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Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
The Old Man And The 'C'
October 05, 2009 | Football
(this first appeared in the 10/3 Princeton Athletic News)
It is the joke in the training room. Here comes Mark Paski, dealing with this or that, fighting to keep himself back on the field.
He's been here long enough that you wonder if he once blocked for Keith Elias. Or Dick Kazmaier. Really, was there a time that one end of the offensive line didn't belong to No. 75?
“The Old Man” is what they call him. Having turned 21 less than one month ago, old is a relative term. In the game of life, it hardly falls into the old category.
In the game of football — specifically, in the 33rd straight game of football Paski will start today on the offensive line — well, that's another story altogether.
And it's a story being told for the first time in 141 seasons of Princeton Tiger football.
Paski loved playing football at The Delbarton School, which has fed far more lacrosse players to Princeton than it has football standouts. Despite the fact that he became a varsity starter three games into his sophomore season, he wasn't thinking of playing beyond his high school years until recruiters started showing interest.
“To be honest, I was having such a great time at Delbarton that the idea of college really escaped me until the last possible moment,” Paski said. After I took a couple of visits to the bigger schools, I decided I really wanted to be at a place where both academics and athletics were taken seriously.”
Although Princeton got into the recruiting mix later than several programs, Paski felt most comfortable with the coaches and players in the Tiger program when he came on his visit. His main recruiter was then offensive line coach Stan Clayton, an imposing presence whose bark could seemingly be heard from miles during every practice. Clayton could intimidate the strongest, surest of players; freshmen simply tried to make it through.
But somewhere between choosing Princeton and first donning the Orange and Black, Clayton went to Toledo and Gregg Perry came to Princeton as the new offensive line coach. Perry took over a line that was decimated by both graduation and injury, and he took over a line that was considered the weak link to a team with championship aspirations.
Freshmen almost universally have the steepest learning curve in preseason camp, but this may have been an exception. One eventual starter had been a tight end; another was a former defensive tackle. While those guys were familiarizing themselves to the position and the offense, the entire group was getting to know a new position coach.
“I lucked out having Coach Perry,” Paski said. “He was phenomenal. We all got along with Coach Perry great. It was kind of nice to be going through the learning process with everybody else instead of being the typical freshman who was way behind everybody else. We were all trying to catch up with Coach Perry's system.”
Fairly early in camp, Paski found himself taking snaps with the first team. What had to be a confidence booster soon turned into a stomach-turner. As his reps grew and the opening game at Lehigh drew closer, Paski began to connect the dots.
Before 2006, no Princeton freshman had ever started every game on the offensive line. You can't do it if you don't start Game 1, and Paski found out five days before the opener of the magical 2006 season that he would be a starter.
“It was so nerve-racking,” Paski said. “I remember Brig Walker coming up to me and saying, 'Don't screw it up. It's our senior season.' I was so lucky to have Kyle Vellutato, a senior, playing next to me. He helped me out so much through that first game.”
Not only was Paski chosen to start, but he started at right tackle. His biggest responsibility was to defend the blind side of starting quarterback and eventual Bushnell Cup winner Jeff Terrell; simply put, one Paski breakdown could have been disastrous. It's an incredible position to trust to somebody who was trying on prom tuxedos while the rest of the team was going through spring practices months earlier.
“Gregg Perry saw a tremendous amount of potential in Mark Paski,” offensive coordinator Dave Rackovan said. “It was the kind of thing that only playing time could enhance.”
Perry saw more than potential in Paski. During his two years as the offensive line coach [Perry left for Delaware in 2008 and was replaced by Adam Hollis], Perry consistently spoke of the superior technique Paski possessed, a credit to Rik Dugan, a former offensive lineman at Williams College and a coach at Delbarton. Paski soaked up every bit of coaching he received, whether it was in high school or at Princeton, and he prepared himself to battle against players who almost always outweighed him.
“Whatever the coaches said, I did to the best of my abilities,” Paski said. “They probably could have told me to jump off a bridge, and I would have done it. That was what I was always taught in high school. You have to have faith and belief in your coaches, and that's never been proven otherwise to me.”
