Commentary: Paul a Poster Boy for Perseverance...

[omahapanda]

http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/view/bid/3016/i/spring_fb_commentary_the_poster_boy_for_pluck/o/0

[GMoose]

Holding a football against the ground, Nebraska wide receivers coach Ted Gilmore kneels near a line of guys running sideline patterns inside the Hawks Championship Center.

 

“Hard through ten!” he barks at nearly every one of them. He watches their feet, mostly; he wants to see their precision as they stop and change direction. Detailing, Gilmore calls it. He wants routes that give his receivers an extra half-yard of cushion on an out pattern. That set the hook in the cornerback for a double move later in the game, when his calves are burning.

 

The line starts with Niles Paul. He bolts from a half-crouch, faster than any receiver in recent memory. He jams the breaks at 12 yards, turns and presents himself to a pass already thrown by Cody Green.

 

Green’s pass flutters a bit, high and wide, tailing like a foul ball. But Paul’s run the route so crisply, so quickly, that he’s on it. Thwap! Paul catches it cleanly, two hands above his head, feet safely in bounds.

 

Gilmore’s silence after the play is a compliment.

 

It’s just a drill. Just a small, forgettable, insignificant repetition. But it’s everything, too. It’s the speed and explosion Terrence Nunn, Nate Swift and Todd Peterson lacked, combined with the “detailing” Maurice Purify couldn’t bother to master.

 

“He’s doing things now that two years ago I honestly didn’t think he’d be able to do,” Gilmore said. “I didn’t know how important it was to him…he’s a now a guy where I can say, ‘Here’s an example of what we want.’”

 

Said Paul: “It’s dramatically different. I could never see myself growing into the player I am now. I knew I had talent as a freshman, but I never really ran routes like that, really working on my routes, really catching the ball, doing things better.”

 

As easy as Paul now makes it look, that’s how hard it was, getting there.

 

For much of his NU career, he was Sisyphus, making strides only to, in momentary lapses of concentration, watch the rock tumble down to the bottom of the mountain. Or, in the Texas Tech and Iowa State games, watch it roll around like a pigskin bomb on the turf, detonating NU’s chances at victory.

 

Before that, just a year ago, Paul was suspended for the last week of spring practice following an alcohol-related arrest.

 

“Made a mistake around this time last year,” Paul said. “It’s something that will never happen again.”

 

Before that was a sketchy Gator Bowl performance that left some Husker fans wondering if Paul, who dazzled fans with so many circus catches at Omaha North, would ever recover from Bill Callahan torching his redshirt in 2007, thus robbing Gilmore of a year coaching, and Paul of a year of maturity.

 

Yet here is Paul now catching a quick slant from Taylor Martinez, flexing, smiling and quoting Leonidas from the movie “300:” “This is where we hold them! This is where we fight!”

 

Easy confidence hard-earned through a chiseled body - the Spartans have nothing on Paul’s physique - a mastery of the offense and repeated doses of humility.

 

Yanked at halftime of the Missouri game, only to save the Huskers’ hide in the fourth quarter. The dropped backwards-pass returned for a touchdown vs. Texas Tech. The “phantom fumble” vs. Iowa State, when it appeared Paul was coasting for a long touchdown, only to have the ball pop out, leading to the strangest of NU’s nine turnovers.

 

“I made some mistakes I thought I’d never make in a million years, but I did, and I learned from them,” Paul said.

 

But after both games, disastrous, soul-rattling losses around here, Paul hauled himself out to the lobby, where the media grilled him about his gaffes.

 

Paul could have begged off, like Nunn did after the 2006 Texas game. He could have let Bo Pelini take the bullet. And Bo would’ve done it. He’s spoken for his players more than once - including the entire team after the 2008 Oklahoma game.

 

“I just had to man up and take my licks for that,” Paul said. “I’ve been raised that way by my dad. I knew a lot of that was my fault. I felt like I had to talk to the media about it.”

 

Just an interview. A small, mostly forgettable moment over the course of Paul’s career.

 

And yet it’s everything for an offense that lacked vocal leadership last year, and will count upon Paul for it in 2010.

 

“He’s grown up,” Gilmore said.

 

 

 

 

LINK: http://www.huskerlocker.com/blogs/view/bid/3016/i/spring_fb_commentary_the_poster_boy_for_pluck/o/0

 

 

 

There you go

[NUance]

A good season for Niles will make him a millionare in the draft this time next year. He will definitely put on a show at the combine. He just needs some solid receiving stats and maybe a couple of circus catches during the season.

[huskerscott]

A good season for Niles will make him a millionare in the draft this time next year. He will definitely put on a show at the combine. He just needs some solid receiving stats and maybe a couple of circus catches during the season.

 

He also needs a solid QB to get him the ball. I also believe he needs to stop fumbling the ball running down the sideline. Hopefully he realizes after last year, that he has the potential. Hes got all the intangibles he just needs to show it on the field.

[NUance]

A good season for Niles will make him a millionare in the draft this time next year. He will definitely put on a show at the combine. He just needs some solid receiving stats and maybe a couple of circus catches during the season.

 

He also needs a solid QB to get him the ball. I also believe he needs to stop fumbling the ball running down the sideline. Hopefully he realizes after last year, that he has the potential. Hes got all the intangibles he just needs to show it on the field.

Yeah, it would help Paul's receptions if the ball was actually thrown to him instead of several feet ahead or behind him. Still, quite a few of Niles Paul's bobbled receptions last year were catchable balls, even though not perfectly thrown.

 

And the fumbles. Ohhhh. An image of Paul streaking down the field for an apparent touchdown to win the Iowa State game. And fumbling into the endzone.