Weber State football: Senior specialists Thompson, Sands provide leadership, levity
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- LEFT: Weber State kicker Kyle Thompson (41) boots a field goal on Sept. 9, 2023, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. RIGHT: Long snapper Grant Sands smiles on the sidelines Aug. 31, 2024, in Seattle.
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- Weber State kicker Kyle Thompson (41) boots a field goal against Northern Iowa on Sept. 9, 2023, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
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- Weber State long snapper Grant Sands smiles on the sideline during a game at Washington on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Seattle.
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- Weber State long snapper Grant Sands practices a snap in this undated photo.
OGDEN — Being a kicker or long snapper brings a different set of experiences than most players get on an FCS college football team.
Weber State seniors Kyle Thompson and Grant Sands, for example, do most of their workouts at the start of practice each day, then roam around the sidelines and track doing various things — practicing snaps and holds, booting into nets, or hatching plans to get head coach Mickey Mental to install a no-huddle wishbone option offense.
“Just get the offensive linemen some oxygen masks,” Sands laughed. “His offense worked better, though.”
They and the other kickers and punters — commonly called “specialists” — are called upon for other, things, too. Like working as the chain gang during 11-on-11 sessions or in scrimmages.
“Out there before the spring 2021 season, it was so cold, just standing there holding on to a metal pole,” Thompson recalled, rubbing his hands together subconsciously as he recalled the preseason camp that began in January.
Younger specialists are on the chains now. Sands and Thompson have graduated to “ball security” — poking and slamming ball carriers with long sticks that have boxing gloves attached to the ends.
“Just trying to force as many fumbles as I can,” Sands said.
Duties diverge from that of other players but it puts those specialists in a unique place when it comes to who they are as teammates.
“Grant is usually smiling. Kyle can be a little more stoic, but they’re both very quick-witted,” assistant coach Skyler Ridley said. “They’re fun to be around and coach … it’s fun to catch them on the sidelines because they’re big cheerleaders for their teammates.
“Guys make plays on either side of the ball, they’ve got great energy, great juice. They’re students of the game, you can tell they pay attention, and that kind of focus and involvement … those things are fun to see, and it makes them great locker-room guys.”
It’s a matter of perspective.
“I have no excuse to drag because what (my teammates) do is so much harder than what I do,” Sands said. “This is the best job I’ve ever had … I have no excuse not to be the positive, like, pick-everybody-up kind of guy.”
Between the hashes, Thompson started kicking as a sophomore at American Fork High School. He played soccer but many of his friends were gone most of the summer and into the fall at football practice, and they convinced him to come hang out. One day, a coach saw him put through a 50-yarder in street shoes and said “our next practice is Monday.”
Now, Thompson is closing in on history. His 13 points (three field goals, four extra-point kicks) in Week 2 against Portland State increased Thompson’s career points total to 300. He’s 26 away from becoming the program’s all-time points leader.
He also became the third kicker to reach 50 made field goals. Now at 52, he needs 16 more makes to overtake Scott Shields to become the all-time leader in field goals.
“I’ve just continued to show up and tried to do my job, and that’s kind of just led me down the road,” Thompson said, who didn’t know he was close to any records until recently.
His favorite on-field memories are booting a 51-yarder in what became a three-point win at Southern Utah in the spring 2021 season, his freshman campaign, and knocking through a 23-yarder to win in the final seconds at Northern Arizona in 2022.
With an undergrad degree in professional sales, Thompson now working on an MBA degree.
“My parents went to Weber State, they met here, I met my wife here … getting a master’s degree is not something, coming out of high school, that I ever thought I’d do,” Thompson said. “Everything has been amazing and I’m super grateful for it. Weber’s made me who I am and has set me up for the rest of my life.”
Sands’ name is familiar already, though not in a way anyone would wish on any amateur college player.
Sands said he’d been snapping a bit high all season in 2022 but it wasn’t until Game 7 that it came to a head, so to speak, and he launched four balls over the punter’s head for four safeties in a 43-38 loss at Montana State.
He didn’t really have any thoughts to share about what he learned through the experience. To him, he corrected it and moved on.
He proved that six weeks later, returning to the same stadium to chants of “safety” and “MVP” every time he took the field in a playoff game at Montana State.
“He jogged out there and just piped those snaps right at the belt buckle,” Ridley said. “It just shows his resilience, his courage, his work ethic. I can’t say enough about the positivity Grant has had throughout his career here.”
Sands has been on-point ever since. He’s been the long snapper for all of Thompson’s record-approaching efforts, minus the spring 2021 season, and for Weber State’s continued success in the punting game with Mackenzie Morgan, Jack Burgess and now Oscar Doyle.
Ridley pointed to the Australian freshman Doyle and how well the football newcomer has punted to start this season (nine punts, 46.5 average, three inside the 20, minimal returns).
“Oscar’s performance … his kind of peace of mind and composure has a lot to do with (Sands and Thompson) have befriended him, taught him the culture of our program and of living here,” Ridley said. “Those guys deserve a lot of credit for the consistency we’ve experienced over the years in all phases.”
Thompson deflected that praise, saying he only helped with a few basics and that Doyle “is 100% a professional; he takes care of business in school, off the field, and on the field here.”
Sands has one degree in communication and is working on his master’s in the same field while interning in the athletics communication office when he’s not being a football player. He picked up long snapping in high school when he realized he was too small to play full-time center and too slow to do much else, he says.
Other than beating Utah State in 2022, his favorite on-the-field memory is winning at Eastern Washington in 2021.
“We ran three fake punts for first downs, beat No. 2 Eastern Washington at home, they hadn’t lost there in a long time,” Sands said. “Where the locker room is, we’re like following Eastern through a tunnel at halftime and Ty MacPherson is getting yelled at by the refs because he started this ‘Weber!’ chant that was echoing in the tunnel. That was a fun experience.
“There’s all kind of random, locker-room moments like that where … I don’t think it will hit me until winter when I realize, ‘I’m not walking into that locker room anymore.'”
