come in and make an impact.”
This was a guy who would find his way
on the field or die trying.
There was a time when Mason
thought that would come on special
teams exclusively, so he honed his craft
at long-snapper. He still wants to play
long-snapper.
“I’m still thinking of doing
that in the next couple years,”
says the sophomore fullback
with six touchdowns on the
season.
He means it, too.
***
After he accepted the head
coaching job at San Diego,
Harbaugh
promised
Bo
Schembechler that as long as
he coached, there would be a
fullback on the roster.
Now, 14 years later, that sentiment
still stands at Michigan. Fullback
is a foundational component of this
program, inextricably linked to its
identity. That extends to the role on
the field, sure. But to Mason, it’s deeper
than that.
“I think playing the fullback position
is a mentality more than anything
else,” Mason said. “It’s not something
physical, it’s not even your athleticism
… when it comes down to it, just having
the mindset that you’re going to come
downhill, and you’re going to make
plays for the team no matter what.”
Harbaugh
once
said
he
thinks
football is “the last bastion of hope for
toughness in America in men.”
If you subscribe to that kind of
rhetoric,
Mason
might
be
your
Messiah. His high school tape is
an absurd — even comical, if you
partake in Schadenfreude — array of
bludgeonings.
His nearly two years at Michigan
have been full of the same. Physicality
is his persona, and he wears it in his
emotions, his interests, his voice and,
mostly, his play. A pure fullback.
And yet, the ilk of Ben Mason is a dying
breed across the sport of football.
Michigan currently lists six fullbacks
on its roster; six of the other top-12
teams in the College Football Playoff
rankings don’t even list one.
Michigan’s embrace of the fullback
isn’t just abnormal in this modern
era
of
football.
It’s
borderline
unprecedented.
In 2017, Pro Football Focus graded 18
fullbacks total in the NFL. Roughly 10
percent of snaps in the NFL this season
have included two-back personnel,
according to sharpfootballstats.com.
As teams at all levels of football use
more spread concepts, the fullback has
rapidly devolved.
“So my question is what’s the next
step?” asked ESPN writer and analyst
Matt Bowen.
Some believe there will come a day
in which the fullback as we know it
disappears. Others think it will remain
but continue to dwindle in relevance.
Bowen has theories of his own.
Right now, he sees a role for fullback
with different skills, rather than the
traditional downhill style. He points
to Kyle Juszczyk of the San Francisco
49ers as a prime example.
“I think the first thing is versatility.
Can you catch the football? Can you
play a role in the passing game? Because
if you don’t, then you’re limited in
terms of game situation,” Bowen said.
“And also formation flexibility. You
want to be able to line in an I-set and
get downhill. I think you also have to
be able to motion to shift outside to run
a route and catch a football.”
Both his coaches — George and
Harbaugh — seem to think Mason has
that ability.
George: He has a lot of different
weapons in his arsenal. He has very
good hands. He’s a tough runner. Really
good north/south runner. ... He’s also
a very good blocker. He picks up the
schemes quick. When you have a kid like
that, I think it’s very easy to introduce
him into the offense and work him into
the different sets and plays.
Harbaugh: He’s got the ability to do a
lot. Catch the ball out of the backfield,
block, run. It’s an expanding package
with Ben.
In an ecosystem predicated on
zigging while others zag, Bowen sees
a possibility — even a likelihood — for
the return of smashmouth offense.
“You’re going to see a return of more
power football, where offenses say,
‘OK, if you’re going to build your
defenses on speed, we’re going to
start bringing back power football and
getting downhill more,’ ” Bowen said.
“If that’s the case and that happens,
then you’ll see the return of the
fullback.
“I think it’s gonna come back. I really
believe that.”
Mason, for his part, isn’t going to lose
sight of who he is or what drives his
passion. If you asked him whether
he loves football, Don Brown posited
Wednesday, “he might swing.” (This
reporter didn’t dare test that.) He’s
certainly not going to conform to
some trend to appease any NFL
goals.
But he has NFL goals and he’s
not blind to what he might need
to accomplish to get there. He
strays
from
confronting
those
goals directly (his team goal is “to
win” and his individual goal is to
“help the team”). Above the fame
or fortune, Mason wants to keep
playing football because he couldn’t
imagine life without it.
The sport of football is so deeply
ingrained in who Mason is; he won’t
let some modern-day trend deter
that. He’s just trying to hit people.
And make a living doing it.
If that means expanding his
repertoire to adapt? All the better.
“I think down the line, I definitely
have to prove myself as a reliable
route-runner, pass-catcher,” Mason
said. “I’m looking forward to doing
that.
“I’m thinking right now of a
snowball
effect.
In
anything,
once you do something and you’re
productive with it, they’re only
going to give you more of a role.”
Anything specific?
“What more can I do?” he poses
rhetorically, as if there’s a self-
imposed limit.
As if the answer is anything short of
“whatever I’m asked.”
Ben Mason speaks and it’s hard not to
be startled.
His voice lowers. His eyes wander. His
mohawk protrudes.
“It’s just a football position,” he says
with a visceral appreciation for being a
fullback. “For football players.”
This is one side of Ben Mason; the
overtly gruff brute of a human being.
