A Paulus family feud

Duke football fans--well, those that are left--surely feel teased by the Paulus family.

First, they know the top quarterback in the whole damn country in the class of 2005 walks by Wallace Wade every day and never looks twice. Now, they'll have to watch his brother Mike suit up for that notoriously lighter shade of blue.

Even if you're hell-bent on blaming Greg Paulus for the former, you at least can't fault him for the latter.

Greg took Mike to his first-ever recruiting meeting-with Duke head coach Ted Roof. The encounter took place while Mike was in town helping Greg move into his East Campus dorm last year.

"Greg took me to see Coach Roof and said, 'Here's my brother. He's going to be offered by everybody, so you might as well meet him now,'" Mike recalls.

Mike sent the game tape of his first career start to Roof. Based on that single performance, Roof presented the junior with a scholarship-his first offer. But Duke Football's head start quickly disappeared when programs such as USC and Miami came calling. The Blue Devils didn't make Paulus' top list of suitors.

Duke did play a role, however, in Mike's selection of North Carolina. He became interested in the Tar Heels after they hired Frank Cignetti as their offensive coordinator, and his trips to visit Greg in Durham allowed him to get to know the area-and the famous rivalry.

"I knew it was big, but I didn't really realize how much almost-hatred there is," he says.

"At home games, I'll root for Carolina, and away games, I'll go for Duke," he says.

Perhaps the opposing school choices are appropriate for two brothers with such different personalities. Mike says he is a little more outgoing than the often-reserved Greg, and the two differ even more noticeably on the football field.

Greg-who was named Gatorade National Player of the Year after his senior season-was a Mike Vick-style scrambler. Mike, meanwhile, is the drop-back prototype with a cannon instead of a right arm.

"They are almost at the complete opposite ends of the spectrum," says Joe Casamento, head coach at Christian Brothers Academy, which both attended. "Mike is a big, strong pocket passer with a big arm, and Greg is a competitive whirling dervish who can get out of the pocket and run and throw."

The differences between 6-foot-5 Mike and 6-foot-1 Greg are obvious, but Greg says years of playing together have given them the same drive to succeed in the clutch.

"We both love competition," Greg says. "We both want to be in close-knit games where we have the last possession to win the game."

Mike needed that competitive fire last year, as he tried to step out of his record-breaking brother's shadow. People expected nothing short of Greg's state-title run, and Mike nearly delivered, going 11-0 before breaking his ankle in the state quarterfinals.

But at a high school that hasn't lost a regular-season game in eight years, you'll feel the pressure whether you're an only child or the next Manning brother.

"Up here, we're like the Yankees," Casamento says. "We're the Super Bowl for everybody, so there is always a lot of pressure.... It doesn't matter who was before you or who is coming after you. You better be really good."

Even though Mike followed Greg at CBA, he says he is not blindly tracing his brother's path to the Triangle.

"A lot of people thought I was following Greg, but I was really interested in USC, and Greg's not out there," Mike says. "The fact that Greg is there and we can go to each other's games is just a bonus."

Sitting in Cameron, Greg vows to take advantage of that bonus and go to every one of Mike's games that he can, but someone tells him that the Blue Devils always schedule a basketball game on the day of the Duke-UNC football game. The point guard stops.

"Well," he says, grinning, "I guess we'll have to get Coach to change that."