A healthy Paulus could mean 6 wins for Syracuse this fall

I’m not ready to go out and buy one of those “The Devil Wears Orange’’ T-shirts in honor of Duke Blue Devil-point-guard-turned-Syracuse-Orange-quarterback Greg Paulus, but I am looking forward to an SU football season for the first time in ages.

And I’m not alone.

A crowd of about 45,000 – nearly 13,000 above last year’s paltry average – is anticipated for Saturday’s season-opener against the Minnesota Gophers in the Carrier Dome.

And the national media will be there, too – as they have been all summer - to chronicle this fascinating story of the prodigal son returning home after a four-year hiatus to Tobacco Road.

Perhaps, I’m a little caught up in the “Pauluspalooza,’’ but based on what I’ve seen from the young man recently and what I saw from him five years ago on the football fields at Syracuse’s Christian Brothers Academy, I think this experiment is going to be successful.

While throwing for 11,763 yards and 152 touchdowns as a four-year starter at CBA, Paulus was recruited by every major football program in America. College recruiting guru Tom Lemming went so far as to compare him to Joe Montana.

Yes, that was long ago, and the college game is a quantum leap from high school. But I can’t believe Paulus has somehow forgotten the football instincts and lost the physical skills that made him Gatorade’s National High School Football Player of the Year five years ago.

Sure, there’s going to be rust. But Paulus is a very bright athlete with great field vision. He already has developed a firm grasp of the spread offense SU will employ and has demonstrated during preseason practices that he has the arm to make all the throws.

My biggest concerns: how he will handle the physical pounding and whether his questionable supporting cast be able to do their fair share.

I know Paulus is used to handling pressure from his experiences as Mike Krzyzewski’s coach-on-the-floor during his four seasons playing basketball at Duke. But even those bloody basketbrawl games against North Carolina in Chapel Hill can’t compare to having your body pancaked against the turf by a 300-pound defensive lineman.

Quarterbacks at most levels of football aren’t allowed to be hit during practice, and that was the case during this Syracuse preseason, so it will be interesting to see how Paulus responds after that first hit.

Maybe I’m snowed. Maybe I’m so starved to see something resembling a Division I football program return to the Dome that I’m not viewing the situation clearly.

But I saw this kid play football several times in high school and I was wowed.

I’m not delirious enough to think he’s going to ride into his hometown and make the Orange big winners over night. But I believe he will make the ‘Cuse much more competitive and entertaining than they’ve been in a long, long time. If he stays healthy, I can see the Orange winning six games against a schedule that isn’t all that daunting.

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It still baffles me why Dick Jauron didn’t play Trent Edwards and his first-team offense for at least a quarter against the Detroit Lions. How does one field goal in 15 series earn you a day off in the exhibition finale? Trent doesn’t play, yet established quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning and Kurt Warner do. No wonder citizens of Bills Nation are so down on Jauron.

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I was saddened to hear that Hall-of-Fame baseball broadcaster and Hall-of-Fame person Ernie Harwell has incurable cancer. I had the pleasure of interviewing him for my “Memories of Yankee Stadium’’ book two years ago, and he was just like he was on the air – a gracious, kind-hearted gentleman.

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I don't think this was what the American Football Coaches Association had in mind when they launched their new sportsmanship initiative.

It start out OK with the players from Boise State and Oregon exchanging handshakes before kickoff Thursday night. But then a player from Oregon sucker-punched a player from Boise just before the game ended, and had to be dragged off the field by his teammates, coaches and security.

Syracuse will pin hopes on Paulus

No one can be surprised that Syracuse football coach Doug Marrone named former Duke point guard Greg Paulus his starting quarterback after just one week of practice. This was a foregone conclusion the minute Paulus announced he had chosen SU over a dozen other schools, including Nebraska and Michigan, this spring.

As I've written a few times in this cyberspace, this is a risk worth taking. So what if Paulus, a former national scholastic football player of the year, hasn't played the sport in four years? His leadership skills can't be questioned, and during these recent practices he's shown Marrone he has the arm to make all the required throws.

The two-time academic All-America is bright enough to assimilate the SU offense on the fly, and he learned all about dealing with pressure during those games in Chapel Hill - where Duke point guards are about as popular as Bernie Madoff.

I know this is a long-shot, but Paulus is a special talent. I really believe that, barring injury, he is going to be the difference in two or three more wins for SU, which would be a healthy improvement over last year's 3-9 Sour Orange. And even if he bombs, it'll still have been worth it because he'll have sold a bunch of tickets and created interest in a program that's been a bottom feeder for several years.

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I pray that sprinter Usain Bolt is clean because he's such a joy to watch run. Sadly, this is where we are in the world of sports in 21st century - wondering if athletes are breaking records naturally or artificially. I find myself reluctant to gush over such achievements, because I've been burned by so many fraudulent sluggers and sprinters over the past decade.

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I've researched and written quite a bit about Rochester Red Wings history through the years, but I'm hardpressed to come up with many finishes as bizarre as yesterday's. The Wings head into the ninth up by a run, then proceed to give up 12 runs in a 16-5 loss. That's the stuff of the Bad News Bears.

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It seems like it was a decade ago, but it was just last year that I was covering Michael Phelps winning his record 8th Olympic gold medal in Beijing. About an hour before Phelps raced, I was in a bathroom in the Ice Cube swimming arena throwing up. That prompted friends and relatives to wonder if I deserved a gold medal in "hurling.''

