For some, leaving college is just hard. Matt Leinart said as much when he decided to stay for a fifth season at USC. Personally, I spent about three weeks moping about not being a college student anymore, and it took about a year to stop longing for those days.

Maybe its the same for Greg Paulus, who announced todaythat he was heading for his hometown of Syracuse to play a year of football for the Orange. Maybe Paulus, who played four years of basketball at Duke and recently graduated, isn’t ready to move on to life after college and is grasping for a way to stay in school.

Or maybe he’s just looking for one more shot at making a career out of being an athlete. Highly recruited in both sports, Paulus chose basketball. After getting benched during the past season with Duke, it became obvious his future wasn’t going to be as a pro in that sport anywhere.

So why not head to Syracuse to try a year of football? What does Paulus have to lose? He’s already one of the most hated collegiate athletes just because of the name that was on his basketball jersey (and his ability to fall over when not touched. And maybe he’ll do enough in that one year to convince someone in the NFL he can play at the level. The Packers thought enough of him to give him a tryout before last April’s draft. Maybe with a season playing for the Orange, it can happen.

And if it doesn’t? Paulus will get his extra year of college, and the rest of us will have another reason to poke fun at the guy.

Tags: college basketball, college football, college sports, Duke, Greg Paulus, Syracuse