Head coach Curtis Johnson is never afraid to think outside the box when recruiting, but he created some buzz after recruiting incoming freshman long snapper Aaron Golub, who is legally blind with no sight in his right eye and limited vision with his left.

Golub, humble and professional, said he wants to come in like any other recruit and simply help the team win.

“I’m excited to go in there and to help the program and I know that they are giving me a shot and prove to them when I get a started,” Golub said.  

The Massachusetts native played at Newton South High School. Golub played a mixture of defensive end and center before he decided to transition to long snapper his sophomore year.

“I decided I wanted to play in college and I figured that there weren’t a ton of good long snappers out there,” Golub said. “So I figured if I became good enough at it, I’d have a pretty good shot.”

Golub had more than a ‘pretty good shot.’ He is attending Division 1 university and has a huge chance to play major minutes as a freshman.

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Aaron is a tremendous young man who has not let adversity overcome his desire to fulfill his dreams of playing college football,” Johnson said. “We look forward to having him as a part of our football program this fall.”

Golub said that long snapping, for him, doesn’t require sight to consistently hike the ball on target, but requires diligent training. At 6-feet-2-inches tall and 195 pounds, he had no problem competing at the high school level.

“After a ton of practice you just get the form down and the rhythm down and now [long snapping] is just second nature to me,” Golub said. “I can just do it the same every time, but I definitely need to continue to get bigger, stronger and faster because its such a higher level of play.”

Modest as he is, Golub shuns the attention, wanting to be just like any other player on the team, but understands that this could be a breakthrough for other impaired athletes who might want to play at the collegiate level.

“Other people might see me and decide, ‘hey maybe if I work hard enough, I could do it too,’” Golub said.