Manning the Trenches

After a long, grueling practice one day during fall camp in the summer of 2005, center Alex Mack and the rest of the exhausted offensive linemen trudged off the field ready to hit the showers and rest.

To their bewilderment, they saw right tackle Mike Tepper, who was confined to a wheelchair to recuperate from a broken leg, out on the field, apparently entertaining himself in their absence.

“When he was still in a wheelchair during camp, he sets up some bags on the field and starts jousting with those bags,” says Mack. “We walk off the field beat to hell and Tepper is out there playing with himself.”

Having fun and offensive line may seem to be oxymorons, but even Mack—who is as serious as they come—finds a way to have fun in one of the most physical and brutal positions in football.

“If you absolutely dominate somebody, pancake them or knock them down, we walk back to the huddle, smirk and talk about it,” says Tepper. “‘Hey, I just killed No. 95. That kid’s been talking crap the whole day.’”

It helps that the offensive linemen’s idea of “fun”—manhandling members of the opposing team’s defense—figures into their job description on the field. These are five guys who know how to take care of business.

It’s third-and-two on the Tennessee 38-yard line with the score tied at 21 in the third quarter. Quarterback Nate Longshore breaks the huddle, and five guys head to the line of scrimmage and take their stance.

The ball is snapped, and the five guys go to work. While Longshore pitches it to running back Jahvid Best, Tepper seals his man to the outside, allowing Best to cut inside and run toward the right sideline.

But Tepper’s job isn’t done—the 6-foot-7, 308-pound lineman runs on the heels of his speedy freshman back, shoving All-SEC linebacker Jerod Mayo to the ground. Best flies down the field for 34 yards, and by the time he is pushed out of bounds, he has advanced the ball to the Tennessee 4-yard line.

The Cal football players and fans alike go wild, raving about the speed and talent of the young tailback in his collegiate debut.

No one mentions the blocking that made it happen. Such is the life of the offensive line.

“They’re kind of in a lost position where no one ever hears about them,” says offensive line coach Jim Michalczik. “People don’t know what they do, and that’s what makes it a special position, because they don’t play because of the glory or glamour—they play because of the competition.”

Going against a vaunted SEC defense, the offensive line of Mack, guards Brian De La Puente and Noris Malele, and tackles Mike Gibson and Tepper stood their ground.

In the 45-31 victory, the Bears had compiled 230 yards rushing.

In fact, starting tailback Justin Forsett now leads the Pac-10 in rushing yards—much like his predecessor Marshawn Lynch did in 2006—with 367 yards on 62 carries.

This statistic, nowhere attributed to the work of those five guys who are all that stand between the stampede of defenders and the ball, is a testament to the dominance of Cal’s offensive line.

“The o-line has a bad rap,” says Tepper. “If we have one bad play, it’s a terrible game. If we do great on all the plays, it’s ‘Good job guys, that’s what you’re supposed to do.’ We don’t make big, flashy plays. It is a blue-collar work environment for us.”

Neither does Mack express any kind of angst for his lack of recognition. The 2006 All-Conference lineman has been rated as one of the top centers in the country, but it doesn’t change the fact that his dirty work is often lost in the dazzling displays of DeSean Jackson and the like.

“That’s the life of being an o-lineman,” says Mack. “I have my pretty face on the big poster on the side of the stadium, so I’m OK with that. I’m happy with being unnoticed though. Let the flashy wide receiver guys get all the attention.”

Without the incentive of personal glory, Mack and Co. thrive on winning the war in the trenches—even if it is a thankless task.

“The o-line is a bunch of big guys who go out every play in a fist fight,” says Tepper. “It’s strict brutality all the time. My personal motivation is to come out here to the other team and man up, saying ‘Hey, it’s you versus me, the winner wins it all. Let’s go baby.’”

Winning the battle in the trenches may not garner any statistics, but that doesn’t stop them from recording statistics of their own.

Keeping tally of their individual knockdowns, pancakes and cuts from each game, the five linemen compete among each other for the highest marks in each category.

“We keep all the tallied scores,” says Tepper. “I think Mack is leading the knockdowns, and De La Puente has the cuts.”

Tepper doesn’t lead any category—he thinks Mack also leads in pancakes—but he measures his contributions in a different way.

“My tallies are in the win section,” he says. “We have three wins right now so I’m pretty stoked about that. Coach M gives me crap all the time because my stats are always low but I really don’t care.”

Those statistics that Tepper doesn’t seem to care about have come in part as a result of the close-knitted nature of this particular group. All five saw significant playing time last year, with Mack and Gibson as returning starters. They have become a cohesive unit that Michalczik thinks has the potential to be one of the best, if not the best, in his six years coaching at Cal.

“That is chemistry from playing so much together and having a great time together,” says Tepper. “I have chemistry with the rest of my team but the offensive line as a unit is something no one else can ever have. It’s a weird brotherhood that we have.

“We can complete each other’s sentences. Noris does exactly what I’m going to do on a play. I know exactly what Noris is going to do, and then we predict what we’re going to say, and 99.9 percent of the time, we’re correct.”

But when it comes down to it, when the ball is snapped and Longshore pitches it to Best in the backfield, each lineman has to take care of his own man, and then some.

“That’s what the offensive line is—the best way to describe it is a complete challenge from one individual to another,” says Tepper. “‘You’re lining up across from me, I’m across from you. Let’s go.’”

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