ALLIANCE — From Jarrod Barber and Jon Stewart to Ryan O’Dell and Hunter Reed, Crestview High School has produced some of the most prolific running backs north central Ohio has ever seen.
And Mason Minnich out-gained them all.
So how did Minnich, who rushed for 2,468 yards and 25 touchdowns as a senior and more than 5,000 yards during a storied high school career, become a cornerback for Division III powerhouse Mount Union?
“It’s a long story,” he said with a laugh earlier this week. “Things happen and our head coach, Vince Kehres, asked if I would flip over and help out on defense. I was like, ‘Whatever helps the team most.’ So I transitioned to defense.”
Before making the move, Minnich was on the offensive fast track. He rushed for 405 yards and three touchdowns as a freshman as Mount Union won its 11th national championship in 2012. He ran for 71 yards and a touchdown in the Purple Raiders’ playoff opener that year, a 72-14 win over Christopher Newport.
The speedy Minnich — he was runner-up in the 100 meter dash at the Division III state track meet during his senior year — got off to a fast start as a sophomore, scoring the game-winning touchdown in a 30-27 win over Franklin (Ind.) in the 2013 season opener. He rushed for 409 yards and eight touchdowns, but his workload was reduced with the emergence of freshman B.J. Mitchell, a Detroit native who transferred to Mount Union from Division II Northwood (Mich.). Mitchell rushed for a Mount Union freshman-record 1,365 yards last year.
“B.J is certainly a gifted athlete,” Minnich said. “The coaching staff thought he was a better fit at running back, but they liked my athleticism and wanted to keep me on the field so they moved me to cornerback.”
The only problem was Minnich had never played the position before. He was a safety/linebacker hybrid used primarily in run support at Crestview.
“In high school, I’d play a lot in the box,” Minnich said. “I’d play the flats in Cover 3 coverage.”
Learning a new position at the college level is like enrolling in advanced calculus without any previous background in math.
“It’s incredibly difficult. You’re out there by yourself and you’re covering arguably the most athletic kids on the other side of the ball,” Minnich said. “Before the ball is snapped you’ve got to have an understanding if the receiver is going to run an outside route or an inside route. You’ve got to know the situation and read the line of scrimmage to determine if it’s going to be a pass or a run.
“Then you’ve got to learn the techniques with your feet and hands, where your eyes are supposed to be and which way your should open up. It’s a lot to learn in a year.”
The 5-foot-10, 195-pound Minnich has appeared in 11 of Mount Union’s 12 game’s this year. He has nine tackles going into Saturday’s showdown with John Carroll in the national semifinals.
“People have been telling Mason, ‘You can’t do this and you can’t do that’ his entire [career],” said Madison coach Sean Conway, who was the head coach at Crestview during Minnich’s freshman and sophomore seasons. “He is driven to prove those people wrong.
“Am I surprised he has been able to make the transition to an unfamiliar position at the college level? Absolutely not. He is a tremendous competitor and he doesn’t shy away from big moments.”
There could be plenty of big moments Saturday. John Carroll, ranked sixth nationally, gave third-ranked Mount Union all it could handle in the Purple Raiders’ 31-24 win on Nov. 15 in Alliance. JCU quarterback Mark Myers is a Cleveland St. Ignatius graduate who lettered at Division I Pitt before returning to northeast Ohio.
“John Carroll has a lot of great athletes all over the field. Their quarterback is a Division I guy,” Minnich said. “We are Division III schools, but there are a lot of guys on the field who arguably could have been Division I athletes.”
While he is a full-time cornerback now, Minnich still keeps his finger on the pulse of the offense.
“I absolutely miss playing offense,” he said. “I’ll be on the defensive side watching the offense practice. I learn all the plays and schemes they are putting in for the upcoming opponents.
“The bottom line is I’m going to do whatever I can to help us win a championship. That is why a lot of us came to Mount Union, to get championship rings.”
“It’s incredibly difficult. You’re out there by yourself and you’re covering arguably the most athletic kids on the other side of the ball,” Minnich said.
