The return of Greg Paulus

August 18, 12:00 PMCollege Sports ExaminerJacob Osterhout

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Do you believe the hype?

Just when you thought you were done with the perpetually unspectacular Greg Paulus, the former Duke point guard goes and does something to completely reinvent himself.

On Monday night, Syracuse football coach Doug Marrone named Paulus as his starting quarterback for the upcoming season.

Paulus beat out sophomore Ryan Nassib, the No. 1 quarterback last spring, and senior Cam Dantley, who started for the Orange last season under former coach Greg Robinson.

While Paulus has not played football since high school, he was once a highly-touted quarterback, recruited by both Notre Dame and the University of Miami. But the six-foot, 180 lbs. kid from upstate New York chose to play basketball for Duke, where he was a capable floor general but couldn't keep pace with his quicker opponents.

Paulus will take over a sub-par Syracuse team that went 3-9 (1-6 Big East) last season and has only won ten games over the last four seasons.

Paulus' leadership skills are unquestionably strong, but the immediate concern for Syracuse fans has to be the former Blue Devil's body. Can he rebuild his arm strength? Can he still take a hit? For the last four years he has trained his body to play point guard, but no one sacks a point guard, not even Tyler Hansbrough.

These questions will be answered when the Orange kick off the season at home against Minnesota on September 5th. That's when we'll see if Paulus can still sling a football or if he is simply a PR ploy to get the hometown fans enthusiastic about a football team that has only won a single conference game in each of the last three seasons.