SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A year ago, he was preparing for basketball season as a senior point guard at powerhouse Duke. Today, he's halfway through a stint quaterbacking Syracuse, a storied but struggling program.

Greg Paulus has had a rare collegiate journey -- a captain at two Division I schools in different sports. He's relished the role in both settings.

"The responsibility of being a leader and putting others before yourself is the same,'' Paulus said before practice in the Carrier Dome last week. "You've got to be the first one to get there, the last one to leave, showing by example that you're willing to sacrifice, do whatever you need to for the team.''

Before this season, Paulus hadn't played football competitively since he was named 2004 national high school player of the year. The fact that he not only returned to the game, but did it in his hometown has excited fans in Syracuse.

"This has been a joy for our whole community. We were hoping it was going to happen. It's unbelievable,'' said John Wleklinski, athletic director and basketball coach at Christian Brothers Academy, where Paulus was a two-sport star (he played varsity basketball as an eighth-grader).

``He's grown up with us. We watched him go from seventh and eighth grade -- we knew he had potential -- to Duke where he had a great career to now. Whoever would have thought?''

Certainly not Paulus. Last spring, he was mulling the possibility of playing pro basketball in Europe and then becoming a coach, when a scout for the Green Bay Packers called his apartment.

The NFL didn't work out, but playing one year of college football quickly became a reality.

Syracuse had won just 10 games in four years under Greg Robinson, and new coach Doug Marrone offered Paulus no guarantees about playing time.