Nameless and faceless, rarely seen and seldom heard, offensive linemen trade their virtual anonymity on the field for invisibility off it.
Still, even among a group that devotes itself to teamwork, the offensive linemen can take on individual personalities. The Oregon starting line is no exception.
Senior center Jordan Holmes is the leader, a team captain two years running and a bulwark in the middle. Senior right tackle Mark Asper is the unit’s only married player and a favorite of reporters everywhere for his sound bites. All-Pac-10 Conference honorable mention Bo Thran and freshman
All-American Carson York get the accolades and the critical acclaim.
The fifth player on the Ducks’ line is C.E. Kaiser, who draws no such attention, despite being one of the line’s most consistent performers.
The senior is entering his third year as a starter at right guard, a change from his previous position of right tackle.
Offensive line coach Steve Greatwood can use him on the left side, or at center if need be.
“He’s kind of a quiet force out there, but he’s been a fantastic player for us,” Greatwood said. “He’s probably our most explosive player, as far as just coming off the line of scrimmage and knocking somebody off the ball.”
“C.E. is a beautiful, beautiful man,” Asper said. “He’s really good about — you don’t have to be just an awesome football player. You have to work hard, pay attention, do what the coaches say, you get to start.
“Of the three starting seniors on the O-line, his name is mentioned the least.”
Kaiser stands 6-foot-4 and 290 pounds, with straight brown hair and an unkempt beard. If his physical profile screams football player, his off-field interests scream machine-loving college student.
“Anybody who likes techno music and plays video games from sunup to sundown is a different kind of guy,” Greatwood said. “He kind of marches to his own beat.”
“He has his topics, like Call of Duty or World of Warcraft,” Asper said. “He often says that if he wasn’t as big or athletic, he would just be the biggest dweeb.”
Beyond video games — first-person shooters are Kaiser’s favorites, and he’s considered the best gamer on the Ducks ­— Kaiser loves muscle cars. His brother, Mike, recently opened up a shop in Arizona.
“He does a lot of work (on the cars) himself and he sells them,” Kaiser said. “He deals with a lot of nice ’69 and ’70 Camaros and Chevelles and stuff.”
Kaiser also loves electronics of all shapes and sizes. He installs car stereos for teammates and modifies Xboxs and iPods to increase their capabilities.
“I like music and I like car stereos,” he said. “It’s kind of my little hobby on the side.”
His own car is outfitted with a modified Xbox and a touch-screen DVD player, along with three 12-inch subwoofers for musical enhancement.
“My imagination usually goes a lot further (than teammates’ requests),” he said.
Technical acumen runs in the family. Kaiser’s father, also named Mike, invented a part for Harley-Davidson motorcycles called the turbulator.
“You slip into the manifold of a motorcycle and it combines the gas and air mixture,” C.E. Kaiser explained. “It increases your throttle response and gives you more horsepower. You’ve just got your gas and your air going through a hole, and it’s got little teeth on it and it just mixes it.”
Clarence Eugene Kaiser — an amalgamation of his great-grandfather’s and great-uncle’s names — was born on November 2, 1987, in Grand Forks, British Columbia. Living most of his life near the Washington state-British Columbia border, Kaiser played football for Central Valley High School in Veradale, Wash.
When former Oregon assistant head coach Neal Zoumboukos recruited him, Kaiser was far off the major-college radar.
“He had to tell his dad what the Pac-10 was when he got recruited to come here,” Asper said, “the day after he found out what it was and read up about it.”
Kaiser redshirted the 2006 season and played in seven games in 2007. He started 10 games at right tackle in 2008 and 12 at the position in 2009, playing in every game both seasons.
“He’s gone from a guy that had to be told what to do to a guy that can run the show out there,” Greatwood said.
Wherever Oregon needs him, Kaiser will quietly line up and do his job — just as he’s done 23 times before.
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