Louisiana UnLimited: Ken Marks
Even Louisiana's coaches call Ken Marks "Old Man."
"I was joking with one of the trainers last week and asked him when he graduated," Marks said. "I realized we were the same age, and he's on his second stint of working. He was in the XFL and now he's working here … I'm still in college mode and this guy's had two jobs."
But the "Old Man" isn't complaining. Quite the contrary, even as he watches the end of his seventh and final college football season roaring toward him.
"I still enjoy it, a lot," he said. "It gives me something to do when I wake up. My classes aren't as tedious now, so I can go and watch film more, talk to the coaches, get their perspective on things, how they look at things and how they go about game plans."
It's a long way from where the Beaumont, Texas, product was seven years ago when he left Central High as a solid but not highly-recruited player. It's also a long way from where he was two years ago, when he wondered if more football was even in his future.
How much of a long way? His Ragin' Cajuns, after some down years early in his extended career, have won 31 of their last 35 games. They've won two straight bowl games and they're on their way to a third. Before that, they'll host the Sun Belt Conference championship game after winning the West title for the fourth straight season.
Marks has been a big part of that. He and his offensive line mates were a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award, symbolic of the nation's best offensive front, in 2020. This year, they've carved holes and protected quarterback Levi Lewis enough to where the Cajuns are 10-1 with three more chances remaining – the regular-season finale against state and Sun Belt rival ULM, the conference title game Dec. 4 at Cajun Field against East winner Appalachian State, and the program's ninth bowl game in the last 11 years.
The big-hearted Marks hasn't been around for all of those bowls. It only seems that way since he finished his first degree in May of 2019 (Magna Cum Laude), has some graduate school hours and is close to a second degree.
"I didn't even know you could," Marks said when asked about being a part of the Cajun program for so long. "I'd always been taught that you had the redshirt year and the max you could do is five years. But when I got here I learned that if you got an injury they bless you with another year. And then we got the COVID year, so that gave me this year."
Marks first came to Acadiana in 2015 and redshirted his freshman year. He only played in one game the following season but appeared in eight games with one start in 2017 when UL struggled to finish 5-7 in coach Mark Hudspeth's final year.
Under new coach Billy Napier, Marks began to blossom. He started 14 games in his junior season in 2018 when UL won the Sun Belt West Division and finished 7-7 with a loss in the Sun Belt title game and in the Cure Bowl. There was a ton of optimism heading into 2019 and the prospects for some big things in Marks' senior season.
That was before a knee injury in the second quarter of the season opener against Mississippi State in the Superdome, one that cost him the rest of the year and sent him into a downward spiral of despair. Watching his teammates win more games than any Cajun team ever in an 11-3 season was little solace.
"I've always said I want to go out on my own terms, and going out on an injury wasn't in my plans," he said. "I didn't think it was time to give it up. But it was tough. Sometimes I'd go home and I'd cry, kind of the 'why me.' All these years I've been here and my senior year I get hurt. You never think that's going to happen. That's what got me out of grad school … I got depressed and just stopped doing my work. My season's over and I didn't know if I was going to get it back."
But Marks used what he called a "blessing in disguise" to recommit, attacking rehabilitation with the help of physical therapist and former Cajun quarterback Brian Soignier. He was nearly back to full speed by the time UL began 2020 spring drills and was again looking forward to a memorable senior season.
Enter COVID.
"You didn't know at the time if we were even going to have a season," Marks said.
The Cajuns ended up having another great one, losing only once in a 10-1 campaign that included another Sun Belt title game and a win in the First Responders Bowl in Fort Worth. Marks earned third team All-Sun Belt Conference honors at guard among a talented UL group that ranked fifth nationally in fewest tackles for losses and seventh nationally in fewest sacks. He was on watch lists for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award and the Mayo Clinic Comeback Player of the Year honors.
Marks still considers that bowl win as his most memorable moment. "It was the first time to win a bowl game starting," he said, "and being able to do it with my brothers that I'd been with for so long. We all shared Christmas at the bowl game … just being around them and the camaraderie that we had."
In a way, COVID became another "blessing in disguise" since it gave Marks one final year, one he's relished even though he's had to play mostly at tackle because of injuries to the O-line group. His team is riding a school-record 10-game win streak – tied for the fourth-longest active streak in the FBS – and two wins in those last three games would make the 2021 Cajuns the winningest squad in school history.
Marks hasn't had time to fret over his playing career ending in less than a month. He's having too much fun, a lot of that coming in watching the younger Cajun offensive linemen take big steps forward on a group that rarely gets the public recognition it deserves.
"I'm not really sad … I'm kind of rejoicing, because you want to leave a place better than it was when you got there," he said. "I feel like I'm doing that. We've got some young guys that are behind me that are going to be really good and I'm happy to see that. It's not just the wins, it's seeing those younger guys. Nate (Nathan Thomas) has stepped up a lot this year. AJ Gillie's been starting a lot as a freshman. We got to see David (Hudson, who filled in for the injured O'Cyrus Torrence in last week's win over Liberty) play a lot this past week. The young guys, they keep me going, they keep a smile on my face. I want to see them shine more than myself.
"Offensive linemen, we're the most selfless people on the team. We understand how the game goes. We know it goes through us, but that's football. We don't get the credit, but the coaches know what's going on and the people who actually know football know."
With his time winding down, Marks is thinking more of the time when his body won't hurt quite as much ("My knees kind of ache … I have to take ibuprofen to get the aches and pains out"), and how he's going to step away from something that's been his entire adult life. But – big surprise – his plans will still revolve around football.
"Being in football all these years, I want to take that leap into the coaching world," he said. "If I can't play it, I want to coach it. I hope I can grab a GA (graduate assistant) spot somewhere."
But first, there's a little matter of a thrice-delayed Senior Day coming this weekend.
"When something's coming to an end, you kind of enjoy it more," he said. "That's why I'm looking forward to Senior Day. In 2019 I got hurt and I didn't have that, that was one. In 2020, the COVID year, we didn't have a Senior Day because the Central Arkansas game got canceled, so that was two. The third time's the charm … I'm actually going to get a Senior Day."
Even if it's coming a few years later than he expected.
"I've enjoyed the game," he said. "The game has blessed me, and I'm ready to see what's next."
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