At his lowest point, Jameel Dumas felt incomplete. The senior outside linebacker left the football team in January for reasons he still declines to share. He missed his teammates, the fans and even the coaches. But most importantly, Dumas was removed from his passion for what seemed like the first time in his life.

Now he’s back. And Dumas – a fifth-year senior and SU’s top returning tackler – is ready to show everyone that he deserves another shot.

‘Mentally, I was totally discombobulated,’ Dumas said. ‘It was a big, total period of confusion. I knew I wasn’t feeling good because I wasn’t here with my brothers.’

He feels complete now. It’s a good thing, because teammates knew the defense would suffer without him. Last season, Dumas recorded 92 tackles – second to Clifton Smith, who is now trying to earn a spot with the Washington Redskins. As a fifth-year senior, Dumas is expected to be a defensive leader.

Dumas will line up at outside linebacker against North Carolina on Sept. 6. Sophomore Kellen Pruitt will likely command the other outside spot. Dumas’s close friend Rich Scanlon will flank the middle linebacker.

‘We were a little scared in the springtime,’ Scanlon said. ‘When he left, we were disappointed. I felt bad because it’s his last year. It’s supposed to be your best year in college.’

Linebackers coach Steve Dunlap thinks Dumas’ time away was in the best interest of the team and the linebacker.

‘Coach (Pasqualoni) has team rules, and if you don’t follow team rules then you’ve got to accept the consequences,’ Dunlap said. ‘Lots of times Coach P sends guys away. He runs a tight ship. It’s a very structured program. I think that’s why so many kids graduate. When he sends kids away, they’re going to find out what it’s like in the real world, and it wakes them up.’

Dumas, he swears, is wide awake. He has drawn praise from teammates and coaches. His work ethic is unparalleled, they say. Yet, he’s still playing catch-up. Dumas returned to Syracuse early this summer before training camp to lift weights with his teammates. He also trained this summer with his brother Rashaan, who plays professional football in Sweden.

But nobody misses six months of practice and organized workouts without losing ground. No matter how much he lifted the summer, it couldn’t replace the instruction of spring practice.

‘It’s always going to be a tough transition when you miss a period of football,’ Dumas said. ‘But I’m working back into it. It’s a slow but sure process.’

Pasqualoni agreed.

‘Getting back into it, you just don’t miss the spring and show up and be right back there,’ Pasqualoni said. ‘He’s fighting his way back now. The mental fight right now in preseason camp might be tougher than the physical fight. Everyday he catches up, there’s a progression.’

The physical battle shouldn’t be a problem for the 6-foot-2, 230-pound rock. It’s the mental struggle that Dumas admittedly must cope with. Coaches, teammates and even Dumas himself wonder if the issues he faced last spring will be behind him once the season starts in more than a week.

‘It’s always going to be in your mind,’ Dumas said. ‘If it’s personal, it deals with you, so it’s always there. But right now my priorities are with football. I made the decision to come back to the team. This is going to be my first priority.’

Coaches think he’ll be ready. While it’s always difficult to learn new defensive schemes, Dumas knows the drill. It’s his fifth year under Pasqualoni. Dumas said the toughest part of the transition is running around in 15 pounds of pads in the heat, and that it took a few days to get used to coaches breathing fire down his back.

‘He put his pads on the first couple days and said, ‘Wow!’ ‘ Dunlap said. ‘It felt like someone put a wool blanket around him. It’s heavy to put all that stuff on. You get accustomed to it and you don’t think about it anymore. But when you haven’t done it in a while, that’s when you think you’re going to die.’

That’s OK with Dumas. That pain’s only physical.

Published on August 26, 2003 at 12:00 pm