Clinton Snyder
From NCAA College Football Information & Resource
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Clinton Snyder (born April 18, 1987) is a linebacker for the Stanford University Cardinal in the NCAA college football tournament. Although some college teams were reluctant to recruit Snyder as a defensive lineman because of his size, Stanford managed to get the best out of the San Diego native by utilizing his strength, athletic ability, and quickness at the linebacker position. Since then, Snyder has emerged to become the Cardinal's catalyst on defense, listing himself in the school's record books as the career leader in several defensive statistical category.
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[edit] Personal Life
Clinton, or Clint for short, is the son of Beth Snyder. He majored in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. One of his interests outside football is snowboarding. The athlete that he admires the most is Ben Wallace, while the three people in history he admires are Theodore Roosevelt, Michael Jordan and Sun-Tzu. He likes Mexican food and considers Snatch as his favorite movie. He is friends with Utah Utes running back Darrell Mack whom he teamed with at Monte Vista High.
[edit] High School
Snyder attended high school at Monte Vista High School in Spring Valley, California where he was a standout in both basketball and football. He played four years of hoops under long-time coach Zach Peck and was named first team All-League selection as a junior and was the lone athlete from San Diego to be included in the 20-man All-State Grid-Hoop Team selected by CalHiSports.com. On the gridiron, Snyder played three seasons for Monte Vista and saw action on both ends of the field (as a defensive end on defense and as a tight end on offense). He had a breakout junior year, tallying 17 1/2 sacks and 83 total tackles for coach Ed Carberry's Monarchs who made it all the way and won the CIF-San Diego Section Division II championship. He was rewarded with the East County and the Grossmont League Defensive MVP award and was also named into the First-Team All-CIF. The following season, Snyder played under new head coach Paige Culver and recorded 95 tackles, 18 sacks, and nine pass knockdowns while scoring also seven touchdowns (as a starting tight end) to help the Monarchs finish with an 11-1 record and earn for himself the Grossmont League and East San Diego County Defensive MVP. He was also selected into the Second-Team All-State, First-Team All-CIF and First-Team All-League teams while being included into SuperPrep's All-FarWest Team and in PrepStar's All-West unit. Snyder, voted as the San Diego County Defensive Player of the Year, also had votes in the Long Beach Press Telegram's Best in the West.
Despite his success on the field, Snyder still managed to do well in his studies as he graduated from Monte Vista High with a 4.5 grade-point average. Thus, he was awarded by the San Diego Hall of Champions with the Russ Saunders award as the top high school scholar-athlete in football for the school year 2004-05.
[edit] College
As one of the top recruits in the state of California and in the West region, Snyder received scholarship offers from seven schools, namely Stanford, UCLA, California, San Diego State, Colorado State, Oregon State, and San Jose State, although the first three aforementioned were his top choices. UCLA and Cal wanted him to bulk up because they would like to put him on the defensive line while Stanford recruited him to be an outside linebacker. In the end, the three-star rated Snyder gave his verbal commitment to then Cardinal assistant coach Tom Quinn by December, stating Stanford's impressive combination of athletics and academics as his main reason for becoming then head coach Walt Harris' first pledge in the 2005 class.
[edit] 2005
Redshirted as a true freshman and practiced with the scout team.
[edit] 2006
After his redshirt year, Snyder was one of three player competing for the outside linebacker position (the others being senior Emmanuel Awofadeju and junior Austin Gunder). By the end of spring camp, Snyder was on top of the depth chart. Despite his impressive play during training camp, Snyder came off the bench in his first collegiate game at Oregon but still managed to post three tackles (a tie for third in the team). The following week in the Bay Area Shootout, Snyder made his first career start and established his career high at eight tackles while intercepting his first career pass (returned 10 yards) in the second quarter of the heartbreaking 34-35 defeat at San Jose State. In his first home game at the new Stanford Stadium, Snyder improved his career high with 11 tackles while forcing two fumbles in the 9-37 loss to Navy. He recorded a second straight 10+ tackle game against Washington State but his effort was still not enough to help Stanford break out of its slump. After tallying only three tackles and a pass break up in the shut-out loss at UCLA, Snyder had his third double digit tackle game in the three touchdown loss at Notre Dame. In losses to Arizona, Arizona State, and Southern Cal, Snyder chipped in 7, 3, and 7 tackles, respectively, including his first career sack for an 8-yard loss in the shut-out defeat to the Trojans.
