By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. -
Ben Bartch has accomplished an awful lot on the football field over the years.
But he said he's never experienced anything quite like he has over the past week.
After being selected to play in the 2020 Reese's Senior Bowl, the premiere all-star showcase for the country's top collegiate players, the Saint John's University offensive tackle made the most of the opportunity.
Though an injury late in the week kept the 6-foot-5, 305-pounder from appearing in the actual game itself last Saturday (Jan. 25), he emerged as one of the week's breakout stars in the arguably more important practices and drills that led up to it.
Going against the nation's best players at the Division I level, Bartch didn't just hold his own. He excelled - earning rave reviews from the large delegation of scouts and professional draft analysts in attendance in Mobile, Alabama.
"It wasn't like being in Collegeville, that's for sure," he said of the atmosphere and attention. "It was pretty interesting to get the chance to experience all that. I know there were so many guys sitting on their couches who would have killed to have that kind of opportunity. So I just wanted to make the most of it."
And by almost every account, he succeeded. Coming out of the week, the consensus of many seems to be that Bartch turned enough heads to stand an excellent chance of being selected in the NFL Draft, scheduled for April 23-25 in Las Vegas.
Perhaps even in the early rounds.
That would be a huge deal, making him just the second MIAC player to be selected since the draft was reduced to only seven rounds in 1994 – joining Gustavus wide receiver Ryan Hoag, who was tabbed by the Oakland Raiders with the draft's final pick in 2003.
Bartch with his family in Mobile, Ala.
"It was really important," he said of his performance. "One of the main red flags most scouts have on a player like me is the level of competition. They need to see how you are going to do when you go up against the biggest and fastest guys out there.
"And that's to be expected. You just have to rise to the occasion when you get the chance."
While in Mobile, Bartch's days consisted not only of going up against the top draft prospects in the country in practice, but also taking part in a series of interviews with scouts from all 32 NFL teams, asking all manner of questions.
"You don't get a lot of sleep," he said. "You get up early in the morning in the dark and it's all football until you go to bed at night. And even in bed, you're still thinking about football. You get tired and it can be challenging. But I was grateful to have that challenge. Because, again, it's an opportunity not a lot of other players get."
Bartch said he got a boost from seeing from a number of his teammates, as well as the Johnnies' coaching staff, who made the trip down to cheer him on.
"That meant a lot to me," he said. "Those guys are some of the best friends and brothers I've ever had. So I was happy that they were down there to experience some of that with me."
Bartch with friends & family prior to the Senior Bowl.
The last Saint John's player to sign with an NFL team was wide receiver Blake Elliott in 2004, but he signed as a rookie free agent after the draft had been completed. Wide receiver Evan Clark participated in the Kansas City Chiefs' rookie minicamp and a member of the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers briefly in 2018. If selected, Bartch would become the first Johnnie taken in the draft itself since offensive lineman Kurt Wachtler was chosen by the Minnesota Vikings in the 15th round in 1974.
In all, just nine SJU players have ever been drafted – Red Maenhout (12th round, 1949, New York Bulldogs); Dick Coy (19th round, 1955, Chicago Cardinals); Chuck Froehle (1957, 19th round, Baltimore Colts); Tom McIntyre (18th round, 1963, Minnesota Vikings); John McDowell (9th round, 1964, Green Bay Packers); Paul Labinski (16th round, 1965, Minnesota Vikings); Fred Cremer (12th round, 1967, Minnesota Vikings); Steve Setzler (12th round, 1972, San Francisco 49ers); and Wachtler.
The last Johnnie to actually appear in a regular-season NFL game was running back Rick Bell, who played for the Vikings in 1983 and was one of the final players cut in training camp the following year.
"It would mean a lot to our program for him to be drafted and it would really speak to the level of football we play here," SJU head coach
Gary Fasching (
left, with Bartch in Mobile, Ala.) said. "It would say a lot about our coaching staff and how they've been able to develop a player like that.
"But more than anything, it would say a lot about Ben. Because you don't get to the place he is without putting in the time and effort. And he has done everything he possibly could to put himself in this position."
It has certainly been a meteoric rise for a player who was a tight end during his first two seasons with the Johnnies, but switched to offensive tackle prior to the 2018 season and went on to start 27-straight games.
"We always knew he was a pretty good blocker," Fasching recalls. "There were times when he'd drop a pass in practice that I'd joke how easy it would be to turn that (jersey number) 87 into a 78.
"But after his sophomore year, I approached him seriously in the weight room and told him he would be the No. 3 tight end on our team. We had Tommy Auger and Jared Streit (standouts who graduated following the 2018 season) already ahead of him.
"But I said he really had a chance to start for us on the offensive line. He said he needed time to think about it. But about 45 minutes later, he was up in my office and said he'd do it.
"And then I really have to give him credit. Because he went about reshaping his body. He was 250 pounds when we moved him. And he came back in August for camp at 275. He put in a ton of hard work."
The results showed this past season. He earned D3football.com First Team and Associated Press Second Team Division III All-American honors while helping lead the Johnnies to their first berth in the national semifinals since 2003.
And he received the MIAC's Mike Stam Award as the conference's top offensive or defensive lineman.
He was also named to the 22-man Allstate American Football Coaches Association's Good Works Team. It's members, made up of players from all divisions of college football, were honored at halftime of the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 in New Orleans.
"The scouts who came out to practice this past season were all impressed by him, but one question they asked me was how would he handle it when he went into camp and was going against an All-Pro," Fasching said. "Or how he would handle going against the best Division I players in the country at the Senior Bowl. They wondered if it would phase him, or if he'd get nervous.
"I told them that's just not
Ben Bartch. He doesn't think that way. He's not going to get flustered. He's going to go out there, turn in his very best performance and have fun doing it. And that's just what he did at the Senior Bowl last week."
The next step in his journey is the NFL Combine, which is scheduled for Feb. 23-March 2 in Indianapolis. Bartch has already been invited to the event, which will offer him another high-profile shot at displaying his skills and talent for NFL teams.
Along the way, he will also be representing Division III, though he said he really hasn't given that aspect of his journey a lot of thought.
"I guess I really haven't thought about it in that way," he said. "But if people do think of me as representing Saint John's and Division III, I hope to do it well and with a lot of respect and honor."
Bartch was the subject of a number of enthusiastic tweets during last week's practices at the Senior Bowl:
