Even when the Oregon football team had a week off, junior offensive tackle Mark Asper found himself shouldering a different work load.
“He was telling me over the bye week, he was carrying her around all weekend,” senior guard C.E. Kaiser said. “… his back was kind of sore and his arms were kind of sore. That’s just the kind of stuff he does.”
Asper, an Idaho Falls, Idaho, native, used the down time to be with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Makayla, who finds comfort in the arms of her 6-foot-7-inch, 322-pound father.
At 25, Asper is one of the oldest players on the Oregon roster and has been associated with Duck football since making his first official visit on Nov. 8, 2003. That night, Oregon hosted the California Golden Bears in a game that is mostly remembered for a 23-minute delay when the lights on the south side of Autzen Stadium went out.
It was the first college football game Asper ever attended, which ended in a 21-17 Oregon victory. Like most recruits, Asper was paired with a player-host on his visit. His happened to be a 6-foot-5-inch, 345-pound sophomore by the name of Haloti Ngati, who was recovering from a season-ending knee injury.
“From my hometown, I was the biggest guy around,” Asper said. “So it was fun to hang around with him.”
Ngata showed Asper the ins and outs of campus life. It was people’s reaction to Ngata’s size that Asper remembers most about their initial time together.
Originally recruited by former 27-year Oregon assistant head coach Neal Zoumboukos, Asper toyed with the idea of attending Brigham Young University, but decided playing for the Ducks would be a better fit.
Once Asper inked his letter of intent, he departed for Barcelona, Spain, on a two-year religious mission.
Asper spent time spreading the word of his faith and became enmeshed in the local culture.
Upon his return to Oregon, Asper enrolled as a Spanish major with the hope that he would not lose the language he had grown so fond of.
“It’s a whole half a world away, and so it’s hard to stay in touch with some of those people,” Asper said. “And with football season and everything and being a poor college student, I haven’t been able to go back yet, but I’d like to someday.”
Asper wrapped up the Spanish major with ease and shifted his focus to sociology, completing that degree with little difficulty, too.
Today, Asper is taking graduate-level classes in the educational methodology, policy and leadership program.
The return to the football field, however, was not nearly as effortless.
Asper had been away from the game for more than two years, and his absence was evident when he returned to practice.
“Just the whole mindset, the regimentation, getting himself physically back into shape,” offensive line coach Steve Greatwood said. “And then mentally, you know, just football again.
“It’s just like starting all over again, like a freshman coming in, maybe even more dramatic since they haven’t played for so long.”
Returning to Eugene for spring drills in 2007, Asper hoped he would be able to pick right back up where he left off as senior in high school.
When that didn’t happen, Asper found himself in a meeting with Greatwood and head coach Mike Bellotti.
The message was clear: Get back into the weight room before the start of fall camp.
“It took a whole year to get back to where I felt I could really compete and show the coaches what I had to offer to the team,” Asper said. “And then that next fall, my freshman year, I was on the travel squad.”
That year he recorded his first career start at right tackle in Oregon’s Holiday Bowl victory over Oklahoma State. He has been a mainstay on the Oregon offensive line ever since.
Asper started at right guard in 12 of the Ducks’ 13 games in 2009, recording 54 pancake blocks, second on the team to senior center Jordan Holmes. This offseason, Asper traded positions with Kaiser, moving back out to the tackle spot.
“For his size, he’s got tremendous athleticism,” Greatwood said. “You know, we felt like because of that, we could move him from guard out to tackle this year. And I think he’s performed very well out there.”
Later this season, the Asper family is expecting the arrival of their second daughter, which was a topic of conversation between the couple with Civil War complications in place.
“We’ve had to talk about — her due date is December — if the baby comes, and I’ve got to get ready for the Civil War, where does the priority lie?” Asper said. “We talked about, well, I was there for the first one, when our first daughter was born, so she was like ‘Go ahead, go to the game.’”
A family man above all else, Asper knows that no matter what the rankings, polls and statistics say, he’ll always have a daughter — or two — to keep him in shape.
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