How Cody Mauch became one of the NFL Draft’s most recognizable O-line prospects

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The side-by-side photo has been making the rounds since December. It aired on television during North Dakota State playoff games. It raced across the internet during Senior Bowl practices and the NFL Scouting Combine.

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In one image, a redheaded boy with a bowl cut stands with arms clasped behind his back. He’s tall and wiry. He wears a No. 3 jersey and a tight-lipped grin. In the other image, a bearded giant with a glorious ginger mane beams at the camera. He’s missing the top two middle incisors but has the look of a man who would rather tell you the story of how those teeth got lost than worry about aesthetics.

“I see two completely different people,” said Cody Mauch, who happens to be both of the people.

The first is a guy everyone back home in Hankinson, N.D., calls Tud. The nickname came from an uncle and started as Tuddles, but eventually everyone just shortened it. The second guy, the 6-foot-5, 302-pounder who started 39 consecutive games at offensive tackle for the most dominant program in the FCS, is going to be picked in the NFL Draft later this week — most likely Friday when teams make their second- and third-round selections.

Though Mauch sees different people, those who know him and love him see a larger version of Tud. Yes, he’s huge now. But he’s also the same kid who fixed tractors on his family’s 5,500-acre farm. The Mauchs grow corn, soybeans, navy beans and sugar beets. They also produce hay, and that hay has to get moved. If you’re thinking this is one of those “the offensive lineman got huge lifting hay bales” stories, you’re probably about 40 years too late. The bales the Mauchs sell weigh more than 1,000 pounds. They get moved by machines. So when Tud got his driver’s license at 16, one of his jobs became hauling hay in the farm’s semi.

“Being on the farm, it’s a little bit different,” Tud’s father, Joe, said. “When you’re 8, you’re learning how to drive.” The kid behind the wheel knew how to work, but he was the same goofball who used his natural follicular advantage to pull off this costume in sixth grade.

“There’s a certain work ethic that a farm kid has versus a city kid,” said Jason Monilaws, who has coached or taught most of Joe and Stacey Mauch’s eight children (Tud is the second oldest; they range from 25 to 8). “On the farm, you need to get up. There’s going to be work to do. You do the work all day, and then when it’s done you can go have some fun. Those kids, the boys and girls in that family, there’s work to be done. You guys are going to work.”

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They’re also going to play. Monilaws said every Mauch child competes ferociously on any field or court they touch. This includes the basketball court, which is where Mauch left those two front teeth during a middle school game. When people see the gap in Mauch’s smile and learn he’s from North Dakota, the usual assumption is he lost them playing hockey.

“Our school was too small to have a hockey team,” he said.

But it was big enough for basketball, and one day two teammates dove for a loose ball. Kendrick Lenzen’s head collided with Mauch’s face, and the rest is a very complicated dental history.

Joe and Stacey tried to get the teeth fixed. Tud had braces, retainers and “flippers,” inserts with false teeth. But they kept breaking. The only reliable solution was implants, but doctors told the Mauchs it wouldn’t be wise to install the implants until their son stopped growing. And that, their family physician told them, wasn’t going to happen any time soon. “He just never really was done growing,” Joe Mauch said.

As Mauch’s football coach at Hankinson High — the Pirates played nine-man because of the school’s tiny enrollment — Monilaws watched the kid sprout between ninth and 10th grade. “And he just kept on growing,” Monilaws said.

By Mauch’s senior year, he stood 6-4 and weighed 220 pounds. Monilaws played him at tight end and defensive end, but Mauch also punted and kicked. “He never returned a kick,” Monilaws said, because listing the things Mauch didn’t do for the Pirates is easier than listing all the things he did do.

Mauch’s height was a huge advantage in the red zone, especially when the Pirates played at home. Because of the terrain beneath the school’s athletic complex, one corner of the field slopes to about a foot higher than the rest of the field. So Hankinson’s quarterbacks knew that when they had a 6-4 target, they could throw passes that only a 7-footer could catch. Unless they’d been warned by their coaches, opposing defenders didn’t know that. So Mauch would come down with touchdown catches that opponents sometimes didn’t try to defend.

