Florida Gators longsnapper Rocco Underwood a semifinalsit for the Patrick Mannelly Award
The Patrick Mannelly Award named 10 long snappers as semifinalists for the 2025 season on Monday evening. Florida Gators redshirt senior longsnapper Rocco Underwood was among those players named to the list. From here, Underwood and the other 9 semifinalists will be narrowed down to a final three on Monday, Nov. 24. After that, the winner will be chosen on Saturday, Dec. 13.
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Rocco Underwood has already won this award once
After winning this award after the 2024 season, Rocco Underwood entered the 2025 season as the reigning winner of the Patrick Mannelly Award. The award goes to the best long snapper in college football each year. It first began in 2019. The award was named after Patrick Mannelly, who played as the long snapper for Duke from 1993 to 1997 and had an NFL career with the Chicago Bears from 1998 to 2013.
The award also helps with Bernie’s Book Bank, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding ways to help children develop their reading skills.
So far this season, Underwood has played as Florida’s primary long snapper. He logged a solo tackle in UF’s loss to LSU, and overall this season has 2 tackles and a fumble recovery across 87 snaps. Of those snaps, 46 of them came on punt coverage, and the remaining 41 came on snaps for field goal/extra point coverage. After redshirting in his true freshman season in 2021, Rocco Underwood has been UF’s starting longsnapper each season following.
Underwood, who is from Lake Mary (Fla.), was a Phil Steele First-Team All-American in 2024 and a second-team All-SEC pick. He also garnered second-team All-SEC honors from reporters at SEC Media Day ahead of the 2025 season.
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Aside from Underwood, the other semifinalists for the 2025 Patrick Mannelly Award include Georgia’s Beau Gardner, Oklahoma Sooners longsnapper Ben Anderson, Virginia’s Bryce Robinson, Garrison Grimes of BYU, Michigan’s Greg Tarr, Oregon’s Luke Basso, Boise State’s Mason Hutton, North Carolina longsnapper Spencer Triplett, and Penn State’s Tyler Duzansky.
A look at Rocco Underwood’s honors while at UF
COLLEGIATE HONORS
- Mannelly Award Semifinalist (2025)
- Mannelly Award Watch List (2025)
- Mannelly Award Winner (2024)
- AFCA Second-Team All-American (2024)
- All-SEC Second Team (2024)
- Phil Steele First-Team All-American (2024)
ACADEMIC HONORS
- Earned his bachelor’s degree in Sport Management (Spring 2025)
- Three-time SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll (2022-24)
- SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll (2021-22)
Before his collegiate career in Gainesville, Rocco Underwood was the No. 1-ranked longsnapper in the 2021 cycle, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking, which is a weighted average of the three major recruiting services.
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