz and place-kicker Drew Brown. And his bond with his fellow specialists has been a major factor in his success.

Ober spent his first three years as a snapper for his best friend, and former roommate Drew Brown, who holds the second-place spot on the all-time field goal chart at Nebraska.

“For specialists it’s a different type of relationship,” Ober said. “You have to like them because you’re with them all the time. The whole specialist unit is very close.”

But it isn’t just the specialists that are close this year. Ober has seen drastic improvement in the unity of the team as a whole.

“This new coaching staff has brought us together like I have never seen before,” Ober said. “I have seen people who are completely different from different states, different backgrounds, different everything who are making plans to hang out after practice and I have never seen that before and that’s awesome.”

Surprisingly, the Las Vegas, Nevada, native hasn’t been a long snapper, or even a specialist for that matter, for as long as people might think. Ober was a wide receiver at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, until one day sophomore year in gym class his coach discovered his talent - by accident.

“I was just messing around in P.E. class when my coach decided that I was going to be the long snapper for the J.V. team.” Ober recalled.

That new-found talent landed Ober the starting role on his high school varsity team and eventually a starting role over 1,000 miles away from home as a true freshman at Nebraska in 2015.

Ober has played 39 games in three years and as his time in Lincoln nears an end, he looks forward to his future.

It’s possible that he’ll trade the slow-paced life and friendly people that drew Ober to Lincoln for a much faster-paced scene in the NFL or back home in Vegas.

“The ultimate goal is to take it to the next level and hopefully I have a good shot at that,” Ober said. “Other than that, I’ll probably do commercial real estate with my dad back in Vegas.”