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# Stampeding Through the 2025 USF Football Roster: #95 LS Garrett Cates
- URL: https://www.bayareaexaminer.com/stampeding-through-the-2025-usf-football-9a7/
- Published: 2025-05-25T13:00:46.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T15:47:16.000Z
- Description: I said every notable player and I am a man of my word.
- Author: Collin Sherwin
- Tags: #Migrated-1792597384348, #Import 2026-10-21 15:44

**PLAYER:** Garrett Cates

**POSITION:** Long snapper

**YEAR:** Redshirt senior

**HEIGHT/WEIGHT:** 6'2", 220 lbs.

**HOW DID HE GET HERE?** Cates played both long snapper and defensive end at Steinbrenner High School, about a half hour drive from USF. He started his college career out of state at FCS Charleston Southern, where he redshirted as a freshman and then spent two years as the starting long snapper. He returned home and transferred to USF in 2024.

**HOW WAS HIS 2024 SEASON?** Presumably pretty excellent, though if you want to be sure you should probably check in with Garrett because I am woefully unqualified to evaluate long snappers. At any rate, he won the starting long snapper job and never gave it back, and as far I can remember there were no snap-related issues in the 2024 season. He even notched two tackles on the season, for his troubles.

I kid, but long snapper is a position where you don’t appreciate its importance until you really, really need one. In 2020, the Bulls lost one of their contenders for the long snapper job to a torn ACL in preseason and had to turn to a team videographer to take over midseason (the team couldn’t hold tryouts because of the pandemic - at one point, current Buccaneers linebacker Antonio Grier was the backup snapper). In the Notre Dame game that season, the Bulls had two snaps fly over their punters’ head in a 52-0 loss. 2020 was horrifying.

**WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT IN 2025?** Cates is the presumptive starter, but I should note that USF brought in another FCS transfer long snapper this offseason - Turner McLaughlin from Tennessee Tech, who started as a freshman and earned all-conference honors. Could there be a snapper battle brewing this summer? We’ll see, but it’s good to know that USF’s lengthy snaps are in good hands either way.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/a9/77a9bb8f-d0f1-45b5-8fed-5feacd465ef5/content/images/2026/10/4096c8dc-9c55-4b61-aa5d-d2d091b43b6b_1396x988.png)

A different type of long snapper.