Jocz’s parents dropped him off on
an August Sunday in 2012. By Tuesday,
he wasn’t sure if he would last. He was
struggling and exhausted, and another
walk-on tight end had already quit.
In times like those, Jocz often calls
his parents to talk through them, and
this time he told them he wasn’t sure
if he’d make it. Warren Jocz recalls
Michael relaying a similar sentiment
from Smith, who was in his fourth fall
camp. “I just want to call home and tell
Mom I quit,” Smith had told Jocz in an
ice bath after practice.
“It was huge going forward, because
it helped me know that obviously I
wasn’t alone, and that everyone was
going through that, so I could make it
through,” Jocz said.
Jocz broke things down: First he’d
make it through the first week. Then
the next. Then the duration of camp.
Then the first game. Finally, he ran
out to midfield at Michigan Stadium,
touched the banner and thought: “I’m
going to do everything I can to do this
for the next five years.”
Over time, Jocz took enough small
steps to see where he was going in the
end, though it took a while. He spent
his first two years almost exclusively
on scout team, going up against the
starters, doing the hardest of work and
receiving no recognition.
As he worked on the scout punt-
block team, he presented a problem:
He kept blocking punts. In drills
intended to give the starters practice
covering the kick, Jocz wouldn’t let
it get that far. He once showed his
mother a bruise on his arm from the
impact of the ball.
Mary-Ann Jocz made her son a
prediction: “One of these days, you are
going to block a punt in a game, and it’s
going to change the whole game.” Just
like in that ice bath, Jocz wasn’t sure
things would ever work out.
But he kept at it, eventually earning
himself game reps on special teams.
On Sept. 17, in the third game of Jocz’s
fifth year, the Wolverines faced their
first adversity of the season. Down
14-0 against Colorado early in the
first quarter, they sent out Jocz and
the punt-block team to try to shift the
momentum.
As four Michigan players broke
through
the
line
against
three
blockers, Jocz charged at the punter
untouched, once again sticking his
arm into the ball’s path. Sophomore
wide receiver Grant Perry turned
the loose ball into a touchdown,
permanently shifting the momentum.
The Wolverines went on to win, 45-28.
The man who never thought he’d play
for Michigan had proven his mother
right.
“Obviously, when it happened this
year, I was like, ‘Mike…’ ” Ann-Marie
said, “and he just smiled at me and he
goes, ‘Mom, I know.’ ”
***
Strange as it sounds, Jocz faced
that adversity in the classroom, too.
Two years ago, Jocz had adjusted to
Michigan football, proven himself on
the scout team and even saw the field
a few times. He had found a way to
manage all of it, and yet he feared it
could all come crashing down.
The more difficult mechanical
engineering
classes
stressed
him
out. The pressure to perform in
front of 110,000 people on Saturdays
compounded that. He pushed his
body to hold that spot on the field, but
suddenly lost it. He spent long hours
studying heat transfer in an Evanston
hotel room, but the same week he
struggled on an exam.
The student perceived as perfect
experienced one of his first brushes
with the stress most students know so
well. Again, Jocz thought to himself:
Man, this is getting to be a little much.
He called his parents again.
Ann-Marie remembers that call.
She remembers her son sweating, his
heart racing, his mind again doubting
whether he could handle the workload.
Jocz went back to breaking things
down. First he made it through that
week, then back onto the special teams
unit, then to an “A” in the class.
It was not his best semester. He did
not sleep enough. He did not relax
much. His team went 5-7, its worst
finish of his career. And yet he grew.
“I learned that I can push myself
further than I think I can,” Jocz said.
“Your mind oftentimes gives out
before the body, so your mind is telling
you to stop well before your actual
limits. Football, you can always take
another snap, give a little bit more. And
in the classroom, if you put your mind
to it, you can retain more information,
you can figure stuff out better. I think
it’s just more that I can do both.”
Each time Jocz overcame one of
those hurdles, he gained confidence
that his work would help lift him
over the next. In the end, he found
perspective.
“It was a lot of self-induced stress,
but then again, there’s nowhere else
I’d rather be doing this,” Jocz said. “I
don’t think I’d be able to push myself or
put in the amount of time at any other
school besides Michigan. It’s just kind
of what I’ve dreamed about. So I don’t
mind staying up later trying to get this
stuff done, because I take a lot of pride
in succeeding at both.”
***
Saturday, Jocz will run out of the
tunnel at Michigan Stadium for the last
time. His dream ride is almost over, not
so much the one of being an engineer
or the one of being a football player,
but the one of being at Michigan, the
school his family attended, the school
he grew up at, the only school he’s ever
known. Football and engineering are
only parts of that.
Asked what more he’d want to
be known for, Jocz paused before
saying, “I guess it’s how much I care
about my teammates and my friends.
Some of my best friends I made on
the team, I’m living with them now.
Some of the friendships I’ve made
with them will last a lifetime. Some
of the memories, I’ll do anything for
my friends. That’s what people don’t
really know about me.”
Jocz’s intelligence and athleticism
are just two facts about him. Here
are some more: He is engaged to be
married in July to Natalie Paul, his
high school sweetheart who graduated
last spring from Washington and
Jefferson (Pa.) College.
He has a younger sister, Kathryn,
9, and an older sister, Jennifer, 25,
who also graduated from Michigan
and is now studying toward a Ph.D. in
chemical engineering. “She got more
brains than I did,” Jocz quipped.
He certainly got plenty. When he’s in
the locker room, he stands out because
of his academic ability. When Jocz is in
the classroom, he stands out because of
his football ability. When he’s with his
friends, he’s just himself.
