Wake Forest Athletics
Gold Rush: Always Wanting His Turn
10/28/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 28, 2002
By Sam Walker
If there is a player the Wake Forest football team could not play without, it would be Jax Landfried. He's the guy head coach Jim Grobe says you might not notice because he never seems to do anything wrong. He's always on time for meetings, always honing his varied skills on the practice field or getting stronger in the weight room and always doing the right things at the right times. Grobe also uses the word invaluable when talking about Landfried simply because he's turned out to be the ultimate utility player.
Landfried has a hand in the offense and every aspect of the kicking game. He's a wide receiver that's come up with big catches, the holder for extra points and field goals, and even at 5-9 and 175 pounds, he's the long snapper on punts.
"It would be really hard (to play without him), Grobe said. "You have a guy who is invaluable as a long snapper. He'd be worth a scholarship just to be a long snapper because he's so dependable. He makes big plays in the throw game, and is as sure-handed as anybody we've got. He's really invaluable.
"From the first day we got here, he's been a guy who is a step ahead of everybody work-wise. He loves to practice and loves to play. We made a deal with him that if he was banged up he couldn't play receiver, he would just be long snapper. Thank goodness he's stayed healthy because he's so invaluable."
There are many adjectives that could describe Landfried. Opportunistic fits him like a tailored suit because he's made the most of his and created a few along the way. He's the unlikely walk-on who grew into the fifth-year senior the Deacons could now ill-afford to lose. And he's been opportunistic because of necessity.
Coming out of Manasquan High School in Pt. Pleasant, N.J., Landfried had earned all-state honors as a quarterback, and was chosen the offensive player of the year by the Asbury Park Press. But Division I schools weren't breaking down his door because he simply wasn't a physically big player. Yet, he wasn't willing to give up the dream of playing at the highest level of collegiate football.
His parents, Jake and Jessie Landfried, gave him one year to walk-on at the school of his choice and earn a scholarship. If he didn't earn a scholarship after one year ,he would have to transfer to a school where he would at least receive some type of financial aid. But deep down, they both believed he would make it.
"He could dribble a basketball from the time he was a year and a half old," said Landfried's mother, Jessie, who used to hold footballs on the ground so Jax could practice kicking. "He was always out in the yard with the football playing, throwing it to himself. Having two brothers and two sisters to watch and him being the youngest helped. But he never sat still for a minute. He was always doing something involving sports whether it was shooting basketball or throwing the football. He was always just real athletic. You could see it in him."
"Everyone we had talked to said he had the ability to play Division I," said Jax's father, Jake, a former high school baseball coach for whom Jax played. "He always wanted to come south. Bucknell recruited him as a wide receiver, and Richmond looked at him at the quarterback spot. Basically, Wake showed the most interest in him as a walk-on. After we sat down with the guidance counselor, the varsity football coach and weighed everything out, this seemed like the place he really wanted to come."
Oddly enough, the Wake coaching staff at that time had already heard of Jax Landfried. The Landfried's family eye doctor was an alumnus of Wake Forest and had called the football office to say Jax was a player to evaluate. Coach Pat Flaherty invited him to come to Wake Forest's summer camp, which Jax attended.
"I had a real good career in Pop Warner and high school, but when I looked at college options, most of it was the Patriot League and small colleges that couldn't give full rides," Jax said. "I talked to my parents, coaches, and counselors, and I didn't want to have that regret. I thought I had that ability, and my parents said they would get the money and give me a one-year window to try and earn a scholarship. So I just walked on. It was a motivation.
"Wake Forest sent me one letter and invited me down for a camp. I impressed them, and they told me I could walk on and said I would have a good chance to earn a scholarship. I did really well on the scout team my freshman year and I was fortunate enough that summer they had an extra scholarship. Coach (Jim) Caldwell gave it to me. If I hadn't made it, I would have had to fall back to a Colgate or Bucknell where I could get some kind of financial aid. I was happy that I could give that back to my parents because they made sacrifices so I could be here."
Wake Forest gave Landfried the opportunity to be on a Division I team, but it was far from a guarantee he would ever see the field during a game. So following a redshirt year where he played quarterback on the scout team, Landfried found a way to get onto the field.
There are a few specialty positions in football that not just anybody can fill. So Landfried started experimenting with long snapping and quickly created another opportunity. "I just wanted to get on the field," Landfried said. "I was just fooling around at practice my freshman year in the spring, and the special teams coach came to me and said, 'I hear you can snap.' There was an injury to the starter that year, and then the next guy went down. Jammie Deese was the next guy, and they decided they needed to save him for offense, so I was the fourth guy, and they came to me. Having been a quarterback and understanding the spiral helped me." Landfried played in the final two regular-season games at long snapper in 1999.
In 2000, Landfried continued to play on special teams and got his first start at wide receiver against Navy. He ended the year with 10 receptions for 114 yards. But his special skills as a long snapper almost cost him playing time a season ago. When Grobe and his staff took over the program, they saw Landfried was the only experienced long snapper. And because of depth problems, they told him that he would only play at that position but be allowed to practice as a wide receiver.
"That summer before they didn't have a back-up snapper so they told me I wasn't allowed to play receiver," Landfried said. "They were afraid of me getting hurt. I was definitely upset but understood where they were coming from. Then, Ira Williams went down (with and injury) and I got to go back at receiver." In the first game of the 2001 season, Landfried caught the game-winning touchdown pass at East Carolina to open the Jim Grobe era.
Landfried even stepped up to fill in a back-up quarterback for the North Carolina game after Anthony Young sustained an injury last year. Although he didn't play at quarterback, he was there, just waiting for the opportunity, waiting his turn.
Early last year, Jake and Jessie Landfried moved from Point Pleasant, N.J., to Gastonia. Jake retired from the school system in New Jersey and took a job as an assistant principal at an elementary school in Gastonia. The two come to sit on the wall adjacent to the football practice fields and watch practice usually once a week, and, of course, they're at every game.
"If there was anybody in the family that wanted to move south it was me," Jake said. "The opportunity came for me to retire up there, and an hour and a half trip is better than an eight-and-a-half hour trip every year. I like North Carolina, the lifestyle here and planned on settling down in this area."
As Landfried finishes his football career, his parents are there to watch the final moments, be it on the line snapping a football back to the punter, catching a pass or holding for a field goal or extra point. They've seen their son make the most of his opportunities, and at times, create them.
"I think when you look at players, you find certain guys that like to play the game but don't like to be there in crunch time," Grobe said. "Jax is one of those rare guys that every time it's an important down, he's hoping they throw him the ball, that he has the opportunity to make the play and get the first down to keep the drive alive, to score the touchdown. A lot of guys shy away from that, hope it's not their turn (in that situation). He always wants it to be his turn."
