Jason Greene waited 15 years to play football.

Now, the sophomore offensive guard will only have to wait four months to find out if he’ll start for the Syracuse football team next fall. He hopes the wait will be worth it.

Greene is competing for next year’s starting right-guard spot with Steve Franklin and Quinn Ojinnaka. He hopes to round out an offensive line that will return four starters. Greene’s not worried, just thankful. It’s an opportunity that was unavailable to him when he was younger.

Greene began playing Pop Warner football in seventh grade. But halfway through his first season, he was deemed too heavy to compete against his much smaller classmates.

Greene was given a choice. If he could make weight in wrestler-like fashion, he could play. Otherwise, he’d have to sit out.

‘Coaches would say, ‘Well, if you could lose the weight…’ ‘ Greene said. ‘But I figured I would let myself keep growing and play in high school.’

Indeed, the 6-foot-5, 280-pound Greene put off football until his freshman year of high school. Last year, Greene was a member of the SU travel squad. This year, he hopes to make his first start Sept. 6, at North Carolina.

‘One thing he’s not right now is consistent enough to be a starter,’ SU offensive coordinator George DeLeone said. ‘He’s got to work his tail off to continue to grow. He’s trying like heck, but there’s a lot to do.’

With enormous size and great quickness for a guard, consistency seems to be Greene’s only flaw. Coaches brag about his physical nature and run-blocking ability but harass him about his inability to show it every possession.

‘He can do all the skills he needs to do,’ DeLeone said. ‘The problem is he needs to do it 10 out of 10 times instead of six out of 10.’

Those skills made Greene a recruiting commodity. DeLeone found him at Somerville High in Somerville, N.J. In high school, Greene starred in track and field as a shot putter. And, of course, he was a dominant football player.

Not until his junior year in high school — only his third year of football — did Greene become a force. In his senior year, Greene was picked as New Jersey’s top offensive lineman. He was also a Tom Lemming All-East team member.

In high school, Greene played defensive end as well as offensive guard. He racked up 66 tackles, three sacks and a forced fumble in his senior year.

Kevin Carty, who coached Greene at Somerville, said Greene didn’t blossom until his junior year.

“He wasn’t really that big when he came in,” Carty said. “I wouldn’t have thought he’d be a prospect.”

In the summer after his sophomore year, Greene hit the weight room. By the start of his junior year, he weighed 250 pounds. His hulking weight, along with a 32-inch vertical leap, made him one of the state’s best offensive linemen.

“There’s a spot in the weight room (at Somerville) on a ceiling tile that a bunch of people would try to jump and touch,” Carty said. “Jason was in there one day and jumped and touched it. After that, I told every recruiter that came in to try to touch the spot. They’d look up at it and scribble away in their notebooks. They couldn’t believe it.”

Greene took his official visits to Pittsburgh, Maryland, Georgia Tech, Rutgers and Syracuse. He chose SU because of the opportunity to start.

‘Everyone tries to come to a school where they can find a spot open,’ Greene said. ‘I wanted to get away from home but not too far. I wanted to go somewhere with a winning tradition.’

Syracuse — only three hours from Somerville — provided the perfect fit.

‘He’s making progress,’ DeLeone said. ‘He’s heading in the right direction, but he’s not there yet. He’s got to be there by the time the season starts.’

If Greene were to earn the starting job, would he be nervous?

‘Maybe a little up until game time,’ Greene said. ‘But once you get onto the field, you can’t be nervous. That’s got to be the end of it. I’ve been waiting to play, so it’s more eagerness than nervousness.’

Published on April 16, 2003 at 12:00 pm