Matt Hayes

Look closely, everyone. It's whipping in the wind, snapping and flapping right over Schembechler Hall.

That's a red flag you see — and suddenly, things are a little more intriguing this offseason at Michigan.

"Every day that I threw the last couple of weeks," Greg Paulus said Thursday, "it has gotten better and better."

And now look: The guy who played point guard for Duke the past four seasons, who hadn't picked up a football in four years before, you know, getting his arm loose recently, could be the starting quarterback at Michigan this fall.

Maybe it's not really a red flag.

Maybe it's time to panic.

It's not Paulus' fault he wants to delay the inevitable of playing point guard in Bulgaria. The most hated player in college basketball — why again is he hated, because he busted his tail? — could soon be the most hated player in the state of Ohio.

Paulus says Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez has invited him to compete for the starting quarterback job. Why, you ask? Because Rodriguez has nothing else.

Or at least, he has nothing yet.

Paulus has one semester of eligibility left. If he graduates from Duke in May, he can enroll at a school as a graduate student and play this fall.

The impressive numbers heralded recruit Tate Forcier put up in the spring game (11-of-13, 141 yards, four touchdowns; 41 yards rushing, one TD) against second- and third-team defenses don't tell the whole story. If Forcier were locked in atop the depth chart, if he picked up the offense quickly and was on track to assume control Sept. 5 against Western Michigan, there's no way Rodriguez tells Paulus he will have an opportunity to compete for the starting job.
Why get inside the head of a freshman — only 15 practices into his college career and still comprehending the monster that is expectations, a new playbook, schoolwork and living on your own — and make it significantly harder?

Rodriguez isn't interested in 3-9 again — which he'll get if 2008 part-time starter Nick Sheridan is forced to play because Forcier isn't ready or doesn't pan out.

Rodriguez isn't waiting around to see if freshman Denard Robinson is the answer once the pads go on in August. Rodriguez thought it could work with Justin Feagin last fall, and now Feagin can't crack the three-deep at wideout.

There's no one else, people. If walk-on David Cone were the answer, he'd have played last year.

That's why Rodriguez has turned to Paulus, who four years ago was one of the top high school quarterbacks in the nation at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse. He set state records and threw for 11,763 yards and 152 touchdown passes in 45 career games, and had scholarship offers from Miami and Notre Dame.

But training for basketball and training for football are completely different ends of the spectrum. Paulus' 6-1, 185-pound body can't handle the weekly pounding in college football, and he'd have about four months to put on 20-30 pounds of "good" weight (see: muscle, not fat).

He hasn't kept up with defensive trends, hasn't read coverages, hasn't thrown to receivers, hasn't run the spread option offense, hasn't taken a hit in four years. Now, magically, it will all come back to him.

And this is someone who will compete for the starting quarterback job at Michigan?

"It's difficult when you haven't been playing quarterback in a long time just to step back in a pro-style offense and play," said Duke coach David Cutcliffe, who told Paulus he couldn't play quarterback in the Blue Devils' pro-style offense. "They've had quarterback issues (at Michigan), and certainly that offense would be more friendly with an athletic quarterback."

Earlier this decade, Rodriguez pulled a similar move at West Virginia when he allowed former prep phenom J.R. House to compete for the starting quarterback job after professional baseball didn't pan out. House was third on the depth chart because he wasn't really a fit for the offense and didn't fully comprehend the nuances of the position in the complicated scheme.

Fortunately, a freshman named Pat White emerged midway through the season and eventually became the most prolific quarterback in school history. Michigan can only hope that same scenario plays out again.

Or that red flag quickly will become white.

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