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Princeton University Athletics
Top Of the Line
October 20, 2000 | Football
If you walked up to Dennis Norman on the street, you might think twice before calling the 6" 4", 280-pound specimen a freak.
If not, well, there's little hope for you anyway as far as common sense is concerned.
But Norman's teammates on the Princeton football team occasionally slap that label on him and get away with it. Not because the senior offensive tackle has a nose growing out of his forehead or third ear where his mouth should be, but because of the fact he is such a well-structured fellow.
"A lot of the guys on the team call him `The Freak,' because when you look at him, physically, he's just a freak of nature," Tiger running back Kyle Brandt says. "A lot of the guys say he almost doesn't belong in the Ivy League. At least he looks like he doesn't.
"I've been blessed with several good offensive linemen since I've been here, but from a pure physical standpoint, Dennis is in a league of his own. Not only with our team, but the entire Ivy League. The guy's a shade under 300 pounds, there's not an ounce of fat on him. It's a complete rarity. You don't see guys in the NFL like that. You've got 300-plus linemen who are pretty soft in the midsection, but not Dennis." Having size without talent or dedication doesn't mean much, however. Size alone might encourage quicker service during those crowded nights at Hoagie Haven, or get a few more slices of meat on that roast beef sub. When it comes to keeping defensive ends off quarterbacks and clearing holes for running backs, however, talent and desire make the difference.
As he attempts to become just the fourth Princeton player to earn first-team All-Ivy League honors three times, it has become apparent Norman possesses it all.
"Dennis is a very talented young man," offensive line coach Stanley Clayton says. "He works extremely hard, comes to practice every day and is very motivated. He's extremely dedicated."
Which is why Norman sometimes takes exception to his nickname, despite the fact it is meant as a compliment.
"At times it is flattering," Norman says. "But other times it takes away from how hard I work. A lot of people think it just comes natural. But it really doesn't. I have to work very hard. I'm always out lifting, running, doing those types of things. It's like I'm in-season all year round."
It has always been one athletic season or another for Norman, who grew up in Philadelphia but moved to Marlton, N.J., before his junior year in high school. During his youth, football was never an option for Norman.
"I played basketball and baseball," he says. "I was pretty skinny coming into high school. I wasn't the football type. I had a real big growth spurt in eighth grade, so I was tall and lanky, but I started to fill into my body a little after that and bulked up. People started telling me I should go out for football."
Smart people, indeed.
Norman earned varsity letters his junior and senior years at Cherokee High School and also made a name for himself in track by winning the state Group IV discus championship his senior year.
When it came to colleges, Norman checked out several Ivy League schools and felt Princeton was the best fit. Unfortunately, they were fitting him for a cast prior to his freshman season after he broke his right ankle in a preseason scrimmage.
"It was very frustrating," Norman says. "It happened during the first week of classes. Imagine just starting college, with all that pressure on you, and hopping around to classes. I just sat around and tried to study a lot. Classes were pretty hard when I first got here, so I had enough on my plate where I couldn't feel sorry for myself."
His ankle is not the only physical ailment Norman has had to deal with. He also has blurred vision in his left eye, which has been described as anywhere from astigmatism to "technically blind." Norman shrugs it off, saying "It's nothing that a contact lens can't correct. It doesn't bother me at all."
Norman's ankle recovered in time for him to become the track and field team's top discus thrower in the spring of 1998, with a throw of 162 feet at the IC4A meet.
He worked hard over that summer to get in football shape and, despite being moved from right to left tackle, it paid off when he earned first-team All-Ivy honors his sophomore year. Norman received a repeat first-team berth last season, and he was also a second-team All-ECAC selection.
"I just go out there and work on the team goals, and all that other stuff just falls into place," Norman says. "I really don't look at it too much or worry about it. But it's a great honor, at least it lets you know people recognize all the hard work you're putting in."
Norman works equally hard at the discus, winning the outdoor Heptagonal championship the past two springs. Although successful in both sports, he takes a different approach to each.
"In track you don't really have an opponent to go against, so you're not looking at someone else and feeding off them and looking to dominate them," he says. "You're pretty much battling with yourself. Football is a lot more aggression and energy."
During football season, however, Norman seems passive until game day. He prefers to say little during practice, but turns up the sound on Saturday.
"He's modest and quiet, but he runs his mouth on the field a little bit," Brandt says. "In an athletic sense, he has a short fuse. If someone opens their mouth to him on the other side of the ball, for the rest of the game, not only is he drive-blocking them 10 yards down the field, he's letting him know what he thinks about him too."
He also lets his teammates know what he's thinking.
"Coach [Roger] Hughes says I don't talk much in practice," Norman says. "But when I say stuff on the weekends, everybody listens. I don't go out there and yell and rant and rave and say a bunch of stuff that's fake. When I say something, I mean it. That's just part of the game, you have to be out there fired-up and ready to go."
Another part of the game is the mental warfare, which can be accomplished by physical dominance. Since offensive linemen are the lone players on the field who cannot be judged by their statistics, they need other ways to gain satisfaction.
"For me, the best thing is when you put a guy down, and you look in his eye and you can see he knows that you got him," Norman says. "Then you go right back and do it again. You just keep wearing him down to the very end. Then you know you've got something. If you're dominating him physically, you know it's getting to him in the head and he's thinking about it the next time he lines up."
Norman has had some new things to think about this year, for with a new coaching staff comes a new offensive system. It's often difficult for a senior when he has just one year to adapt, but Norman has adjusted.
"He's a tremendous athlete," Hughes says. "It's taken him a little longer than what we'd like because he missed spring ball [due to track]. But he's done very well from the scheme standpoint, and as he learns it, I think it will make him that much more aggressive and more physical."
The presence of Clayton, who played six years in the NFL after a career at Penn State, has been a plus for Norman.
"Coach Clayton is helping us pick up on some stuff we may have missed before ... a lot of new techniques, different ways to handle things a defensive end might give you," Norman says. "You know a lot of the stuff he tells you will work, because he's already put it to the test in the pros. You sort of listen to him a lot more and take what he says to heart."
Norman, a computer science major, plans on talking to Clayton about his football future once the season ends. He has kept his options completely open and is unsure whether to enroll in graduate school, hit the job interview circuit or take a shot at some sort of pro football league.
"But right now," Norman says. "I'm just worrying about this season."
And there are a few guys behind him who are happy that's the case.
"It's an absolute pleasure to run behind him," Brandt says. "When we're calling a play and running over that left side, there's something in the back of my head, where I know Dennis is over there, and I know there's going to be some room.
"I've been absolutely blessed to have my Princeton running career behind Dennis Norman. The guy is kind of this gentle giant off the field, but physically he's ferocious."
If you don't believe Brandt, just watch the guy lined up across from Norman. More than likely, he'll be freaking out.
by Rich Fisher