When evaluating the roster once the dust settled on the transfer portal this offseason, many fans were excited to see names like John Henry Daley, Smith Snowden, Jamie Ffrench, Salesi Moa and others eventually commit to Michigan Football from prior stops.
But the player who we are going to spend today talking about that made Bruce Feldman’s “Freaks” list on Monday is … a long snapper?
Gavin Magorien transferred to Ann Arbor this offseason from Marshall, where he was the starting long snapper as a true
freshman in 2025. Of course, Magorien has not been discussed at all this offseason simply due to the position that he plays. Long snappers are hardly ever praised, but they can be heavily scrutinized when they have a bad snap.
But when Feldman put out his annual “Freaks” list that dives into the 101 most athletic players in college football, it was shocking to see the Wolverines’ lone representative on the list be a player that has one job on Saturdays — snap the ball directly to where it needs to be.
Magorien came in at No. 78 overall on Feldman’s list. Here is what Feldman had to say:
“Magorien spent 2025 as Marshall’s long snapper before transferring to Ann Arbor, but he also played wide receiver and DB in high school in Erie, Pa. The 6-0, 202-pound sophomore broad jumped 10-10, did 26 reps on the bench press at 225 and squatted 550 pounds, making a case to be one of the strongest players pound-for-pound in college football. His 6.87 3-cone time is exceptional.”
Let that sink in for a second. The most athletic player on Michigan’s roster — according to one of the most respected evaluators in the country — is a guy who will line up over the ball on punts and field goals and whose name most Michigan fans could not have told you before reading this article.
However, the numbers that Feldman listed are pretty crazy, especially for a long snapper. A 10-foot-10 broad jump, 26 reps on the bench press at 225 pounds, a 550-pound squat and a 6.87-second three-cone drill. For context, those are numbers that would turn heads at an NFL Combine — and they belong to a sophomore long snapper who transferred from a Conference USA program.
The backstory that Feldman provided makes it even more interesting. Magorien played wide receiver and defensive back in high school, so the athleticism he possesses is not some manufactured product of long snapper-specific training. It is natural, position-agnostic freakishness that just happens to be applied to one of the most specialized and under-appreciated roles in football.
None of this means Magorien is going to be a household name; if he does his job perfectly, you will never think about him once. But the next time Michigan lines up for a punt or a field goal, it is worth knowing the guy sending the ball back to the holder is one of the most athletically gifted players on the entire team.
Sometimes, the most interesting stories on a football team are the ones nobody is paying attention to.
