Greg Paulus - Orange Savior?

By now, everyone knows the story of Greg Paulus. The multitalented Syracuse native is now the starting quarterback for his hometown Orange, and in charge of leading the "Cuse back to the promised land of college football.

The big question lingering now is this - how high should we set the bar for Paulus? What are reasonable expectations for him this season?

After playing basketball for four years at Duke, it is fair to assume that some rust had gathered on that cannon of a right arm that slung 152 touchdown passes during his high school career. Cuse fans have to hope that the rust is all but gone after the past couple weeks of practice. So, then, what exactly is Paulus? A legit QB threat? Or essentially a freshman who is still learning the "ins and outs" of college football?

I believe the big question for Paulus will be his mentality. Sure, his college football experience is zero, but he HAS been a college athlete for four years. The guy played in one of the toughest venues of college basketball (Cameron Indoor) and held his own (and he's also put up with some of the craziest fans in college basketball). So it's not totally fair to label him as a freshman - but yet, he still has no experience under center at the college level. If Paulus's maturity can quickly reduce the QB learning curve, then I believe the Orange can realistically look at five or six wins this season.

Regardless of what happens this season, I think the "Paulus effect" has already been positive for everyone associated with the Orange, including the fans. Think about this for a moment: The

Syracuse Orange football team has been absolutely DISMAL for the better part of a decade now. Long gone are the days of Paul Pasqualoni, Donovan McNabb, Marvin Harrison, and Dwight Freeney. Fans have been searching for positives over the past half dozen years, and they certainly have been hard to come by (the Orange's 24-23 victory over Notre Dame last year is probably the highest note of the past six years). Greg Paulus has brought to the Orange nation what has been missing for so many years: HOPE. Fans look at Paulus as someone who could POTENTIALLY bring the program back. The key word here is POTENTIALLY - but even potential is something that has been missing for the Orange in recent years, which is why the Greg Paulus experiment is a good thing for Syracuse.

No one knows for sure how Syracuse will perform this season with Paulus under center. All I know for sure is that I'll be tuning in on September 5th when the Orange open their season at home against Minnesota.