CORVALLIS - Several concerns haunted Dave Ungerer last season.

The first-year special teams coordinator for the Oregon State football team dealt with a defection of a starting punter and an injury to a dynamic punt returner.

Another potential problem was at long snapper. Joel Cohen was a reliable veteran, but there was no capable backup. And Cohen was on a recently reconstructed knee.

A bad hit on him, and the special teams would have fallen apart. Place-kicker Alexis Serna wouldn't have been as solid, and the punting would have been worse.

Marcus Perry, the backup and future long snapper, was at home in Chula Vista, Calif., waiting for a scholarship to become available.

"It was scary for me last year," Ungerer said. "I would have liked to have him last year if something were to happen with Joel and his knee. Alex (Linnenkohl) wasn't ready then. That made it tough for me to sleep at night."

Perry was recruited by former special teams coordinator Bruce Read, and signed with the Beavers in 2007. However, the recruiting class was large, with several athletes promised scholarships that would put OSU beyond the 85 limit.

With Cohen receiving a sixth year of eligibility for 2007, Perry became a person who could greyshirt. That means delaying enrollment at least one term and then being brought in after seniors graduate, which opens up scholarships.

"It was something the coaches brought up to me, and I was pretty good with it," Perry said. "It gave me extra time to hang out, and perfect what I needed to do."

Each term coach Mike Riley put together the list of athletes who were joining the program, but Perry kept getting pushed back. He went from enrolling in the winter, to the spring and then to the summer.

"I was a little uneasy, but I trusted coach Riley because he's a good coach and good guy," Perry said. "I knew they wouldn't let me down. And now I'm really excited to be finally here and be apart of the program. I just can't wait to get on the field."

Perry didn't go to school full-time in his year off because that would have started his eligibility clock. He didn't even go part-time because of the uncertainty of his arrival time at OSU. He just lifted weights and practiced snapping.

He didn't think of finding another school that would want him right away. Perry was impressed with the OSU atmosphere, and saw that he could be a starter for four years with the Beavers.

"We felt we had the right guy with his ability to snap," Riley said. "It would benefit him the most as far as his playing to come in after Joel was done. I told him to work out hard and practice snapping a lot. I wasn't worried about him during that year because he's very disciplined."

Perry started snapping as a freshman at Eastlake High because someone had to do it on his junior varsity team. By the time he was a sophomore he was doing it on the varsity due to an injury.

Success continued, so he pursed this specialty in special teams camps. He was a linebacker by trade, but at

6-foot-1, 225 pounds, is too small at this level.

Smaller colleges were interested in him at that position, but Division I schools liked him as a snapper only.

"I liked the hitting of being a linebacker, but with long snapping, I wanted to take a skill and go far with it," Perry said. "I knew I could do that with snapping, and I could still go down the field and hit somebody."

Perry is the projected starter this season with Linnenkohl the backup and Walker Vave a solid No. 3. Perry has stepped in quickly during training camp and impressed the coaches from the start.

There will be some nerves before the first game because it has been so long since he played in a game, but Perry has considered himself a high-pressure snapper in the past.

"He's come in and done a nice job," Ungerer said. "He learned the system quickly. He's efficient with his accuracy and timing. He's one of those guys dedicated to being a very good snapper. He has worked very hard at it, and it means a lot to him. He snaps hundreds of balls a day. He's a craftsman."