First, Greg Paulus (of 4-year Duke Men’s Basketball Point Guard renown) decides he want to play football. Not TOO odd, considering he was one of, if not the best QB prospect coming out of high school his senior year, with scholarship offers to Notre Dame and Miami, among others.
So, he gets a try-out with the Green Bay Packers. Odd, considering he hasn’t played football in FOUR YEARS, and none past high school!
Next, Paulus talks to Michigan about transferring there to be their QB. Theoretically, he’s got 4 years of eligibility left in football (having used none – sports don’t cancel each other out), but he’s on-track to graduate this year from Duke. So, he’d have to go to Michigan as a grad student. Could he play for more than one year? I’d think not, as my understanding is you get 5 years total to use 4 years of eligibility, but who knows.
NOW, Duke’s football coach allegedly wants Greg to try out at WR for the Blue Devils. Sure, he’s 6-1/185 – a pretty good sized receiver – but he couldn’t beat a cinder block off the dribble on the hardwood… how’s he supposed to get open against a presumably more agile DB? And he’s a passer, not a catcher…
This could be a rather interesting story as – and if – it develops. Most interesting would be if he transferred to a D-I school and at least made a team, if not started. Imagine if he starts for Michigan as their QB?! I’d bet that would be a first….
April 15th, 2009
I’ve always felt the fact that Paulus played only basketball at Duke was the perfect illustration of where football stood relative to basketball at Duke. Duke picks up a the 2004 Gatorade National (High School) Football Player of the Year, and he doesn’t play football. Well, now maybe he does…
April 15th, 2009
I never understood why he didn’t play FB at Duke. Sure, he probably thought he’d play pro hoops when he started as a freshman at Duke, but man, he was a High School All-American who could have played at ND, Syracuse, Miami. With all due respect, I doubt he would have had much competition getting on the field at Duke.
April 16th, 2009
The short answer is, as you allude to Cruiser: he wanted to be a basketball player. When he signed with Duke, this was his quote at his press con: “Although I love football, and am flattered by all the positive attention and compliments that I have received during my career, basketball is my passion,” Paulus said at a Monday afternoon press conference.
I don’t think it was so much that he couldn’t compete/win the job as the Duke QB – he just didn’t WANT to do both.I can’t even begin to imagine how much time/effort it takes just to play ONE D-I sport at the highest level, let alone two, and at a place like Duke with legit academic considerations (or ND/BC/Cuse, where he also had offers to play both sports). His father was quoted as saying, when he signed, that he wanted above all to play for Coach K, and win a NC. Most guys who sign with Duke say similar things, and I imagine it’d be really hard to do put all you have into that effort while trying to be a 2-sport athlete AND a student.
There are lots of kids who probably wouldn’t care much about the “student” side of the “student-athlete” equation (including some at Duke/ND/BC/Syracuse), but I’ll bet the balance of the kids do care – and that’s in part why they attend these schools (and not FSU, UF, etc.).Also, being the starting QB and a bball PG is probably different than being, say, a TE or DE and a reserve bball player (ala Reggie Love, Julius Peppers)., interms of the time required to be invested in both sports. I can’t imagine that you can skip the spring FB practices to play in the NCAAT if you’re the QB, and to be the QB on a team with bowl hopes, you’d have to miss the first half of the bball season! Ron Curry tried it, but his results were fairly mixed – he was mediocre at both, and wound up as a mediocre WR in the NFL.
April 24th, 2009
The latest on Paulus’ Football Quest: it’s looking more and more like he’ll get a year at quarterback, and it’s also looking more and more like he’ll do that at Syracuse.Go Syraduke Bluorange!
April 26th, 2009
Wouldn’t it be a bit weird for even an athlete of Paulus’ talent to be a starting QB on a D-1 team having not played football in four years? I realize that Michigan, Syracuse (and hell I’ll add BC to the list) could use a talented QB this year, but a QB, no matter how good in high school or at a previous university, nearly always needs at least a year to develop before they really blossom.