HelloHeisman91

November 2nd, 2018 at 2:49 PM ^

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.”

Chaco

November 2nd, 2018 at 3:40 PM ^

Amazing is the right word.  What's NOT to love about this: 

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.”

WestQuad

November 2nd, 2018 at 2:56 PM ^

"It really gets us going."

Ben Mason is very fullback.

Harbuagh's promise to Bo to always have a fullback on the roster is about as football as football can get.  Does anyone have a full account of how that went down?   I picture it being an exchange with very few words.  The fact that Bo had the thought and then the fact that he had Harbaugh make the promise is just excellent.

jabberwock

November 2nd, 2018 at 6:47 PM ^

Obviously not reality, but I always picture Bo on his deathbed with a viselike grip on the front of Harbaugh's shirt,  pulling him down to his face like some dying Army hero, or italian mob boss or something.  "Promise me you'll always have a fullback Jimmy, PROMISE MEeeeeeeee" and he collapses.

Hugh White

November 2nd, 2018 at 2:59 PM ^

Here is where I disclose that my position in high school was fullback and I wore number 42. 

 

Here is where I also confess that I am now my second favorite fullback wearing number 42.

 

 

Unfiltered Manball

November 2nd, 2018 at 3:13 PM ^

Hoping Mason has been keeping Ben Van Sumeren in some cage in a darkly-lit room, reading him The Art of War, tossing a full side of beef in there every now and then.

Both of them on the field together next year will be a bloodbath.

LSAClassOf2000

November 2nd, 2018 at 3:19 PM ^

“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.”

The funny thing is that I almost cannot imagine Mason as a linebacker because he is such a good fullback, but then I read this quote and think, "Even at that, if he were an LB, there might still be paths of destruction all over the field...."

Maximum Effort

November 2nd, 2018 at 3:20 PM ^

For those interested, here is a video on why making your bed every day is important:

Link

I don't know if this is the same video as they watched but I make my rack, er bed, every day because of this video.  YMMV.

UMfan21

November 2nd, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^

Jim gaffigan has a funny bit on making your bed, but I cant search for it right now.

 

Also scientific studies show that making your bed helps bed bugs and mites thrive.  They love the dark warmth.

 

But hey. If you guys feel accomplished by doing this, more power to you.

yossarians tree

November 2nd, 2018 at 3:23 PM ^

Michigan fans can and do argue about play calling and style of play and how we want the team to be coached. But you put a guy like Ben Mason on the field and literally 100% of can finally agree: "That's it!"

A bruising, team-first fullback is literally in our DNA.

skurnie

November 2nd, 2018 at 3:26 PM ^

Lol he's an aspiring long snapper, too because of course he is.

“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 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.

Hugh White

November 2nd, 2018 at 3:55 PM ^

Six-Degrees-of-Fullback:

In the article, Mason says he models his game after Kyle Juszczyk, currently with the 49ers, who value fullbacks, because Harbaugh. 

Juszczyk started his NFL Career playing fullback for the Ravens -- under John Harbaugh.

Before that, Juszczyk played at Harvard under Tim Murphy.  Murphy was previously the head coach at Cincinnati, where he mentored assistant, John Harbaugh.

At Harvard, Juszczyk was in the same blocky-catchy position group as Michael Hirsch -- a/k/a fullback "The Wolverine of Wallstreet". 

  

Luckey1083

November 2nd, 2018 at 5:22 PM ^

Ben Mason is my favorite player on this Michigan team, he's like the Winovich on the offensive side: never stops going, does whatever it takes to win and his teammates love him.  I think he has such a huge role in the PSU and OSU games coming up, look for a fullback wheel route where Mason breaks one off!

FrozeMangoes

November 2nd, 2018 at 7:09 PM ^

On N64 when I was a wee lad... I would be the Bucs and move Alstott to HB.  Then just run him up the middle the whole game at 3 yards a pop.  

One drive this year JH should do the same.  Let Mason be half back and give it to him 10 times in a row to make a statement.  Maybe tomorrow. 

slimj091

November 2nd, 2018 at 7:23 PM ^

"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 come in and make an impact.”

Imagine if Harbaugh wanted to move Mason to punter. The guy might be bombing 90 yard punts.