Kornacki: Mason Cole, a True Ironman
11/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 4, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Mason Cole is as dependable as the mailman, delivering blocks rather than letters and bills, and doing so in the relentless spirit of an ironman.
Cole was a four-year starter at East Lake High in Palm Harbor, Florida, never missing a game and playing in 53 for the Tampa Bay powerhouse.
He became the first true freshman offensive lineman ever to start the opening game at the University of Michigan and has answered the bell in 33 consecutive games headed into Saturday's (Nov. 5) home game with the University of Maryland.
That's 86 straight starts over seven seasons and counting.
He's never had to bring a note to the teacher explaining an absence and played Saturday (Oct. 29) through an illness that hit many on the team while performing superbly in the win at Michigan State.
Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh was impressed.
"Mason Cole," said Harbaugh, "now there is a guy, and I've always said this, I probably played some of my best games with a temperature. It's something that makes you focus even that much more during a game. Mason Cole is our offensive lineman of the week and had the best performance.
"You flick on the film, and there he is. He's moving people and getting his job done, down after down, and playing low and fast and physical. He's really developing as a center. I feel great that that's his position. He's an ideal, prototypical center and doing a great job. We've just got to boost his immune system."
Not that Cole, a 6-foot-5, 305-pounder who played left tackle his first two collegiate seasons, would miss a game even if he got sick again. He said he "physically" missed some practice snaps but added, "Mentally I was there all week and made it work".
He always has.
"I started every game in high school," said Cole. "I don't know what it is; it just kind of happened.
"I've played every game at Michigan, and I have to thank our strength and conditioning staff and trainers. They've obviously done a great job in getting us all ready to play, but I also think it's a little luck, to not get hurt seriously after a few seasons at this level, it is luck. You get banged up but still come out of the season pretty healthy."
He said he played through the first two games of a high school season with a broken wrist that required a soft cast, adding, "But that was about it."
Being dependable is important to Cole, and he said his parents, John and Maggie, and grandparents exemplified that for him.
"My dad paid his way through college at Northern Illinois," said Cole. "He raised our family with my mom and supported us well. We've always gotten everything we needed, and my dad doing that and becoming successful in the business world (as a commodities salesman) is someone I've looked up to.
"And on my mom's side, my grandpa (Anthony Bex) was a carpenter who owned his own company with my grandma and owned it for 50 years. So, I come from a family that's always worked hard and done the right thing and kept focus on what their vision was and what their goal was."
The goal for Cole and the rest of the No. 2 Wolverines (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) is a conference championship and a national championship semifinals berth that would very likely result.
It's been quite a turnaround for the upperclassmen. The Wolverines were 5-7 during Cole's freshman season in 2014, but Harbaugh came last year, and they finished 10-3.
"It's crazy to think about that," said Cole. "We were talking about that after we beat Rutgers (78-0), and my freshman year we went to Rutgers and lost to them. What a difference two years can make. It's a true turnaround in culture, and that's a tribute to the coaches and the leaders on this team, the seniors and being able to say, 'We know what it's like to be 5-7, and now let's go out there and win games.'
"We won 10 last year, and that set the bar for this year. We said, 'We're going to try to win them all this year.' We've been here in dark times when things weren't going well, and now we've tasted some success and won a bowl game. We know what it's like to win now, and we know how bad we want it."
Cole had a palm tree tattooed on his inner right forearm to remind him of home, and now it also makes him think of the site of the Jan. 9 national championship game.
"It's in Tampa," said Cole. "I keep telling my mom that, and she said, 'We'd need 40 tickets.' I said, 'Let's worry about that if we can get there.' But that would be great."
Cole has made strides as surely as his team.
"You think high school is physical," said Cole, "but you don't really know physicality until you play at this level. So, there was the adjusting to that and becoming more and more physical each year. This year, as an offensive line we've really jelled well and are running the ball more consistently, and that's a credit to our backs, too. They are playing really well.
"When things don't go right, it's usually our fault. But when thing go well, they'll be the first people to come up to us in the huddle and say, 'Hell of a job, guys.' They put their trust in us."
Cole goes the extra yard figuratively to get the extra yard literally, and Wolverine offensive coordinator and line coach Tim Drevno has taken notice, calling him a sure-fire future NFL player.
"For Mason," said Drevno, "football's very, very important to him. He's got great football awareness and can really fix problems. He's competitive, loves to compete. And once you tell him, he's got it -- it's locked in his brain. He plays at a very, very high level, and it's a pleasure to have him. He's a great team leader -- especially on the offensive line and with what we're trying to do."
Michigan's offensive line in the waning moments of the season-opening 63-3 win over Hawaii on Sept. 3
He's played three seasons with right guard Kyle Kalis and right tackle Erik Magnuson and has helped blend true freshman left guard Ben Bredeson and left tackle Ben Braden into a cohesive unit. Kalis calls him, Magnuson and Cole "The Three Amigos," and they've become close and special friends.
"It's just great," said Cole. "To play next to those guys is unbelievable with their leadership on and off the field."
The bond of Wolverine linemen past and present is special.
Cole talks regularly with his former teammate, Graham Glasgow, a rookie playing left guard for the Detroit Lions after playing various positions at Michigan and settling on center. He's helped Cole with technique and on making the "transition" to a new position.
Texts also come regularly from former Wolverine center Steve Everitt, a first-round pick by the Cleveland Browns in 1992 whom Desmond Howard once told me would be the lineman he would choose to block for him if he could select only one blocker for one play.
"Some of us talk to Steve often," said Cole. "We hear a lot of stories from him, and he's a crazy dude and a tough guy. He'll text a few of us before every game and gives us a little pep talk. He sometimes has a story with it. But that's a part of being an offensive lineman here. There are guys who played here who still watch the offensive line and care so much about the offensive line."
Everitt, an artist living in the Florida Keys, brought his wife and daughter, Jamie, 7, to watch the win over Illinois last month. He got on the field for pre-game drills with the offensive linemen and takes a special interest in Cole, who now plays his former position.
"I always love to watch a guy who has a similar body type to mine," Everitt said. "He has long arms, a quick first step, and you can tell he's smart as hell. He's the one guy at Michigan who started at left tackle as a true freshman, and I don't know if people understand what that entails. If you had put me out at left tackle as a freshman, I never would've recovered from that, I would've been broken in half. And so what he did was so impressive.
"But playing tackle last year helped him a lot. You can tell that he sees the field real well, and as a center you want to be the guy who sets the tempo for the O-line, and the O-line sets the tempo for the rest of the offense, and he's the perfect guy to do that. He's always firing the guys up -- not just as a cheerleader-type guy -- but also getting them into the right plays. He gets the calls made early, and he's been fun to watch."
Cole's streak of 86 consecutive starts on the high school varsity and college was mentioned to Everitt, who had to miss one game with a broken jaw but did play over a broken right hand by learning to snap with his left hand.
"That's awesome, man," Everitt said of Cole's streak. "I wasn't even a starter until 11th grade. That's amazing what he's done and what he's doing."
