Joe Fields anticipated his dreams coming true when he first stepped onto the Syracuse campus.

He took spring and summer classes and tried to master the SU playbook.

His performance in spring ball and training camp compelled former head coach Paul Pasqualoni to grant him the starting position to start the 2004 season. With Fields donning No. 5, some prematurely stated he would be the next Donovan McNabb.

Fields, the first true freshman since Todd Norley in 1982 to start the season opener at quarterback, felt excited but nervous.

But he couldn’t show his emotions. Pasqualoni gave a gag order to his team not to reveal the starting quarterback, even though The Daily Orange sourced Scott Feldman, Perry Patterson’s high school coach in McCaskey, Pa., as saying Fields was named the starter.

Some saw him as the one who could salvage the Orange’s mediocrity and rescue Pasqualoni from the hot seat.

But it was all an illusion. False hope, even.

Instead, Purdue’s 51-0 thrashing of Syracuse played out on national television. Fields threw 8-of-15 for 93 yards and found open receivers despite constant pressure. But he also failed to throw the ball away, underthrew receivers and did not pay attention to the play clock. Fields said Pasqualoni insisted to the team he would keep the freshman at quarterback

‘Even during the following week I had a feeling that wasn’t going to be the case,’ Fields said. ‘I was the starter but I didn’t feel in my heart I was the starting quarterback.’

He was right. The next two games Fields still started but Pasqualoni shuffled him and Patterson. Midway against Cincinnati, SU’s third game, Patterson went in for Fields. No. 5 stayed on the sidelines the next five weeks. Pasqualoni knew there were fans calling for his dismissal and ultimately he needed to produce results.

Clarence McKinney, Fields’ offensive coordinator at Washington High School in Houston, saw a player who felt overwhelmed with the offensive playbook. Daemon Keener, Fields’ older brother, saw a player whose confidence deflated and who could not recover from such a devastating loss to Purdue. Fields hears those suggestions and rejects them.

‘My confidence didn’t leave. I just didn’t get too many opportunities after that (Purdue) game,’ Fields said. ‘I just think Coach P had a lot of pressure on him. He wasn’t able to just let a guy grow and develop. He needed something right here and right now. I’m not dwelling on that, though. I know if I had been playing quarterback from Purdue to now, I’d be a good college quarterback.

‘But I play (free) safety now so I’ll make the best of it.’

***

This year Fields sat in his room at his South Campus apartment on Farm Acre Road before the season, this time daydreaming about making a big hit or interception that would cause his teammates to embrace him.

Then the Syracuse junior free safety quickly changed his thoughts, thinking about how great that would be if it happened to anyone, not just him. After all, the team comes first, Fields reasoned.

‘I dream all the time,’ Fields laughed. ‘I think that’s what I do too much. Sit in my room and dream.’

But that’s not all he does. When he daydreams, Fields doesn’t wonder what could have been. Instead he calculates what he can do in the future to reach a goal.

The formula is simple and predictable: through experience, Fields has concluded that hard work will lead to success.

This season Fields found that mindset has paid off when he went from being a fifth-string free safety in the summer to receiving a starting spot at the end of training camp. He’s recorded 42 tackles, an interception and a sack in seven games.

This all after meeting with SU head coach Greg Robinson last May to discuss his intent to transfer. But instead of obtaining a release form, Fields heard Robinson make a case he can still fill a role with the Orange at free safety-a position Robinson envisioned Fields adapting to quickly because of his athleticism.

Robinson’s analysis sparked Fields’ interest when the head coach cited Dexter McCleon, a current defensive back for the Houston Texans who also played quarterback and free safety for Clemson from 1992-1996. Follow his lead, Robinson said.

‘I’m not surprised,’ Fields said of his success this year. ‘I feel like I can play football regardless of where you put me in. Hopefully it’s just another opportunity to show that.’

***

Fields didn’t grow up in the best environment in Houston. He had a supportive family life. Fields often talked about his close-knit family and how they constantly watched sports together. But there were limited opportunities.

‘He can’t take any days off,’ Fields said of his father, a taxi driver. ‘When we needed something, though, we could count on my dad to get it. I think hard work wasn’t necessarily taught, but it was shown and it rubbed off. I think it comes from a desire not to fail. I know where I come from is rough and I just don’t want to come back.’

McKinney saw that drive push him greatly. He observed the way Fields noticed other students around him, full of athletic and academic potential, only to squander it away through destructive decisions.

Instead of following that path, Fields played safety for the middle school team and kept his nose in textbooks. Fields lifted in the weight room with the varsity team when he was in eighth grade, often longer than those players above him.

That struck a chord with McKinney because it showed discipline, an attitude he felt would trickle down to teammates because they would understand how the end result was possible.

‘Just watching him at that time, I didn’t pay attention to him being a safety,’ McKinney said. ‘In my mind, he was the quarterback of the future. A safety and quarterback are real similar. You’re basically the quarterback of that side. You have to make calls.’

McKinney told Fields that and started preparing him so he could make the transition once he reached the varsity level. Fields scoured over game film so much that McKinney thought Fields served as a second set of eyes to recognize defensive tendencies on the field.

His discipline and involvement in basketball and baseball his freshman to junior year helped mold Fields into a complete threat. His junior and senior year, Fields threw for a combined 3,315 yards and 32 touchdowns and rushed a combined 157 times for 1,158 yards and 13 touchdowns.

He didn’t just thrive athletically. After Fields committed to Syracuse, he thought it would be beneficial to arrive on campus a semester early to get ahead in classes and learn the ropes of the SU program.

Fields became the first Syracuse player ever to arrive a semester early. Instead of basking in senioritis, Fields took an English class the summer after his junior year and then doubled up on courses the first semester of his senior year.

