Michigan State University Athletics
Photo by: Matthew Mitchell Photography
Jacub and Mike Panasiuk: Brothers in Arms
9/4/2019 3:15:00 PM | Football
Imagine lining up across from Michigan State's defensive line reasonably certain about your blocking assignment thanks to practice, hours of film study and a detailed scouting report. Then, seconds before the snap, the Spartan end and tackle start jabbering to each other – a probable indication they are adjusting their attack scheme based on the offensive formation.
Inches away from your facemask, they're presumably telling you and everybody else within earshot exactly what they're going to do, but wait…
What should be invaluable intel is useless because what Nos. 96 and 72 are saying is coming through the earholes of your helmet as complete gibberish. And now, with the center's trigger hand atwitching, you're thinking – maybe guessing – instead of automatically exploding off the snap like you've done a million times before.
You hesitate, or jab-step six inches in the wrong direction, and as a result either No. 96 or No. 72 just blew up the play.
Congratulations, you've been Panasiuked.
"Dziękuję," mutters 6-foot-4, 293-pound defensive tackle Mike Panasiuk (No. 72), thanking you in Polish as he makes his way back to the Spartan defensive huddle. "Miłego dnia (have a nice day)," little brother Jacub Panasiuk (6-3, 245) might cheerily add.
Each Panasiuk is an asset in his own right to MSU's defensive front, which is ranked No. 1 in the Big Ten going into the 2019 season. But as a brotherly tandem that grew up with Polish immigrant parents outside of Chicago, the Panasiuks are a unique synergistic force with their own way of communicating, wreaking havoc and occasionally pranking opponents, teammates and coaches.
"I'll scream it as loud as I can," said Mike, who is tied for the team lead with 30 consecutive starts dating back to the final three games of his true freshman season in 2016. "But I might just be saying, 'I'm going to go to the grocery store later,' and the offensive linemen are like, `Watch, it, watch it, watch it.' And we're just watching and laughing. We're just trying to have a good time while also getting the job done."
With Jacub making his first career start in last season's opener against Utah State, Mike wasted no time putting the Panasiuk familial bond to the test. As the Aggies lined up for the first play of their second possession in the second quarter, Mike changed the play called by middle linebacker Joe Bachie in the huddle.Â
"I told (Jacub) in Polish, 'I'll go first and you wrap,' " Mike said.
Anticipating how defensive ends coach Chuck Bullough and defensive tackles coach Ron Burton would react if the spur-of-the-moment improvisation backfired, Jacub initially resisted.
"He was getting a good pass-run read on them and had a feeling," Jacub said. "But it was first-and-10 and he told me they were going to go with a pass. He looks at me goes, 'Run this play.' And I'm like, 'What! It's my first game starting, I can't do that. We haven't done that yet.' And he's like, 'Run it.' I'm like, OK, and we did it. Mike made an inside move and took the guard outside, and I got a quarterback hit that led to an interception."
Four plays later, quarterback Brian Lewerke threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Cody White to take 13-7 lead, and the Spartans would go on to win, 38-31.
"Then, in the Purdue game, we went out for field-goal block and I lined up the way I was supposed to," said Jacub.
"And I was like, 'Scooch over, scooch over, we'll take this kid for a ride,'" said Mike.
"And I'm like, I gotta listen to him because it worked before," said Jacub. "So we lined him up, drove him back and Mike blocked the field goal that would have tied the game."
The Spartans won, 23-13.
As the season played out, Mike and Jacub teamed up with nose tackle Raequan Williams and end Kenny Willekes to anchor the nation's best defense against the rush, and the 77.9 yards allowed per game was the fifth-lowest total in Spartan history. Mike finished last season with 25 tackles including six behind the line of scrimmage, and three pass break-ups while Jacub had 31 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss including two sacks, one pass break-up and one forced fumble.
"Having those two guys on the field is good because they've got a different connection than everyone else," said Bachie, a third-year starter who owes much of his success as MSU's leading tackler to Mike and Jacub. "You'll hear them make calls in Polish to each other and I have no idea what it means; I just hope it's gonna work out. It's interesting because if you check the stats, you might not see Mike having 10 tackles but if I had a 10-tackle game he might be responsible for eight of them by doing a great job of holding people off of me. Nobody sees that, except the people inside our building. And Jacub on the outside, as he gets more mature and understands how important it is to work with the money linebacker."
