The Buccaneers didn’t need testimonies from opposing prospects to fall in love with Mauch, but it certainly didn’t hurt. It was similar to how the Lightning became fully sold on Point. Coincidentally – or perhaps not – the Buccaneers also made a small trade up on Friday night to make sure they didn’t miss out on landing Mauch.
“The amount of people that said, ‘This kid is the real deal [about Point],’ made them take a second look,” said Spytek. “I’m not saying it made us take a second look but it certainly factored into it. These kids are good football players at the Senior Bowl and they acknowledged him over and over and over again.”
Mauch played left tackle at North Dakota State but is likely to move into the interior line at the next level. This is a conversion that has previously worked for the Buccaneers with the likes of Hobart’s Ali Marpet and Humboldt State’s Alex Cappa, both from smaller football programs like Mauch.
“We envision him playing as a guard inside, maybe a center in time,” said Spytek. “He played all the spots in college. He was a left tackle primarily but then in the Senior Bowl moved inside and played guard and actually did some center, too, and did a good job. If you kind of follow what we do here a lot, it’s a small-school tackle that we move inside. I think the playbook is out on us right now. We’ve just had a lot of success with it and this is another kid we have the same thought with.”
The 6-5, 302-pound Mauch is a high-intensity mauler who blocks very well on the move and has nimble feet. His movement skills would seem to make him a natural fit in the new offensive scheme being imported by Offensive Coordinator Dave Canales, but Spytek says the Bucs would have been just as high on Mauch a year ago.
“We would have liked him no matter what offense we were in,” he said. “I think Dave’s scheme probably fits him a little bit better, a little bit more than what we had last year, but this kid’s such a smart and instinctive, tough-minded football player that he’s going to fit in most any system.
“He is a natural football player. He plays with great angles. He plays like the game makes sense to him. Things happen fast and he’s always in front of it. When he runs into space his angles are always on point. When he works with teammates inline he’s great with double-teams. He just has great timing in the field to all the inline movements. It’s very natural to him, is kind of the best way to say it. It’s almost like he’s made to play…
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