Could Greg Paulus go from Duke basketball to Michigan football?
I have to give Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez some major credit for being innovative. And I’m not talking about his spread offense, I mean in thinking outside the box to find a potential quarterback.
And that creativity has led RichRod to Greg Paulus, a one-time top-rated prep quarterback who chose to play four years of basketball at Duke instead of any college football. Foxsports.com reported first that Paulus was in Ann Arbor on Tuesday meeting with Rodriguez about the possibility of playing this season for the Wolverines.
Now, you might be asking how a guy who also has worked out for an NFL team and finished four years of college basketball could play college football.
Well, while Paulus is a senior and has used up his basketball eligibility, but he has a year left of football eligibility. According to NCAA eligibility guidelines, “The first time you enroll anywhere as a full-time student, you start your five-year clock of eligibility. If you play in Division I, you have five-calendar years to play four seasons of competition — even if you are not enrolled, even if you go part time within that time frame.”
Paulus was never a basketball redshirt at Duke, so as an undergraduate transfer he would be eligible to play football at another school.
He was recruited equally in football and basketball and turned down Notre Dame and Michigan, among others, to play basketball for Duke. While at Christian Brothers Academy in New York, he threw for 11,763 yards and 152 touchdowns to earn Gatorade National Player of the Year honors. But he hasn’t played since then.
Michigan has two well-regarded true freshmen coming this year in Tate Forcier (already enrolled) and Denard Robinson. And Nick Sheridan returns from last year, but he has a small fracture in his lower right leg and hasn’t participated in any of spring drills. Quarterback was easily Michigan’s worst position last year and the reason the Wolverines won just 3 games in Rodriguez’s first season.
Paulus reportedly has been contacted by a half-dozen NFL teams and several other college programs and worked out for the Green Bay Packers last week.
Duke coach David Cutcliffe said Wednesday that he is willing to have Paulus in for a tryout but that it would be as a receiver and not a quarterback. Cutcliffe said perhaps Paulus would have a better shot at trying to play quarterback in a spread system like that of Michigan’s.
Certainly other big-time NCAA basketball players have played football and vice-versa, but this would be an unprecedented move if Paulus were to somehow start at quarterback for a major program next season.
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