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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — After an offseason and early season of experimentation with Ben Mason at the 3-technique, Michigan defensive line coach Shaun Nua confirmed on Wednesday that Mason is back primarily with the offense.
“Yup, majority fullback now,” Nua said.
We got our first look this season of Mason on offense — where he was for the entirety of his first two seasons in Ann Arbor — in the Week Four contest at Wisconsin. His sole carry, unfortunately, resulted in a fumble recovered by the Badgers near the goal line.
But, since, we’ve seen more and more of him on offense, and less and less on defense, though that hasn’t resulted in carries.
Actually, he’s come in less as a running back and solely as a fullback, blocking for those who would be ballcarriers.
So what enabled the move back to fullback, especially given that new offensive coordinator Josh Gattis’ system made it look like such a position would be obsolete in the more spread-focused attack?
“He’s a guy that has a skill set of moving people around and taking a person and putting him in a place he doesn’t want to be in terms of blocking,” running backs coach Jay Harbaugh said. “He’s able to do that in a variety of different ways. I think it speaks to the flexibility of the system in Coach Gattis’ offense, taking a guy like that, who had a very specific role in a very different scheme and finding ways to apply it. I think you’ll see that continue to grow as we move forward.”
The other question is why make the move from defense back to offense?
Harbaugh had little answers in that regard in terms of who made the actual decision. But, given what Mason is capable of on the offensive side of the ball, the move makes sense in his eyes.
“I’m not really sure,” Harbaugh said. “The only part I could say is that he has a very obvious skill set on our side of the ball in terms of being a really good blocker, having great contact courage, being able to run right through somebody without stopping his feet and play with good leverage and hands. That being part of it, obviously he has good hands. He can catch the ball, he can carry the ball. There’s those things that always kinda made him a natural fit, but besides that, I couldn’t really say.”
Harbaugh isn’t sure offhand where Mason is weight-wise after he spent the entire offseason bulking up to play on the defensive line.
Listed on MGoBlue.com as 270-pounds, assuredly a measurement taken before the season, Harbaugh is sure that Mason has shed a few pounds now that he’s returned to the offensive side of the ball, “Not by much, but I think a little bit (lighter), though.”
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