But he also could grab contested balls and ragdoll opposing QBs. For a few games as a senior, Mauch had to play quarterback because of an injury to Hankinson’s starter. In a game against Hatton/Northwood, Mauch — a right-hander — rolled left and noticed a receiver to his right breaking free toward the end zone. “He made this diving sidearm throw and rifled that thing right win there for a touchdown,” Monilaws said. Monilaws immediately turned to his assistants. “Holy —,” he said. “Did you see what Tud did?”

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North Dakota State, the backyard powerhouse an hour away in Fargo, recruited Mauch as an athlete with the idea that he’d start his career as a tight end. Monilaws had coached long enough to know that might eventually mean a move to the offensive line. The only question was how big Mauch would get once he entered a college weight room.

Mauch answered that question quickly. Within two months of arriving on campus in 2017, he was up 25 pounds. His caloric needs outstripped his meal plan, so he upgraded. “I had to go buy an unlimited plan at the dining center,” he said. “We had to get 15 meals a week. I think I was eating 26 or 27 meals a week. I didn’t really plan to gain all the weight. I was just kind of hungry.”

The best days? When chicken lasagna or stromboli was on the menu. Mauch called those cheat meals, and there were nights when he polished off four or five strombolis.

North Dakota State coaches moved Mauch to the offensive line during the 2018 spring practice. His development still took time. He didn’t become a starter until the 2020 season, which was played in spring 2021 because of the pandemic. That year, he started two games at right tackle and seven games at left tackle. The rest of his college career, he played left tackle. In 2021, the Bison won their ninth FCS national title in 11 seasons. In Mauch’s final year, the Bison lost to South Dakota State in the national title game.

Though Mauch only played tackle in college, he snapped before or after most practices. Initially, he did this in case injuries left the Bison needing a center. But as time passed and it became clear he might have an NFL future, he snapped because he wanted to be as versatile as possible. When Mauch played in the Senior Bowl earlier this year, he practiced at center, guard and tackle. Playing against some of the best players from the FBS, Mauch looked most comfortable at tackle. But he held his own on the inside, and he stressed to coaches that he’d be happy playing anywhere.

“I’m ready to punt the ball if they want me to,” he said during a Senior Bowl media session.

It also didn’t hurt that North Dakota State’s run game is more diverse than most. Though Mauch might have been learning new positions, some of his Senior Bowl teammates were learning techniques he’d practiced for years.

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“The terminology might be a little different because every team is going to use different terminology,” he said. “But it’s all the same scheme and concepts. I’m really grateful for North Dakota State. We ran a lot of power schemes, but we also had pin/pull. We had outside zone. We had inside zone. We had mid-zone. We ran a little bit of everything.”

The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler noted that Mauch’s arm length (32 3/8 inches) is not ideal for an NFL tackle, but Brugler expects him to provide extreme value to the team that selects him. The athleticism that allowed Monilaws to move Mauch all over the field in high school should continue to serve him as he operates among giants in the NFL. “Overall, Mauch doesn’t have ideal length or sand in his lower body, but he has outstanding movement skills, fierce handwork and innate competitiveness to become a starter early in his NFL career,” Brugler wrote in The Beast, The Athletic’s NFL Draft guide. “He should get a look at tackle first but also projects well inside.”

The kid in the photo on the left side of that before-and-after would never have dreamed he’d be days away from getting drafted. In fact, when Mauch decided to accept North Dakota State’s offer of a walk-on spot, he told his parents he’d be happy even if he never cracked the lineup. He just wanted to try his hand at college football. But that same kid had been working every day for most of his life, and that mentality — plus some God-given athleticism and some excellent dining hall stromboli — helped him transform.

“When that little meme came out, it’s probably the first time I got to see big-picture the transition I made,” Tud said. “Because I’m taking it day by day.”

The main takeaway? “I’ve just grown up a lot.”

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(Illustration: Rachel Orr / The Athletic; photo: North Dakota State Athletics)