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There are reports out of Oakland that Raiders head coach Tom Cable punched defensive assistant Randy Hanson in the jaw. That, of course, reminds me of the "Bickering Bills'' days in 1989 when Buffalo assistants Nick Nicolau and Tom Bresnahan got into a fight. Despite giving away about five inches and 80 pounds, Nicolau got the better of Bresnahan, who wound up wearing a turban-like bandage around his head to meetings after having his head driven through a plaster wall. In the book I calloborated on with Steve Tasker, the Bills special team's star told me that Nicolau and Bresnahan had gone back to being friends before the plaster had dried on that repaired wall in the coaches' meeting room.

Tom Golisano leaves home; Greg Paulus returns

Who can blame Buffalo Sabres owner and philanthropist Tom Golisano for finally fleeing his home state because of its dysnfunctional government and ridiculous tax burden?

Unlike the bozos in Albany who have helped turn the Empire State into the nation's laughing stock, Golisano made a concerted effort through his gubernatorial runs and lobbying to bring about reform. But the cronies in the state capital are so entrenched that even a powerful, self-made billionaire like Golisano couldn't bring about change.

My wife, Beth, and I are native Upstate New Yorkers, and we love so much about our community and our state. But we often wonder how much longer we're going to be able to afford to stay in a place that soon will be taxing the air we breath.

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The New York State motto is "excelsior,'' which means "ever-higher.'' Perhaps they should change the translation to "ever-higher taxes.''

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OK, enough with the politics.

On a positive sports note, Greg Paulus decided he will spend his graduate year of athletic eligibility playing football at Syracuse. As I mentioned in this space before, I think it's a low-risk, high-reward move for both student-athlete and school. (In this case, the term student-athlete is relevant. Paulus truly is one.)

If the Duke point guard quickly recaptures the magic we saw four years ago in high school when he threw for 11,763 yards and 152 touchdowns while leading Syracuse Christian Brothers Academy to a three-year 42-3 record and a state championship, the the moribund Orange program will receive an unexpected shot in the arm and possibly earn a bowl bid.

If he bombs . . . well, at least he will have coaxed several thousand extra fannies into the Carrier Dome and made a 3-8 transition season a lot more interesting than it would have been.

I think Paulus is going to do just fine, despite the difficult odds of making a comeback after a four-year hiatus. He is a bright kid with great leadership skills. And the toughness that comes with having been the Blue Devils floor general under Coach K for three years is sure to help.

Paulus had a very good workout with the Green Bay Packers a few weeks ago. And it should be noted that more than a dozen major Division I programs - including Nebraska and Michigan - also were willing to take a risk that Paulus could be a one-year wonder for them.

Again, it isn't like Paulus is keeping the next Donovn McNabb or Donnie McPherson on the bench. This is a program that hasn't had a winning season in seven years and has lost 57 of its last 83 games, often by huge margins.

Look at it this way. It's similar to the Bills signing of Terrell Owens, only without the VH-1 reality series.

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Interestingly, once Paulus' football season ends, he plans to serve as a basketball graduate assistant under Jim Boeheim. Too bad Greg didn't have one more year of eligibility in hoops, too. Jimmy B could have used him now that Jonny Flynn has bolted for the riches of the NBA.

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The NFL reportedly is against the state of Delaware legalizing gambling. What a bunch of hypocrites. The league owes a huge amount of its popularity to the millions who bet on games.

Monday morning musings

The way I see it, a one-year marriage between hometown boy Greg Paulus and Syracuse football is a no-brainer. I mean, it's not like the former Duke University point guard would be keeping the next Donovan McNabb on the bench. Paulus, who was the National Gatorade Player of the Year while playing quarterback for Syracuse CBA five years ago, would create immediate excitement in the moribund SU program and put fannies in the seats. In the best-case scenario, SU goes 6-5 and ekes its way into some insignificant bowl game. In the worst-case scenario, Paulus bombs out and SU goes 3-8 or 2-9, which is what they're predicted to finish anyway. There's a lot to gain and little to lose.

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I saw Paulus play football several times in my previous incarnation as a newspaper columnist, and he is, far and away, the best high school quarterback I've witnessed. To me, Canandaigua's Billy Scharr had a stronger arm, but Paulus had incredible vision and was a great decision-maker. He always threw the ball to the right receiver. I wonder if he ever second guesses his decision to play basketball at Duke, where his career didn't live up to the hype. I remember how his father pushed for him to play football (Greg had offers from a boatload of schools, including Notre Dame and nearby SU). But hoops was Greg's first love. And having a degree from the Harvard of the South isn't too shabby.

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I'm still wondering where the historical preservationists and politicians were four years ago when the new Yankee Stadium was being ram-rodded through. The bottom line is that there was no need to leave the original stadium, other than to line the Steinbrenners' pockets with more gold. There weren't any engineering studies proclaiming the old joint unsound. Plus, the Yankees were selling 4 million tickets a season for a major league record four straight years. It's not like people had stopped coming, the way they are now, thanks to the Yankees price-gouging.

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Don't get me wrong, I love Coach Mac. He was the man who made Syracuse University football relevant again. I just wonder if his overall accomplishments merited election into the College Football Hall of Fame. As my good friend and longtime newspaper colleague Frank Bilovsky points out - Dick MacPherson never won a major bowl game and it wasn't until a few years ago that Penn State's Joe Paterno, winner of three times as many games as Mac, was inducted. Again, I love Coach Mac, I just don't know if he did enough at UMass and SU to warrant induction. What do you think?

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I highly recommend a visit to www.kemppartners.com to read a letter that late Bills quarterback and longtime Western New York Congressman Jack Kemp wrote to his 17 grandchildren the day after Barack Obama was elected president. It is an eloquent and upbeat concession essay from a man who had strongly supported John McCain, but who still understood the historical significance of Obama's election. It's a must-read for conservatives and liberals alike, and speaks volumes about what a gracious man Kemp was, even in defeat.