This is the Ben Mason who will tell
you how much he enjoys hitting people
as many times — in as many ways —
as you’ll ask. In two short years, that
public persona has evolved from cult
hero to the stuff of legend. “Bench”
Mason, he’s called. That’s all real.
Those who know him best speak to
another side, though.
His friend and high school teammate,
Tom Long, tells of the Ben Mason who,
at an eighth grade dance, requested
the DJ play an Adele song so that he
could sing it in front of the whole class,
channeling his best impersonation.
“Spot on, too,” Long said.
That’s the Ben Mason who compelled
his high school team to partake in the
“Mannequin Challenge” when it was
making the rounds on social media.
Former Michigan fullback and now-
graduate assistant coach Henry Poggi
tells of a young freshman looking to
find his way. The two were roommates
during Mason’s first fall camp. Poggi
— a starting fullback at the time —
referred to Mason as his “son.”
After watching a Facebook video on
the virtues of making your bed, Poggi
decided it would be the first thing he
did each morning. Mason, being the
impressionable freshman he was,
decided he would do the same.
Then, one day during camp, Michigan
coach Jim Harbaugh asked Mason
to give the “Wise Words” after
practice — a tradition in which one
player offers a message of inspiration
before ending the day. Players take
the opportunity seriously, especially
younger players like Mason looking to
make an impression. Some opt for an
inspirational quote or advice a coach
gave them. Others choose a poem.
Mason took a different route.
“Ben had been talking to me about it,”
Poggi recalls, “and he said he wanted to
talk about how we make our beds every
morning and how that gets us going.
“I’m like, ‘All right, you wanna run it
through with me, so that it’s fresh in
your mind so you sound good up there?’
”
Mason declined. He had it all covered.
That is, until his moment arrived.
Called up in front of the team to deliver
his remarks, Mason’s mind wandered.
He stared off into the distance for 10
seconds, Poggi estimates.
“People are kinda looking around like
‘What on earth is this guy gonna say?’ ”
Then he started talking.
Every day, in the morning, me and Poggi
wake up, and we yell at each other! And
then we make our beds!
“And people are, like, waiting for it,”
Poggi said. “He didn’t really know what
else to say, he just knew that he wanted
to talk about making beds. But he was
so excited, he hadn’t thought about
what really the point was to making
beds.”
And it gets our day going!
From there, with nothing else to offer,
Mason sprung into full panic mode,
looking around in a plea for help.
Harbaugh stepped in and gave Mason
a hug.
“Ben,” he said, “that was awesome.”
“It was the best “Wise Words” because
it was so genuine, so Ben Mason,” Poggi
said. “Some guys will go up there and
just talk and talk and talk.
“Ben, a man of few words, just wanted
to talk about making beds.”
***
Ben Mason wasn’t always a fullback,
though those around him seem to
think the position was a matter of
preordained fate.
“Ben is like a natural fullback,” Poggi
said “He was put on this earth to play
fullback.”
The first time Poggi met Mason was
during Mason’s recruiting trip. The
Newtown, Conn. native was donning a
skin-tight blue jacket.
“Wow, who on earth is this kid?” Poggi
thought. “Hopefully I’ll be gone before
he gets here.”
At the time, Mason still held out some
hope of playing linebacker. Defensive
coordinator Don Brown recruited
Mason at the position while he was
at Boston College. When Brown was
hired at Michigan, Mason came too.
He loved Brown’s scheme and the
defensive coordinator’s passion.
Mason enrolled early and spent most
of his first spring on the defensive side
of the ball.
“I think that’s where coach Harbaugh
wanted him at first, when they were
initially recruiting him,” said Steve
George, Mason’s high school coach.
“I think Ben really wanted to play
linebacker at the time.”
He was fast, but not quite Devin Bush-
beating-a-running-back-to-the-edge
fast. He was agile, but hardly Khaleke
Hudson-shedding-blockers agile.
His strengths, unsurprisingly, were in
run defense and sheer physicality.
Harbaugh and his staff liked what they
saw when Mason went forward. So
after Mason’s first spring they asked
a simple, but ultimately prophetic,
question: Why can’t he do that
all the time?
“We felt like he was so
good as a downhill type of
linebacker that, to be able to
do that all the time, to be a
downhill, aggressive football
player,”
Harbaugh
said,
“fullback would be a great
position for him.”
One day, Harbaugh called
Mason and asked what he
thought of a full-time move
to fullback. Mason didn’t
hesitate in his response.
“Oh, I would do anything that was
right for the team,” he said Wednesday,
thinking back, “and that I was excited
to do it.”
To some, that cliche of “doing anything
for the team” comes off as disingenuous
lip-service. This was anything but.
“The biggest thing with me: I wanted to
come in and make an impact no matter
how I could do it,” Mason said. “And
I was going to find a way no matter to
TheMichiganDaily, www.michigandaily.com
FootballSaturday, November 2, 2018
4B
‘He was put on this earth to play fullback’
Ben Mason, making your bed, and a vestige of a dying breed
MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor
It’s just a
football
position
KATELYN MULCAHY & EMMA RICHTER/ DAILY DESIGN BY JACK SILBERMAN