Although these days the Panasiuks are a model of domestic tranquility and harmony, it wasn't always that way.
Their mother and father, Jolanta and Darius, were 18 when they emigrated from Poland. As their sons grew up, only Polish was spoken in the Panasiuk household. The boys learned English in their elementary school, Mike said.
The Panasiuks' childhood included annual summer trips back to the family farm in Poland, which continue to this day – Mike recently returned from a visit this past spring.
"They used to raise livestock, everything," said Mike. "I'd to drive the tractor and (Jacub) would pitch the hay. When were younger, our uncle would take a pig from the farm, butcher it up, bring it back and we'd eat good. Kielbasa, pierogi, everything."
The rural Eastern European lifestyle may have had something to do with Mike being the strongest high school prospect at The Opening Camp in Beaverton, Oregon, in July 2015.
"They've got that 'it factor' in the game where you know they have your back at all times and will do whatever they have to for the team," said Williams. "They have that street-fight mentality, and motivate the whole defense with their relentlessness. Seeing Mike physically picking up 300-pound linemen and moving them…, they have what I call that un-human strength. They're country strong. And it's kind of funny when you hear them talking in Polish because at first we thought they were actually communicating, but then they'll tell us they were just making a bunch of dummy calls the whole time."
It's all buddy-buddy now, but Mike and Jacub's relationship during their youth can be described only as one filled with animosity.
"When we'd be in Poland, we used to always argue and get into fights," said Jacub. "Growing up, we hated each other."
"There was blood," said Mike.
But in the end, brotherly hate is more like brotherly love than actual hate.
"There were situations when we were in school, or out on the playground, and if someone did something to him, I'd be right there by his side," said Mike. "And it was vice versa, the same thing with him. If someone was up in my alley and something was going wrong, he'd be right there for me, too, no matter if we had previously gotten in a fight at home or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
"We'd scuffle, but we knew it's family and family's gonna be there forever."
Said Jacub, "In Poland, there were kids on the block who didn't like us because we were from America, so they'd always try to get in fights with us. But he'd always stand up for me, and if anything happened to him I'd stand up for him."
Although Mike and Jacub grew closer while playing high school ball together, and despite the fact MSU has a long tradition of brothers playing as Spartan teammates, Jacub had zero interest in following Mike to East Lansing. Unfortunately for Jacub at the time, but fortunately for the Spartans, recent history involving the Allens of Hinsdale, Illinois, stood in the way of him going anyplace else.
Just as Jacub began exploring the recruiting trail, Michigan State center Jack Allen was wrapping his up All-American career after playing final two seasons alongside younger brother Brian. Meanwhile, current starting center Matt Allen committed to MSU to begin his college career in 2016, overlapping Brian's final two seasons.
"My mindset was, we didn't have the best relationship, yet," Jacub said of his desire to be as far away from Mike as possible. "I just wanted to make my own path, not sit in his shadow and just go my own way. I had a bunch of schools come in and visit and tell me they would offer me, but they said they knew I was already going to Michigan State even though I told multiple schools I wasn't. They told me what my decision was before I was even able to take a real serious visit there. Illinois compared us to the Allens right away, saying, 'You're not coming here, we already went through this before with them.'
"After talking with my family, especially my mom -- she didn't really want to see us separated -- once I got the opportunity to come here I knew right away this is where I belonged."
Michigan State's legacy of brotherly teammates goes back at least to when identical twins Ron and Rich Saul each earned All-Big Ten honors as Spartans in the late 1960s. Ron was an offensive guard and Rich, who played defensive end and linebacker as a senior, led MSU in tackles in each of his final two seasons.
Bullough's MSU playing career began one season after his older brother Shane's ended in '86, but Shane's sons – Max, Riley and recently graduated Byron – extended the family's Spartan dynasty under coach Mark Dantonio from 2010-18. The Dowell twins spent four seasons together in the Spartan locker room with Andrew, a linebacker, wrapping up his career last season, and David set to close his out this season as a fifth-year starting safety. Younger brother Michael joined the Spartans in 2018 and will be a redshirt freshman safety this season.
"Coach Bullough sat us down one time and told us that you don't only play for your last name on the back of your jersey to make yourself look good, you also play for the name on the front," said Jacub. "He just told us to represent it as if each and every individual on the team was a family member."
"So regardless, that's what Michigan State is all about, the family atmosphere it provides," said Mike.