“It’s always nice, to get away from
both,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a bad
thing to be known as the smart guy and
the athletic guy, but it’s nice to not be
thought of as one or the other. When
you’re with your friends, you’re just
Michael, just as they’re Ben Braden,
Ben Pliska, Juwann Bushell-Beatty,
Greg Froelich.”
With those four offensive linemen
as
roommates,
Jocz
has
good
company for dinner. Jocz’s father
calls him a “home body,” more
interested in spending time with a
small, tight-knit group of friends
than going out and being part of a
bigger party. He likes to tease his
roommates and have them tease him
back. He likes to laugh.
There, he doesn’t have to trumpet
his status as an academic or a football
player, either. (“If you talked to him
and didn’t know that,” his mother
adds, “he’s not going to tell you.”)
As his career winds down, Jocz
may go down as one of the top
scholars in the history of the football
program. He hopes to be more than
that, but in the end, he’s grateful for
every part of his dream.
“When you’re at football, you’re
focused on football. When you’re in
class, you’re in class,” Jocz said. “But
then you can really be yourself outside
with your friends. It’s nice to not be
thought of one as the other.
“But I guess (they’re) not bad things
to be known for.”
FootballSaturday, November 19, 2016
4
5
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
A few weeks ago, Ben Braden
recalled sitting around watching the
Ohio State-Penn State football game
the previous Saturday night with his
roommates.
He listed them: Ben Pliska, a fifth-
year senior offensive lineman; Greg
Froelich, a redshirt junior offensive
lineman; Mike Jocz — “You guys
know, the really smart guy,” Braden
said with a laugh.
That label follows Jocz, a fifth-year
senior tight end, around Schembechler
Hall. It’s understandable. He is,
after all, well on his way to earning
a master’s degree in mechanical
engineering after graduating with
a team-high 3.964 GPA in the same
major.
So it’s no surprise that Jocz’s
academic prowess has captured media
attention. His teammates routinely
field reporters’ questions on the
subject, and coach Jim Harbaugh has
faced exactly one question about Jocz
this season, on the same topic.
“We always kind of joke about how
he’s the genius of the group,” said
redshirt sophomore Ian Bunting, a
tight end like Jocz.
Coaches seize it as a motivational
tool — tight ends coach Jay Harbaugh
even created the Michael Jocz Honor
Society to recognize the tight end with
the top score on the weekly playbook
test. It is usually Michael Jocz.
Jocz seems more than comfortable
with the notion that he will follow
a different path than many of his
teammates who land in the NFL
next year. He hopes instead to earn
headlines for designing concussion-
preventing helmets or improving self-
driving cars.
Either way, to many, Jocz’s path
has captured two labels: great student
and great football player. Braden’s joke
aside, those close to him know him as
much more.
“To them, I’m just their friend that
happens to do well in school,” Jocz
said. “I’m with them all the time,
hanging out with them, so they just
think of me as one of the guys.”
He doesn’t often think of himself as
an incredible student or an incredible
athlete. Those are just two things he
enjoys doing. His career at Michigan
has really been about realizing a
lifelong dream — but if you thought
everything has gone smoothly, you’d
be wrong about Jocz again.
***
When Jocz was little, his family
put an addition onto their Novi
home. After months observing the
head carpenter every day, 2-year-old
Michael walked up to the man and
said, matter-of-factly, “You have a new
saw, don’t you? I’ve been watching
you, and you’ve got a brand-new saw.”
Sure enough, the carpenter had
just purchased a compound miter saw.
Michael’s father, Warren, watched in
shock and wondered: “What 2-year-
old picks that kind of thing up?”
Michael took off from there. Soon,
he beat everyone at adding up the
dice during Yahtzee games, and
he’d calculate how much change his
mother, Ann-Marie, would receive at
the grocery store.
Before long, Warren — who also
earned a bachelor’s and master’s
in
mechanical
engineering
from
Michigan — began enlisting Michael’s
help in chores around the house.
Warren, a Ford Motor Company
engineer for the past 29 years, was a
worthy teacher, and Michael was his
eager student.
In that sense, Jocz’s path to
mechanical engineering wasn’t a
surprise. His place on the football
team, on the other hand, wasn’t easily
forecast.
Jocz didn’t even begin playing
football until his freshman year in
high school. His prep career netted
a handful of Division III offers, but
Jocz only ever wanted to go to one
school. He wore Michigan T-shirts,
sweatshirts
and
hats
nonstop.
He estimates that 17 of his family
members across five generations have
gone to the University. As a kid, he
even dressed up as a Michigan football
player for Halloween.
So committed to this dream, he
applied and committed to attend
before the football team was even
an option. That’s when his offensive
coordinator at Novi stepped in and
sent his highlight tape to former
Michigan assistant Al Borges, who
offered Jocz a spot as a walk-on.
“I got this opportunity to play for
the winningest program in football
history, and it was something that I’ve
always dreamed about doing,” Jocz
said. “I was like, ‘You know, why not?
I’m never going to get this opportunity
again, and why not make the best of
it?’ ”
With that, Jocz joined the team,
and he’s been there ever since. On
the surface, it sounds like a charmed
journey. Getting here required much
more work.
***
On the third day of his first fall camp
as a freshman, Jocz wanted to quit. In
fairness, so did Vincent Smith, then an
established senior running back.
JAKE LOURIM
Managing Sports Editor
“We always kind
of joke about how
he’s the genius of
the group.”
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
Tight end Michael Jocz has played five years for the Michigan football team and carried a 3.964 GPA in mechanical engineering, but his career at Michigan means more than that.
CLAIRE ABDO/Daily
“When you’re
with your
friends, you’re
just Michael.”