CSI Syracuse: Paulus Named Starting QB

Although I am a week away from being on the Syracuse campus, there is already big news regarding the Syracuse football team. If you remember from a previous post, we mentioned that we were doing a segment once we arrived on campus called CSI or College Sports Insiders. This is where Steve, Ryan, and I report on the sports stories surrounding our respective Division 1 colleges and give you opinion and reaction. Well, here is the first CSI post. Syracuse football coach Doug Marrone has decided that QB Greg Paulus will start opening day.

Many of you are familiar with Paulus as the point guard for Duke. At Duke, he was a 3 year starter at point guard, and graduated in May 2009. With one year of athletic eligibility still available, Paulus decided to tap into his high school greatness and retry football. At Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse, NY, Paulus was the 2004 Gatorade High School National Football Player of the Year. Early in the summer, Paulus signed with Syracuse as a graduate student in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He has now reached the top of the QB depth chart, and will get the start September 5th at the Carrier Dome against Minnesota.

Throughout the summer, Paulus was in a battle for that starting QB spot. Last year's starter Cam Dantley and redshirt freshman Ryan Nassib all had hoped of claiming the opening day start. Paulus and Nassib separated themselves, and looked to be in a dead heat for the spot. Both QB's have had significant reps with the first team offense.

This move will surely bring some national attention to Syracuse football, something they have been lacking for most of the decade. That is something that I'm sure 1st year coach Doug Marrone took into account when making this decision. Another fact that helped Paulus was that this is Paulus's only year of eligibility at Syracuse, while Nassib has another 3 years left after this year. Therefore, this is Paulus's time to shine, and we'll see if he does just that.