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