Von Rosenberg goes from fan to playing field
Published 7:00 pm Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Kirk Meche
BATON ROUGE — Way back when LSU placekicker Cade York was 10 years old, his holder with the Tigers was spending $2,000 of his money for a pair of tickets to LSU’s last national championship appearance in 2012.
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Of course, when York was 9 years old, that same holder was crowd-surfing down Bourbon Street after the New Orleans Saints won their lone Super Bowl.
Zach Von Rosenberg’s day job with the Tigers is punting, but there is a bit of a generation gap when he sets the ball on the tee for his 18-year-old true freshman kicker.
Von Rosenberg, probably the closest thing Lake Charles has to an LSU connection to Monday’s national championship game against Clemson, is 29 years old and making a late run through college after a minor league baseball career.
Baseball?
Unlike his then-yet-to-be-born teammates, Von Rosenberg remembers jumping off the family couch for the Warren Morris home run in 1996 that won the Tigers the national championship.
Football?
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Kirk Meche
The lifelong LSU fan remembers when the Tigers upset No. 1-ranked Florida and Steve Spurrier in 1997.
He fondly recalls the 2003 championship when Barbe High’s Justin Vincent was the MVP.
He was in Tiger Stadium in 2007 when LSU converted five fourth downs to beat Florida 28-24 en route to the national championship.
And then he snagged those two tickets for the rematch with Alabama in January of 2012 for the Bowl Championship Series title game in the same Superdome he’ll play Monday.
“It was a rough game to watch,” he remembers of watching the Crimson Tide shut out LSU 21-0. “That was frustrating game.”
The Saints’ postgame party on Bourbon Street was different.
“Epic,” he says of that impromptu crowd surf.
No, he wasn’t at the 1959 Sugar Bowl when LSU’s first national champions beat Clemson 7-0.
But he does admit that it’s kind of odd to now have memories of what most players might do after their playing days.
“In the span of eight years I went from a fan buying tickets to a player playing in the game.”
It certainly wasn’t a dream at the time.
“I thought I’d still be having a baseball career now … so, no, I did not consider the possibility of playing for a national championship as a punter for LSU.”
In high school, he was the winning pitcher in four consecutive state championship games — his freshman year at Barbe, then three more after the family moved to Zachary.
He committed to LSU, but opted for pro ball after being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the sixth round
The short version: a lot of injuries.
“Lot of bad hotels.”
“Lot of long bus rides.”
“Got cut by the Pirates” organization in 2015.
“I loved the game, but I made my peace with it a long time ago,” Von Rosenberg said. “It just wasn’t in the cards for me to be a baseball player.”
But he’d also punted while at Zachary and was encouraged by former football players at a fitness center where he worked out to give football a try as an LSU walk-on — as a tight end.
That didn’t last long, but it did turn out that he could still boot it, despite not hitting one in seven years.
After a redshirt year, he took over the LSU punting duties in midseason of 2017 and was a 27-year-old gray beard on the All-Southeastern Conference freshman team, second-team All-SEC a year later while averaging 45.7 yards per punt.
But it’s a good thing he can multitask. If not for the placekick holding gig — which he had never done — Von Rosenberg’s position this year might be Maytag Repairman.
LSU’s newfound offense is famous for spreading the ball around, but it often plays keep-away from its own punter. There’s no guarantee he’ll get a participation trophy in Monday’s national championship game.
It happened in the Ole Miss game when LSU was never forced to punt — yes, he was a busy bee holding for seven extra points and three field goals.
But he doesn’t show up on the official participation list for that game.
“Holding you wouldn’t letter because you don’t count,” he said. “It doesn’t count as a game played. You’re not a person, you don’t exist. You’re considered a dead player if you’re a holder, even on field goals.”
There is some question what his man job is.
He’s punted 40 times this season while holding for 113 of York’s kicks, 87 extra points and 26 field goals.
“It’s a good problem to have,” he admits. “If I’m not playing it means we’re scoring.
“If we don’t punt against Clemson then I didn’t ‘play’ in the game.”
But he’ll be there, the old man trying to fit in with far younger teammates, which isn’t that hard he says. He’s even developed a cult following while tweeting with the best of the Tigers’ youngsters — @ZVR09.
“I wanted to say something pretty ruthless after the Oklahoma game,” he says mischievously. “But I stayed away from that because we still had Clemson coming.
“At times, its awkward, but I’m able to mesh well with guys because … I’m not trying to be their coach or dad or whatever. I’ll talk to them about whatever’s going on in life or whatever. Some of my jokes go over their head, but they laugh.
“I’m just a guy trying to win a national championship and enjoy my time here as long as I can.”
He graduated last month but said he plans to go to graduate school and use his final year of eligibility next season — when the age gap will widen as a 30-year-old punter.
But first things first. One of his LSU memories is the 2003 team’s national championship win over Oklahoma. It ended on an LSU punt that rolled out of bounds just as time expired.
That would be the perfect ending for Von Rosenberg.
“I might crowd surf down Bourbon Street again.”
