When Will Hall took over as Tulane's head coach last December, he made a point to visit John Bock's locker every day, greeting him with a simple, memorable nickname: "Big, bad Bock." For Bock, that gesture sealed his loyalty. The senior center, who believes he was the first player to re-sign with the Green Wave under Hall, jumped at the chance to stay. "The second I heard he was getting hired, I walked into his office and said, 'Let's do it,'" Bock recalled.

Now, after a frustrating year sidelined by injury, Bock is ready to prove he's worthy of that moniker. The 6-foot-3, 316-pound Fort Lauderdale, Florida, product hasn't played a full season since 2022, when he was at Florida International. He earned All-Conference USA freshman honors there, starting 11 games as a true freshman, and added 10 more starts over the next two years around a 12-month suspension for a banned ingredient in a supplement. Transferring to Tulane in 2025, he won a camp battle for starting right guard only to tear the plantar fascia in his left foot during the final preseason scrimmage. That limited him to three late-season games and prompted a redshirt.

Bock doesn't view the setback as a curse. "It was rough, but I think it was meant to happen," he said. "I'm itching to play for sure. I'm even better now than when I was playing at FIU. A lot of people haven't seen me in a while." Hall, who saw Bock's potential even before the injury, made sure the Green Wave retained him. "A lot of people don't know this, but John was a really high-level player at Florida International," Hall said. "He was highly recruited out of the portal and a guy we really wanted to keep. You don't get the notoriety for keeping a guy out of the portal, but he was really good before getting hurt."

Bock's football intelligence sets him apart. His father, John Bock I, played six years in the NFL at guard and center despite going undrafted, later serving as offensive line coach at Florida Atlantic under Howard Schnellenberger. "When I would get home on the weekends at FIU, he would turn on the film," the younger Bock said. "That's been drilled into me since I was a kid."

This season, Bock takes over at center, a role he has embraced after spring practice. He's not worried about the offensive line's inexperience, even though three starters graduated and left guard Shadre Hurst transferred to Houston. The only returning starter, sophomore Reese Baker, moved from tackle to guard during spring. Bock praises sophomore Elijah Baker, who will replace Hurst, for his recognition skills, and insists Reese Baker could have transferred anywhere after starting 13 games as a true freshman but chose to stay. He also hails Boston College transfer Ryan Mickow as "the smartest guy I've ever been with in an offensive line room."

The addition of line coach Cody Kennedy is the final piece. Kennedy, whom Hall hired when he was offensive coordinator under Willie Fritz in 2019 and 2020, is back in the same role. "You know he has that knowledge to take you to the next level," Bock said. "He won't stop coaching me. It's never enough for him in the most friendly way possible. He just wants you to get better. Coach Kennedy has really built this room. If you thought we were close last year, we are 10 times as close this year."

Bock won a state championship at Fort Lauderdale High and returned to the final as a senior. Now he has similar aspirations for Tulane, even if outsiders doubt the Green Wave can reach a fifth consecutive conference title game. "I was talking to Jack (Tchienchou) and Chris (Rodgers) when they were at media day, and when we walk into a room, everybody knows what's up," he said. "Conference champs. It's there. I think people know we're the best."