Faith and belief in his coaches was one thing, but faith and belief in himself was another. Through five games, he was admittedly a nervous freshman just trying to get through a game. That changed in a historic October matchup at Princeton Stadium; that day, an unbeaten Princeton team and an unbeaten Harvard team met for the first time since 1922.
With what he called “a potentially special season” on the line, Paski was on the field when Princeton needed 61 pressure-packed, fourth-quarter yards to remain perfect. The home team got them all, including the final 20 on a touchdown pass to Brendan Circle, and ultimately traveled to the Yale Bowl three weeks later with an Ivy League title on the line.
“That Yale game is still one of the best memories of my life,” Paski said of the dramatic 34-31 comeback win. “I had no idea what it was like playing in front of that many people, and we were playing for the Ivy League title. Just the raw emotion surrounding that game, and watching the fans storming the field, watching Tim Strickland being lifted up by everyone and the band playing… it was just so great.
“I'll always remember the last snaps of the Yale game, pass protecting like my life depended on it.”
While most freshmen just try to make the travel squad, Paski started every game of a 9-1 season, Princeton's best since 1964. For all the incredible memories generated during those 10 weeks, it was impossible for him to truly appreciate what his squad accomplished that season. Close game after close game went the Tigers' way; surely it must always be like that, right?
2007: 4-6. 2008: 4-6.
All of the sudden, Paski appreciates those championship seasons a little more.
Not that it has been all bad over the last two years. Classmate Jordan Culbreath put up a year for the ages last season, winning the Ivy League rushing title and recording 276 rushing yards in one game. No running back gets those numbers without a strong line in front of him.
“We take a tremendous amount of pride in what Jordan did,” Paski said. “By no means do we claim that as our doing because Jordan is a phenomenal athlete. Being that we have no stats besides sacks allowed, that is something we really take pride.”
But the wins just didn't come the way they once did, and Paski points to a missing chemistry on the offense as one reason. He is hopeful that in this, his final season, that will change. If it does, you can bet that any and all positive chemistry is borne from the offensive line.
It's more than just Paski leading the line. Three of his classmates — his roommates, in fact — line up with him as starting offensive linemen. Both J.P. Makrai and Andrew Hauser were also starters during the 2006 championship season, while Marc Daou earned a starting role in 2007.
The four have as close a bond as any group of teammates, and considering their position, that is a strong foundation for the offense.
“It makes a huge difference, how well you know the guy next to you,” Paski said. “It's tough to put together an offensive line with a bunch of guys who don't know each other. Since we're such good friends, we have no qualms calling each other out in practice. It keeps us accountable to how we're playing in games and in practices.”
Paski does a good job of keeping himself accountable as well.
“Mark works tirelessly at technique,” Hollis said. “If he's struggling at practice, he'll study it and figure out why. There are very few things he hasn't seen on the field.”
“Coach Hollis does a great job of always picking out everything that needs work,” Paski said. “I know I always have stuff to work on, because playing on the offensive line, there so many small techniques that can make a difference in the way you play. You always have to be cognizant of your technique, because if you get lazy, your technique suffers. When your technique suffers, it ends up with the quarterback on his back.”
In this case, that quarterback is sophomore Tommy Wornham. It's tough enough being a senior and knowing you are facing your final opportunity at an Ivy League title. Doing it with the knowledge that you are depending on an unproven sophomore seems like it would be a terribly heavy burden, but Paski is fully in his younger teammate's corner.
And on his blind side.
“Mark is a great blocker,” Wornham said. “The left tackle for a righty quarterback is a very important position because he is always blocking the guys that I can't see. Specifically I think his speed makes him such a good blocker. He can move just as quick or even faster than the defensive lineman.”
Wornham isn't the only member of the locker room who believes in Paski; the veteran, who could become the only player in Princeton history to start every game of his career on the offensive line, was voted a captain for the 2009 season.
They knew that he has been there, when the championship was on the line, and he got the job done. Even if he was just trying to survive, Paski was a key figure in the most historic season at Princeton in decades.
He has a championship ring, but that means nothing today. There is another one to be handed out in two months, and Paski is ready to lead Princeton on one more championship drive.