Stanford finally snapped its horrible start with a 17-point win at Washington, with Snyder helping the Cardinal limit the Huskies to three points after recording six tackles, a nine-yard sack, a pass break-up, and a forced fumble. The Cardinal went on to lose its last two assignments to Oregon State and California, with Snyder contributing 9 stops against the Beavers and 3 more against the Golden Bears. He finished the season third on the team with 83 tackles (10th in the Pac-10), second on the squad with 54 solo stops and led the team with three forced fumbles (4th in the conference), 3.5 tackles-for-loss (-20 yards), 2.0 sacks (-17 yards) and a pair of pass breakups in 12 appearances and 11 starts. He was selected into the First Team Pac-10 All-Freshman and Second Team Pac-10 All-Academic teams.
[edit] 2007
During the spring, Snyder missed some time in the contact drills due to a stinger (painful injury that involves the pinching of a nerve due to surrounding inflamed tissue). Under the new 3-4 defensive scheme, he was listed as the starter on the spring depth chart at the outside linebacker position as the Cardinal's top returning tackler.
Snyder's injury woes continued through the early stages of the season but he managed to play through it, including in the season-opening loss to the Bruins where he had four stops, 2 TFLs, and a 10-yard sack. The following week against San Jose State, Snyder got shut-out for the first time in his career after leaving the game following the first defensive series with a stinger. Against 13th ranked Oregon, Snyder posted 10 tackles, half-a-sack, and a forced fumble but suffered another stinger and sustained a thigh contusion from a hard collision which cracked his thigh pad in two. Following the game, he had an epidural and cortisone injected between his C-3 and C-4 vertebrae to calm "the nerve down just enough to where it's not pinching as hard anymore." Against the undefeated Arizona State, Snyder had nine tackles, including two of the Cardinal's six sacks for a 14-yard loss as Stanford dropped its second straight on the road. At top-ranked USC, Snyder posted 1-1/2 sacks, and a forced fumble as Stanford came away with a 1-point upset win that was considered as one of the "shocking" moments in the collegiate football season. Against TCU, Snyder had nine stops including an 11-yard sack, two quarterback hurries, and his first fumble return in the two-point loss to the Horned Frogs. He also came away with nine tackles in the 1-point triumph at Arizona then paced the team with a career-best 12 unassisted tackles in the 6-23 defeat to Oregon State.
Snyder had a career-high, game-high and team season-high 16 tackles in the loss to Washington, had five stops at Washington State, then chipped in five more including a season high three TFLs, a 7-yard sack, a pass break up, a QB hurry, and a forced fumble in the 1-touchdown defeat against Notre Dame. In the regular season finale against Cal, Snyder interrupted and then ended Cal's first offensive series by forcing and recovering a fumble from quarterback Nate Longshore before finishing the game with seven stops, including 2.5 for losses, a 7-yard sack, a QB hurry, and a forced fumble in the 20-13 win. He ended the year with his name listed among the leaders in almost all defensive categories in the Pac-10, including fumbles forced (4, #1T, 0.33 per game), tackles for loss (14.5, #4, 1.21 per game), fumbles recovered (3, #5T, 0.25 per game), sacks (8.0, #8T, 0.67 per game) and tackles (89, #11, 8.0 per game). He was second in the team in total tackles (96) and led the team in sacks and forced fumbles. He was also named as the team's most outstanding sophomore and was included in the Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention Team.
[edit] 2008
Entering his junior season, Snyder has been named into the Watch List for the 2008 Bronko Nagurski Award, which is awarded to the best defensive player in college football.
[edit] Career Stats
| Tackles | Tackles for Loss | Sacks | Interceptions | Fumble Returns | Misc | ||||||||||||||||
| Year | Solo | Asst | Tot | Tot/G | TFL | Yds | TFL/G | Sack | Yds | Sck/G | Int | Yds | TD | Int/G | FR | Yds | TD | PBU | QBH | FF | K/P B |
| 2006 | 54 | 29 | 83 | 6.92 | 3.5 | 20 | 0.29 | 2.0 | 17 | 0.17 | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0.08 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 2007 | 65 | 31 | 96 | 8.0 | 14.5 | 81 | 1.21 | 8.0 | 66 | 0.67 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
[edit] Achievements
[edit] 2008
- Bronko Nagurski Award Watch List
- Phil Steele Preseason 1st-team All-Pac-10
- Phil Steele Preseason 4th-team All-America
[edit] 2007
- All-PAc-10 Honorable Mention
- Pac-10 All-Academic Honorable Mention
- Phil Steele Third Team All-Pac-10
- Stanford's Deswarte-Eller Award (Most Outstanding Sophomore)
- Stanford's Jack Huston Award (Player exemplifying aggressiveness, exceptional performance and unheralded efforts)
[edit] 2006
- Pac-10 All-Academic Second Team
- Pac-10 All-Freshman First Team
