He saw blue jerseys, gripped it and ripped it. That’s all. Greg Paulus didn’t try to highbrow a very simple play. He looked right, scurried left, saw ‘two or three drifting in the vicinity’ and threw the game away.

This is what people will remember most about Syracuse’s 23-20 overtime loss to Minnesota on Saturday. One brutal sling into no-man’s-land. An ugly pass, without question. A reflection of being away from the sport for nearly five years, for sure. But anyone still sulking over Saturday’s loss needs to wake up. For once, Syracuse football mattered, and the reason was Paulus.

The intramural improvisation and cover-your-eyes turnovers will continue. Don’t expect Paulus to digress into the clichéd ‘game manager’ or ‘caretaker’ – nice words that tend to cloak bad quarterbacks. Paulus is what he is: risky and daring. Anyone willing to attempt what he is doing would have to be.

This is how Paulus will succeed as a college quarterback. He isn’t scared of failure. Four years as a walking bull’s eye at Duke served as a strong vaccine for jitters. And caution.

Throughout his coaching career, Doug Marrone has seen rookies and veterans alike suffer similar brain freezes. After the game, the Syracuse head coach assured such shoot-from-the-hip freelancing will be tamed next time.

‘Will he look the next time to try to make a play out of that situation? I don’t think so,’ Marrone said. ‘We’ll go ahead and kick the field goal.’

Nobody wants game-killing interceptions. But when you’re driving 10 miles over the speed limit, you’re bound to get nailed by the cops once in a while. Here’s hoping Paulus keeps threading passes into places he shouldn’t and keeps freewheeling in the pocket like he’s weaving through a full-court press.

Sure beats the dull status quo that has dominated the position since Donovan McNabb graduated in 1998. Saturday was the first time McNabb has even returned to his alma mater for a football game. Speaking with reporters in the press box during the game, McNabb joked that he’s been embarrassed to wear Syracuse apparel in Philadelphia. His Eagles teammates rip him.

‘But now I can wear it and be proud about it and say we are getting things going,’ McNabb said.

The perception of Syracuse football changed this season. A new coach and new quarterback recharged the hype machine. But the underlying reality was that this may be nothing but Greg Robinson’s leftovers with a shiny new bow.

On Saturday, Paulus proved that this isn’t the case. His way.

He doesn’t have a rifle arm. He isn’t a classic drop-back passer. Instead, the poised 6-foot-1 Paulus is ideal for the dizzying small-ball offensive coordinator Rob Spence wants. Bubble screens and flareouts – spiked with a tint of misdirection – was the norm. Expect dinks, dinks and dinks, with the occasional slam dunk. When Spence noticed Minnesota biting on the bubble, he called a pump-and-go to Mike Williams that resulted in a 29-yard touchdown.

Paulus proved himself as a legitimate Big East quarterback, frequently diverting to trapeze tactics. At one point, Paulus literally touched the ground with the football while scrambling. Not quite a dribble, but close. When pressured, Paulus’ knee-jerk reaction was to reverse direction. Not to swallow the ball and take a sack. No play is dead to him.

Sometimes, it worked. Other times, it blew up. Either way, his teammates don’t want him to change. You rally around a guy that swings for the fences on every play.

Moments after the demoralizing loss – the wound from Paulus’ pick still fresh – SU tight end Mike Owen stood behind rows of reporters picking at Paulus’ brain in the media room. What was Paulus thinking on that pick? Was it rust? Was it inexperience?

This wasn’t a gameplan breakdown. This was Paulus playing the only way he knows how.

‘That’s his style,’ Owen said. ‘He plays backyard football. He’s just out there having fun. He’s a playmaker. When he’s flushed out of the pocket, he’s going to make plays. That’s why I like him.’

Four years of R-rated heckles and nightly barnburners at Duke gave Paulus a unique layer of toughness.

He could have fled to Europe and played pro basketball for money, safely away from the spotlight. Instead, Paulus is here where the nation is obsessing over him. Throughout the opener, the name ‘Greg Paulus’ was embroidered in Twitter’s Trending Topics, sandwiched by a holiday (‘Labor Day’) and a blockbuster movie (‘District 9’).

This one-year fling isn’t normal. And neither is Paulus’ go-for-broke style.

No way will he suddenly morph into a traditional quarterback. He doesn’t have a red-light conscience. He’s immune to the magnitude of a third-down pass in overtime.

And Syracuse will be better for it.

Tyler Dunne is a staff writer for The Daily Orange, where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at thdunne@syr.edu.

Published on September 7, 2009 at 12:00 pm