For his entire life, Willie Snead has been around the game of football. Born in Winter Park, Fla., he grew up about two hours away from the University of Florida, where his father Willie Snead III played as a wide receiver in the late 1980s.
His father didn't just stop after playing for the Gators; he helped his son with his football career by becoming his coach at whichever high school he attended.
"At times it was frustrating because I had to be a leader in front of my pops and make sure I do everything right," Snead said.
One advantage it did give Snead was he could watch game tapes whenever he wanted. He also said having his father as a coach helped him.
"Just having him encourage me and knowing my father is there watching me helped out my game," he said.
ON THE GO
In high school, Snead was always on the move. He attended three different high schools in four years in two states. After playing his freshman year in Florida, he moved to Michigan to attend Holland Christian High School.
In his only season at Holland Christian, he led the school to the 2008 Division IV State Championship. In the championship game, he caught nine passes for 81 yards and a touchdown in a 35-20 win over Detroit Country Day School.
A school change the following year also brought a position change. His third school was Muskegon Heights High School. His father also took over the Muskegon Heights coaching staff that year. Snead became the quarterback for the school where he was an offensive threat with his arm as well has his legs.
In his two seasons at Muskegon Heights, Snead compiled a record of 16-8, but couldn't reach the state championship game again. That didn't stop him from putting up tremendous numbers. After his senior season, Snead had recorded over 6,500 yards and was accountable for 69 touchdowns.
Snead also began facing criticism for being the coach's kid while at Muskegon Heights. Snead said he was criticized that he was being selfish with the ball and was allowed to because his father was the coach.
"I was trying to get other players involved since I was the quarterback," he said. "So I would just throw more instead of running the ball and get other kids contributing and it balanced everything out."
His stats gained notice from Bowl Championship Series schools like Michigan, Michigan State, Alabama and Florida. An ankle injury he suffered his junior year might have kept him from playing for one of those schools.
"I don't think the ankle injury really affected that," Snead said. "I think it was more of playing in Michigan and the talent level there that made a difference."
Even with the numbers he was recording, schools were looking at him not as a quarterback, but as a wide receiver.
Just like his father.
COLLEGE DECISION
At the end of his junior year of high school, Ball State became another school Snead had on his list of potential places to go in the Mid-American Conference along with Toledo, Western Michigan and Ohio. After attending a summer camp that June, he gave a commitment to play for Ball State.
That commitment didn't last long.
When former coach Stan Parrish was fired in Nov. 2010, Snead took back his commitment because he wasn't sure which direction the program was going. In the time Ball State was without a coach, Snead gave another commitment, this time to Western Michigan.
"I decommitted when [Parrish] was gone because I didn't know who the coach was going to be," Snead said. "I liked how Western Michigan was leading the MAC in total offense."
A month later, coach Pete Lembo was hired and one of the first things he did was introduce himself to each recruit, including Snead. He also informed him the previous scholarship offer would be honored.
Lembo said the difficult part after he got hired was calling every recruit to make sure they were still keeping their commitments. He said because Snead's father is a football coach, they knew of other options in case Ball State was no longer the right fit for him.
"We basically had to re-recruit them because for three weeks, there was no coaching staff here," Lembo said. "In Willie's case, he did some research on me and how we threw the ball at Elon and at Lehigh, and he figured out that this was a better situation because of the style of offense."
After being introduced to Lembo, Snead gave another commitment to Ball State.
"I felt comfortable committing," he said.
FIRST YEAR STARTER
Snead graduated from Muskegon Heights a semester early with a 3.5 GPA and enrolled at Ball State in January. Instead of going to his senior prom this past spring, he was studying the playbook; something that Lembo said gave him an advantage over other incoming freshmen.
"It was important to him he got a jump start in college and wanted to be involved in spring practices," Lembo said. "It impressed me that he had a plan."
It took about six weeks for Snead to become completely comfortable with the offense during spring practices. A majority of his struggles stemmed from coming to Ball State mid-year.
"To his credit, he was able to weather that storm and it has been certainly advantageous for him," Lembo said.
It's no secret Lembo likes to use redshirts for incoming freshmen so he can establish a program full of four-year starters. But the lack of depth at the wide receiver position the team had when Lembo arrived forced him to have freshmen play in their first year.
After missing the season-opening win against Indiana, Snead made an impact almost immediately. In the conference-opener against Buffalo, he had four receptions for 21 yards and scored his first collegiate touchdown to give Ball State a three-point lead with 29 seconds remaining.
"It was crazy, it went by so fast," Snead said. "I just caught the ball and looked at the band and the players rushing me. I took it all in and was grateful we got the win."
The following week against Army, Snead had the best game of his young career with 10 receptions for 180 yards and another touchdown. Snead's 180 receiving yards were the most by a Ball State wide receiver since Dante Love had 214 in 2007.
Since then, his production has declined, but he's second on the team in receiving yards behind senior Briggs Orsbon.
With only eight games to his name, Snead has a bright future at Ball State. He has the opportunity to continue to be sophomore Keith Wenning's favorite target for the next two seasons, though he might have envy his quarterback a little.
"I kind of miss playing quarterback sometimes," Snead said.
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