Tulane Green Wave Long Snapper Honored As All-American on Road to NFL Draft
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Tulane Green Wave longtime long snapper Ethan Hudak recently received accolades for his work over five seasons on the special teams unit.
Hudak was honored as the fourth team of the Rubio Long Snapping College All-Americans in his final season of Tulane football as he heads on to the NFL draft.
He finished behind Florida Gators' Rocco Underwood, Georgia Bulldogs' Beau Gardner, and Michigan Wolverines' William Wagner, all Power 4 long snappers.
Hudak trained under Rubio Long Snapping prior to joining the Green Wave and earned a Top 12 spot in their high school camp. Led by Chris Rubio, known as the top snapping instructor in the country, the program enters its 20th year with over 1,900 long snappers heading to college and eventually the NFL.
In 2024, Hudak secured a spot on the Patrick Mannelly Award Watchlist for a third consecutive season and finished as a semi-finalist. He declared for the NFL draft on Dec. 26.
He has one career forced fumble against the SMU Mustangs in the 2022 season where Tulane eventually won the Cotton Bowl. Hudak was the player who successfully snapped the ball, enabling kicker Valentino Ambrosio to score the final winning point and seal the 46-45 victory.
Long snapper is an underrated position of loss for the Green Wave, who have enjoyed stability at the role since Hudak joined the team and appeared in all 12 games as a redshirt freshman in 2020. The team has Andrew Goodman on the roster, who was injured and didn't play in the 2024 season.
With a 6-foot, 229-pound stature, Hudak offers NFL teams looking for a snapper significant upside on special teams as a blocker and tackler. He was a key leader for the program as one of the players on the roster through the 2-10 season, the greatest single-season turnaround in college football history, and losing head coach Willie Fritz the year after.
Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com