A lacking social life didn’t deter him. Fields knew how rare it was to receive a Division I scholarship and he wanted to take full advantage of it.

Fields discovered once again his hard work provided a ticket to more opportunities and a better life.

‘Everything he told me in eighth grade came true to this day,’ Fields said of McKinney. ‘There’s not one thing he told me that didn’t come true.’

***

The same can’t be said for Syracuse.

Fields never felt Pasqualoni or Robinson deceived him. Nor does he feel Syracuse disrespected him or misled him regarding his role.

Patterson and Fields both agree Pasqualoni chose Fields as the starter because his athletic mobility fit into SU’s pro-style offense. But the West Coast offense relied more on quick passes than scrambling. Given Patterson’s arm, he seemed to be the fit.

Robinson hadn’t planned to continue Pasqualoni’s dual-quarterback system, one that Patterson and Fields continuously say made them look over their shoulders. When Syracuse held a comfortable lead against Buffalo last year, Robinson thought of putting in Fields. But both agreed a redshirt would be a better option. Unless Patterson became injured, that plan wasn’t changing.

When Syracuse faced Connecticut in the fifth game of the season, the circumstances, indeed, did change. With an abysmal offense, Robinson inserted Fields less than two minutes into the second quarter and played three total series. He threw 0-of-3 but rushed twice for 31 yards.

Desperate for a spark, Robinson rotated Patterson and Fields against Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Cincinnati and South Florida with Fields starting the latter two games. Against the Bearcats, Fields proved he was more than just a mobile quarterback. He threw 40 and 50-yard passes to Tim Lane and Rice Moss, respectively. But overall the new strategy worked as effectively for both quarterbacks as it did the previous year.

‘We wanted to use him in a meaningful way,’ Robinson said of Fields. ‘We didn’t want him to go into games as a cleanup player. But it got to the point where we didn’t have much firepower on offense. We had to find some way to utilize our offense. That was our intent. But it was hard on everybody.’

Certainly hard on Fields, but he wouldn’t express it.

‘His soft spoken demeanor can be an attribute and probably could be his demise,’ said Keener, who played wide receiver and defensive back at Nevada-Las Vegas. ‘He’s a confident person, but sometimes you have to lobby and say, ‘I’m the man for this position.’ He does what he’s told. There’s never a conflict with his coaches. You tell Joe to do something, he’ll do it. He won’t question it. He may doubt it but he won’t question it.’

***

Once the final whistle blew to end a 1-10 season last year, Fields thought that would be the final time he would wear an Orange uniform.

He conferred with his family and concluded he needed to transfer.

Due to NCAA rules, Fields knew he couldn’t look at other schools. But Fields admitted he wondered what it might be like to play for Temple, where former SU associate head coach George DeLeone-the man who recruited him-currently serves as the quarterbacks coach.

Fields also considered to study near his home. But he didn’t contact any schools.

After spring ball this year, Fields was further convinced he needed to leave considering it seemed the quarterback situation was continuing where it was left off last season with Patterson being named the starter.

‘I’m a prideful guy,’ Fields said. ‘But there’s a difference between being prideful and being disrespectful. Everybody is trying to do a job and they have a common goal. They were never rude or disrespectful to me. So I wasn’t going to be that way towards them.’

In a meeting in early May, Robinson expressed sympathy for Fields’ position. When Robinson asked Fields if he was interested in trying out for free safety, Fields saw it as another opportunity to help the team and to prove himself.

He immediately went to work.

Fields roomed with junior strong safety Dowayne Davis over the summer to try to gather preparation tips. Davis helped Fields start off by working on his footwork and making him feel comfortable in his stance.

Fields also tried to angle himself to the ball and improve his vision so he could make the sharpest cut possible.

‘He was always trying to do the extra thing,’ Davis said. ‘Sometimes I’d say, ‘Man, take a break.’ Sometimes he’d want to do too much. I’d tell him to come back tomorrow and get it done. But he wants to do the extra thing, which is good.’

When Fields first stepped on the field in training camp, he impressed the coaching staff. But Davis wasn’t surprised. He saw development unfold all summer, so well that Robinson named Fields the starter after going through a position battle with sophomore A.J. Brown.

Against Wake Forest, Fields finished with eight tackles although he missed a few assignments. Against Iowa, wide receiver Herb Grigsby initially beat Fields on a slant but he chased Grigsby down to prevent a game-winning touchdown.

Through some of the growing pains-a dropped interception against Iowa, a personal foul penalty against Wyoming, missed tackles against West Virginia-Fields has also made big plays in a short amount of time. He sacked Miami (Ohio) quarterback Mike Kokal on the first play of the game. Against Wyoming he made his first interception of his career. And the coaching staff sees marked improvement every game.

Robinson and Davis noticed Fields displaying parts of his personality that didn’t shine through the last two years. Fields jokes to the offense during practice that the defense does more in a day than the offense does in a week.

Keener said Fields wanted to carry his leadership skills at SU but didn’t think he’d established himself, thus Fields didn’t feel he had enough credibility to do so. This year he does. Prior to the Pittsburgh game, Fields led his team with an inspiring speech in a group huddle.

‘Joe’s always asking questions,’ SU safeties coach Scott Spencer said. ‘He wants the information. He loves studying and that’s a good thing. Guys who want to know more and more to learn the position is a definite asset to the football team. More guys you have like that, the better off you’re going to be.’

It’s yet another instance where Fields made a dream come true through hard work. Anytime a reporter praises his performance, Fields is graceful but quickly acknowledges his mistakes and what he wants to do to fix them. It’s a mindset where he’s sees the benefits of labor but knows he can’t be complacent.

‘I can’t afford the opportunity to relax or have something given to me,’ Fields said. ‘Everything I had from day one I worked for.’

Published on October 15, 2006 at 12:00 pm