"But if you do have family members on the team, it just takes that up a whole other level because it's your blood," added Jacub. "When we go home and talk to our old coaches about the games and football, it's different for us. The experience just wouldn't be the same if I went someplace else."
Feature written by Steve Grinczel; originally published in the 2019 Michigan State football preseason magazine.
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Inches away from your facemask, they're presumably telling you and everybody else within earshot exactly what they're going to do, but wait…
What should be invaluable intel is useless because what Nos. 96 and 72 are saying is coming through the earholes of your helmet as complete gibberish. And now, with the center's trigger hand atwitching, you're thinking – maybe guessing – instead of automatically exploding off the snap like you've done a million times before.
You hesitate, or jab-step six inches in the wrong direction, and as a result either No. 96 or No. 72 just blew up the play.
Congratulations, you've been Panasiuked.
"Dziękuję," mutters 6-foot-4, 293-pound defensive tackle Mike Panasiuk (No. 72), thanking you in Polish as he makes his way back to the Spartan defensive huddle. "Miłego dnia (have a nice day)," little brother Jacub Panasiuk (6-3, 245) might cheerily add.
Each Panasiuk is an asset in his own right to MSU's defensive front, which is ranked No. 1 in the Big Ten going into the 2019 season. But as a brotherly tandem that grew up with Polish immigrant parents outside of Chicago, the Panasiuks are a unique synergistic force with their own way of communicating, wreaking havoc and occasionally pranking opponents, teammates and coaches.
"I'll scream it as loud as I can," said Mike, who is tied for the team lead with 30 consecutive starts dating back to the final three games of his true freshman season in 2016. "But I might just be saying, 'I'm going to go to the grocery store later,' and the offensive linemen are like, `Watch, it, watch it, watch it.' And we're just watching and laughing. We're just trying to have a good time while also getting the job done."
With Jacub making his first career start in last season's opener against Utah State, Mike wasted no time putting the Panasiuk familial bond to the test. As the Aggies lined up for the first play of their second possession in the second quarter, Mike changed the play called by middle linebacker Joe Bachie in the huddle.Â
"I told (Jacub) in Polish, 'I'll go first and you wrap,' " Mike said.
Anticipating how defensive ends coach Chuck Bullough and defensive tackles coach Ron Burton would react if the spur-of-the-moment improvisation backfired, Jacub initially resisted.
"He was getting a good pass-run read on them and had a feeling," Jacub said. "But it was first-and-10 and he told me they were going to go with a pass. He looks at me goes, 'Run this play.' And I'm like, 'What! It's my first game starting, I can't do that. We haven't done that yet.' And he's like, 'Run it.' I'm like, OK, and we did it. Mike made an inside move and took the guard outside, and I got a quarterback hit that led to an interception."
Four plays later, quarterback Brian Lewerke threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Cody White to take 13-7 lead, and the Spartans would go on to win, 38-31.
"Then, in the Purdue game, we went out for field-goal block and I lined up the way I was supposed to," said Jacub.
"And I was like, 'Scooch over, scooch over, we'll take this kid for a ride,'" said Mike.
"And I'm like, I gotta listen to him because it worked before," said Jacub. "So we lined him up, drove him back and Mike blocked the field goal that would have tied the game."
The Spartans won, 23-13.
As the season played out, Mike and Jacub teamed up with nose tackle Raequan Williams and end Kenny Willekes to anchor the nation's best defense against the rush, and the 77.9 yards allowed per game was the fifth-lowest total in Spartan history. Mike finished last season with 25 tackles including six behind the line of scrimmage, and three pass break-ups while Jacub had 31 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss including two sacks, one pass break-up and one forced fumble.
"Having those two guys on the field is good because they've got a different connection than everyone else," said Bachie, a third-year starter who owes much of his success as MSU's leading tackler to Mike and Jacub. "You'll hear them make calls in Polish to each other and I have no idea what it means; I just hope it's gonna work out. It's interesting because if you check the stats, you might not see Mike having 10 tackles but if I had a 10-tackle game he might be responsible for eight of them by doing a great job of holding people off of me. Nobody sees that, except the people inside our building. And Jacub on the outside, as he gets more mature and understands how important it is to work with the money linebacker."
Although these days the Panasiuks are a model of domestic tranquility and harmony, it wasn't always that way.
Their mother and father, Jolanta and Darius, were 18 when they emigrated from Poland. As their sons grew up, only Polish was spoken in the Panasiuk household. The boys learned English in their elementary school, Mike said.
