He’s been playing since the third grade, adding wrestling five years later in part because it helped with his ability to focus. The only other sport Maslowski attempted to play was basketball, but after a year of keeping statistics on the end of the bench he never returned to the court.
Football is also his passion. Maslowski will watch movies and listen to music in what little free time is afforded to an intercollegiate student-athlete, but he puts just as much effort into studying the game during the week as he does into practicing and physically preparing for Saturdays. He is so consumed by the sport that he would prefer to break down film in an effort to improve rather than enjoy casually watching a Sunday afternoon National Football League affair.
And he has rarely experienced defeat. Since the fifth grade, the New Lenox, Ill., native has always been part of a winning program. Thanks to his contributions, that remains the case on the Hill.
That was never more evident than last October, when the 6-foot-1, 225-pound inside linebacker replaced All-American Erik Dandy — to the football world outside the Hill, the perceived heart and soul of Western’s defense — and helped lead the school to its first NCAA Division I-AA national championship.
Although he entered the Southwest Missouri State game last year with 15 tackles in WKU’s first seven contests, Maslowski and the coaching staff knew he was prepared to succeed and that the Hilltopper defense wouldn’t miss a beat. And it didn’t — he would post 11 tackles in his first collegiate start, record four games with double-digit stops and end the season among the Gateway Football Conference leaders with 95 total tackles.
Maslowski’s impact was in part attributable to his ability to be in the right place at the right time. His interception on McNeese State’s very first offensive play set the tone as Western scored on the ensuing possession and never trailed in the Toppers’ 34-14 victory. One week earlier at Georgia Southern, he recovered a fumble on the Eagles’ opening drive inside their 5-yard line that set up the first score of the game, a Jon Frazier touchdown run. In the second quarter, Maslowski forced a fumble that Western recovered and turned into a field goal.
“He works hard in the offseason. He studies the opponent and knows the defense packages almost as well as I do,” said Hilltopper defensive coordinator Don Martindale. “Karl is just a smart football player. I give him a lot of credit.”
“I really wasn‘t worried after Erik’s injury. The thing that bothered me was that people approached me and told me they thought the season was over because he was hurt,” Maslowski said. “I told the defense before we played SMS that I was ready. I wasn’t nervous because I had been there before.”
By the end of the season, he was tied for the team and conference lead with five forced fumbles and four other recoveries. He also recorded three sacks and the first two interceptions of his career.
“Karl just totally elevated his game — he completely played up to his potential, and at times exceeded what we would judge as his true abilities,” said first-year head coach David Elson, the Toppers’ defensive coordinator the last two seasons. “It goes to show you his character. He was patient, always working on football to get better. He prepared for that time to come, he wasn’t just going through the motions. We always tell our players to be ready because they could be one play away from getting on the field — he embraced that concept.”
That patience has been seen throughout his time on the Hill. Maslowski arrived on campus and was hurt in camp, and he ended up sitting out the 1999 season as a redshirt. But as he watched the Hilltoppers practice that fall, he saw the abilities of players such as Sherrod Coates, Mel Mitchell and Bobby Sippio, and believed he would have to wait until the end of his career to even get on the playing field. In his first two years, Maslowski accounted for 23 tackles playing almost exclusively on special teams. But after last year’s performance, the coaching staff realized he needed to be in the lineup. The problem — where to go with both Dandy and Charles Thompson returning for the 2003 campaign?
The answer? Switching to outside linebacker. So far, the results have not been much different. He ranks third on the team with 14 tackles in Western’s first two wins, with three stops for loss and a forced fumble. He accounted for the Toppers’ first points of the season with a sack in the end zone against Union (Ky.).
“I knew last season I was going to move outside. And, with Sherrod and Jon (Drummond) leaving, those were four big shoes to fill,” he said. “I don’t care where I play. I’m not going to play in the NFL. I just want to play football and help the team win.”
When asked to analyze how the transition has gone, it might be the only time Maslowski faces doubts about his performance. “I can’t tell if I’m being productive or not. If I had a good game at inside linebacker I knew, but outside I have no clue because I make half as many tackles.”
“Karl has done what we have expected him to do. It’s impressive, but it’s not impressive because you know Karl,” said Martindale. “He can play anywhere on the field because he is a smart football player. Karl’s proven that since he’s been here.”
“I don’t think there is any doubt that he is one of our best defensive football players,” Elson said. “He has versatility and knowledge of the game. He knows our defense as well as anybody, including myself and coach Martindale.
“I remember last year against Florida International, there was a third-down play. I had one of those brain fades and was struggling to get a call in. Karl signaled a call to me and I told him to go with it — he ended up intercepting the ball on that play.”
What is surprising, given Maslowski’s knowledge and track record of success, is that he was lightly recruited out of Lincoln-Way High School. Just as he did last fall, Maslowski replaced a starting linebacker for the Knights prior to his junior season and helped lead the team to a state championship. He posted 154 tackles as a senior to earn honorable mention All-America honors from USA Today as well as first-team all-state accolades. But phone calls were few and far between for Maslowski.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he recalled. “Someone put on the Internet that I committed to Western Michigan after an unofficial visit, I don’t know if that deterred a lot of people.”
“I actually told WKU no at first. I told (former assistant coach) Cap Boso that I was leaning towards Olivet-Nazarene.”
“Cap had recruited the Chicago area at Southern Illinois before he came here, so he had some connections,” said Elson. “Rob Glielmi was Karl’s high school coach, and Cap had the utmost respect for his opinion. He would pound his fist on the table and say that we needed to offer Karl a scholarship to get him to want to come down here.
“I’ve admitted to Karl that I thought he might be a step slow. Somehow, he knew that Cap was the only guy pulling for him, and I think he came down here with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder for the rest of us. But Cap was right, and you have to give him credit for evaluating talent like that.”
Maslowski’s love for the game has been evident since he started playing in the third grade. By the time he was in junior high school, he was playing on two teams, which meant two, and sometimes three, games in a week. That’s also when he won his first national championship, quarterbacking a group of New Lenox seventh graders to a youth title. They lost in the championship game a year later to a team from St. Bernards, La. — ironically, he would meet up again with a few of those players in Chattanooga last December.
And his love for the game is evident in the career path he would like to follow — coaching. He would like to work as a graduate assistant while working towards a master’s degree, and hopes to go on to a career on the collegiate and professional level.
“I thought it was kind of funny when some of the other guys were talking about playing in the NFL,” said Maslowski. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be in the NFL,’ and they started laughing. I told them, ‘I’ll be your boss.’”
But for the time being, Maslowski’s focus is on helping the Hilltoppers win another national championship in his last go round as a player. And he can rest assured that, thanks to his patience and persistence, he is another link in a recent line of outstanding individuals that give Western Kentucky consideration as the “Linebacker U” of the new millennium.
“He could start anywhere in the country. I told him that last year when we decided who the first-team members were,” said Martindale. “He knew that too. And that’s what he told the defense at SMS. That was the turning point of his career here.”
For Western, that could well be the point where championship dreams were realized. Dreams that Maslowski is all too familiar with thanks to his lifelong success on the football field.
