Mauk Keeps Quality in Control

By B. Clifton Burke

Even after the NCAA denied Ben Mauk another year of playing eligibility, he still found a way to return to the University of Cincinnati football program this season as the team’s quality control manager.

Head coach Brian Kelly created the position to help Mauk learn how to be coach.

“Right now, he’s just cutting his teeth in the coaching profession,” Kelly said. “I don’t know if he’s coming up with anything to help us win, but I think it does more for him to be around and then learn the profession.”

Though the position is unpaid, the work of a quality control manager during the season is a full-time job. Mauk arrives on campus each day at 6 a.m. to lift weights. He then spends his afternoons working to identify any of the team’s offensive tendencies he finds within the information he receives from scouts. He informs the coaching staff of his findings so they can eliminate those tendencies before opposing defenses can identify them. He also attends the weekly meetings and practices, and is along the sidelines during games. Mauk says he typically leaves his office for the day around 10 p.m..

After setting a school-record of 31 passing touchdowns in 2007, Mauk also works closely with this year’s quarterbacks.

“I’m here to mentor them and any questions they might have, they can always ask me,” Mauk said.

He admitted that it’s been tough to watch such an historic season unfold from the sidelines, particularly because he now feels healthy after playing through pain during last season.

“I knew this team was special and I felt like we could go through the season and not lose a game. Obviously I wanted to be part of that,” said Mauk.

Working as the quality control manager became the next best option for Mauk, after the NCAA ruled in September that he had exhausted all of his playing eligibility.

Mauk is satisfied with his role on the team for this season, but he’s still keeping himself in playing shape in hopes of being selected in this year’s upcoming NFL Draft.

“With not playing this year, it’s going to take some scouts to recognize me and request my attendance at the combine,” Mauk said. “A lot of scouts have said that they want to see me out there, so I’m just working out and getting myself ready. If something were to happen I want to be ready to go.”

If he isn’t drafted, Mauk has other career options in mind. With his Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Social Studies Education from Wake Forest, and a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice that he earned at UC, Mauk is interested in becoming a high-school teacher and football coach.

“I’d love to get into a high school and have my own classroom,” Mauk said. “Growing up you always look up to teachers and coaches. So if I could be one of those people and have an impact in people’s lives in that regard, then that’s a position I’d like to be in.”

But like the rest of the team, Mauk is currently focused on the season.

“We have a shot to win a Big East Championship and we’re in the driver’s seat to go to a BCS bowl, and it’s a position that everybody in that locker room felt we’d be in at this point,” said Mauk.

With all the excitement around UC’s success this season, Mauk added perspective by pointing to last year’s 6-0 start and their national ranking of 15th, before losing to both Louisville and Pittsburgh.

“We messed up against Louisville and let that game beat us twice,” Mauk said. “So I think last year with the success we had and going through those diverse times, makes us even more prepared to meet the challenge and overcome those kinds of situations.”

Coach Kelly thinks Mauk has benefited from the transition of being a player to joining the staff within the same program, and is confident Mauk will someday become a coach of his own.

“(Mauk) is learning the profession and I think in years to come, he’ll have more of an impact,” said Kelly.

Although the title of quality control manager comes with little financial compensation, Mauk’s contribution has not gone unnoticed.

“We’re doing this on a very, very small budget, almost a voluntary position, but it’s good to have Ben around,” Kelly said of his former quarterback and current staff member.