The Panasiuks' childhood included annual summer trips back to the family farm in Poland, which continue to this day – Mike recently returned from a visit this past spring.
"They used to raise livestock, everything," said Mike. "I'd to drive the tractor and (Jacub) would pitch the hay. When were younger, our uncle would take a pig from the farm, butcher it up, bring it back and we'd eat good. Kielbasa, pierogi, everything."
The rural Eastern European lifestyle may have had something to do with Mike being the strongest high school prospect at The Opening Camp in Beaverton, Oregon, in July 2015.
"They've got that 'it factor' in the game where you know they have your back at all times and will do whatever they have to for the team," said Williams. "They have that street-fight mentality, and motivate the whole defense with their relentlessness. Seeing Mike physically picking up 300-pound linemen and moving them…, they have what I call that un-human strength. They're country strong. And it's kind of funny when you hear them talking in Polish because at first we thought they were actually communicating, but then they'll tell us they were just making a bunch of dummy calls the whole time."
It's all buddy-buddy now, but Mike and Jacub's relationship during their youth can be described only as one filled with animosity.
"When we'd be in Poland, we used to always argue and get into fights," said Jacub. "Growing up, we hated each other."
"There was blood," said Mike.
But in the end, brotherly hate is more like brotherly love than actual hate.
"There were situations when we were in school, or out on the playground, and if someone did something to him, I'd be right there by his side," said Mike. "And it was vice versa, the same thing with him. If someone was up in my alley and something was going wrong, he'd be right there for me, too, no matter if we had previously gotten in a fight at home or just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
"We'd scuffle, but we knew it's family and family's gonna be there forever."
Said Jacub, "In Poland, there were kids on the block who didn't like us because we were from America, so they'd always try to get in fights with us. But he'd always stand up for me, and if anything happened to him I'd stand up for him."
Although Mike and Jacub grew closer while playing high school ball together, and despite the fact MSU has a long tradition of brothers playing as Spartan teammates, Jacub had zero interest in following Mike to East Lansing. Unfortunately for Jacub at the time, but fortunately for the Spartans, recent history involving the Allens of Hinsdale, Illinois, stood in the way of him going anyplace else.
Just as Jacub began exploring the recruiting trail, Michigan State center Jack Allen was wrapping his up All-American career after playing final two seasons alongside younger brother Brian. Meanwhile, current starting center Matt Allen committed to MSU to begin his college career in 2016, overlapping Brian's final two seasons.
"My mindset was, we didn't have the best relationship, yet," Jacub said of his desire to be as far away from Mike as possible. "I just wanted to make my own path, not sit in his shadow and just go my own way. I had a bunch of schools come in and visit and tell me they would offer me, but they said they knew I was already going to Michigan State even though I told multiple schools I wasn't. They told me what my decision was before I was even able to take a real serious visit there. Illinois compared us to the Allens right away, saying, 'You're not coming here, we already went through this before with them.'
"After talking with my family, especially my mom -- she didn't really want to see us separated -- once I got the opportunity to come here I knew right away this is where I belonged."
Michigan State's legacy of brotherly teammates goes back at least to when identical twins Ron and Rich Saul each earned All-Big Ten honors as Spartans in the late 1960s. Ron was an offensive guard and Rich, who played defensive end and linebacker as a senior, led MSU in tackles in each of his final two seasons.
Bullough's MSU playing career began one season after his older brother Shane's ended in '86, but Shane's sons – Max, Riley and recently graduated Byron – extended the family's Spartan dynasty under coach Mark Dantonio from 2010-18. The Dowell twins spent four seasons together in the Spartan locker room with Andrew, a linebacker, wrapping up his career last season, and David set to close his out this season as a fifth-year starting safety. Younger brother Michael joined the Spartans in 2018 and will be a redshirt freshman safety this season.
"Coach Bullough sat us down one time and told us that you don't only play for your last name on the back of your jersey to make yourself look good, you also play for the name on the front," said Jacub. "He just told us to represent it as if each and every individual on the team was a family member."
"So regardless, that's what Michigan State is all about, the family atmosphere it provides," said Mike.
"But if you do have family members on the team, it just takes that up a whole other level because it's your blood," added Jacub. "When we go home and talk to our old coaches about the games and football, it's different for us. The experience just wouldn't be the same if I went someplace else."
Feature written by Steve Grinczel; originally published in the 2019 Michigan State football preseason magazine.
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