Tweet me!To the best of my research, the first former UC quarterback to win a professional title is Ben Mauk by way of his MVP performance in the CIFL (Continental Indoor Football League) championship game against the Wisconsin Wolfpack.
54-40 was your final, with Mauk going 18-29 for 195 yards passing and four touchdowns. While those numbers may not floor your, keep in mind it was accomplished on a 60-yard indoor field.
So, plenty of UC quarterbacks have played in better leagues-Greg Cook and Danny McCoin in the NFL, Danny Barrett in the CFL (two Grey Cup appearances-both losses) and Gino Guidugli in both the CFL and af2-but none has the hardware. Minor league or not, Ben Mauk has some "Kurt Warner" aspirations and still runs a spread as good as anyone around.
"We'll see what doors open," said Mauk. "Hopefully, some NFL team will ask me to come to camp or be a practice squad guy. If nothing happens with that I'm going to teach and coach here in the Cincinnati area."
Mauk's latest coach, Billy Back, claims the Browns and Bills have made inquiries about Mauk. On the downside, the window of opportunity fades with each passing year and-right or wrong---teams shy away from allegedly "shorter" quarterbacks in favor of the 6-4, 6-5 "prototypes".
"God made me six foot, so it's good with him, it's good for me," said Mauk. "If something opens up that's great, if not, I'll still be happy doing what I do."
What Mauk does, is win.
And, he knows the spread offense like the back of his hand. The Commandos were so stock full of Bearcats (Dominick Goodman, Greg Moore, Khalil El-Amin, Frank Straub) on offense that Mauk often called Bearcat plays on the fly. Before Dominick Goodman left to play in Germany, he teamed up with Mauk to annihilate CIFL defenses.
"With Goodman, it wasn't fair to the other opponents because we had that connection from UC and we kind of carried it over here to the Commandos," said Mauk.
Though my phone is rarely overflowing with NFL or CFL messages, it's kind of silly to me that teams would overlook such a productive and knowledgeable passer all because he's "only" six feet tall and a shade under 210 pounds, especially when the New Orleans Saints just won a Super Bowl title with that same type of guy.
"They've got Drew Brees and they've got Chase Daniel who's not very tall either," observed Mauk. "They like those shorter quarterbacks who are from the spread offense that get rid of the ball quick. That would be ideal for me if a spot opened up down there."
In the meantime, Mauk comes from a coaching family and has already demonstrated his coaching abilities in helping UC get to the Orange Bowl with a Big East title in his one season as a grad assistant. Insiders will tell you his help was immeasurable and there's virtually a carbon copy or even an improved version taking the Bearcat snaps now.
"Anytime you've got Zach Collaros at the helm of your offense, you're in a good position," said Mauk. "I think they'll be fine as long as Zach's there. Coach Jones-I talked with him a few times, he knows what's going on-he's going to take UC to that next level."
Perhaps Mauk will watch it from wherever he plays next. Perhaps he will watch it here.
If he doesn't get the chance to play, he'd like to teach (Social Studies) and coach in the Cincinnati area. For the time being, he's part-time on Western Brown's staff.
"I'm looking for a full-time job though," added Mauk. "If something were to open up full-time somewhere else that would be ideal."
Tri-State high school coaches, there's your chance to improve your spread if that's what you run (and you can thank me for the referral).
Ben Mauk is also watching his little brother Marty from afar back in Kenton, Ohio where his father coaches and Marty's the quarterback. If you want to salivate over the possibilities, get a load of this tidbit from older brother Ben.
"He's a little bit taller than me and a little bit more athletic than I was," said Mauk. "He brings a little more to the table. We'll see what happens here in the next couple years. He's still got a couple years of high school left."
Brian Kelly knows the Mauk family and Marty was recently at Notre Dame for seven-on-seven camp. He's also due to be at UC in mid-July and Ben claims to be giving it the "old college try" to get him in a Bearcat uniform.
Ben Mauk knows the future is bright at UC on the football field and a lot of it stems from his aerial prowess in Brian Kelly's first full season that started turning heads.
Even though Kelly bolted, he sees heads still turning in future years under Butch Jones.
"I don't see too much of a difference if you look at what happened at Central Michigan," said Mauk. "The offense production stayed the same and the defense is really what Jones improved upon. If you're a UC fan, you can look for the offense to stay the same-score a lot of points, high tempo-defense, I feel that's going to improve a lot with Coach Jones at the helm."
Even though his Bearcat career was unfortunately limited to one year, Ben Mauk was and is a great ambassador for the program. He's a classic example of the Butch Jones mantra, "Represent the 'C'".
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