Leave it to new starting offensive left tackle John Cullen to make a strong impression.
Cullen, a heavily sought-after junior-college transfer from Fullerton College, didn’t waste any time acquainting himself with Utah fans in the Utes’ 27-24 overtime victory over then-No. 15 Pittsburgh.
In Cullen’s first Division-I game, he was presented with quite a challenge—facing Pitt’s star defensive end, Greg Romeus, last season’s Big East’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year, who is also a trendy pick among experts to be a first-rounder in the 2011 NFL Draft.
But if going one-on-one against Romeus fazed Cullen, it didn’t show. The lineman, who is listed at 6-foot-5, 285 pounds, didn’t allow Romeus to make a solo tackle, much less lay a hand on quarterback Jordan Wynn. Romeus’ only big play of the night was a pass breakup on a screen play, but for much of the night, Cullen neutralized his counterpart.
“That’s what I came here for,” Cullen
said. “I came here to be the best player I can and to be a great offensive lineman. To do that, you have to go against great players.”
After spending two weeks watching what Cullen said was the most film footage he had ever watched in his life, he was prepared for Romeus, who didn’t come at him with anything Cullen hadn’t seen and prepared for.
“The way we work out here and the way we do things, you’re never unprepared,” Cullen said.
Co-offensive coordinator Dave Schramm said Cullen’s performance was indicative of the type of player the Utes thought they were getting when Cullen chose Utah instead of national programs such as Southern California, Florida State and Tennessee.
“He’s very athletic,” Schramm said. “And he’s smart. He takes advantage of his athleticism. He’s a tough-minded guy and a competitive guy. He knew what he had to do to compete against (Romeus). Early on, he wanted to establish that he was going to be physical with the guy and then the guy kind of played into his hands. He tried to ‘out-athlete’ him and he couldn’t do it.”
When Cullen arrived on campus, the distinction between junior-college football and Division-I competition was evident in his performance. It took him all of fall camp to adjust to the new level of play.
“The discipline of Division-I football compared to junior-college football is huge,” Schramm said. “Getting ready for that, getting used to our tempo, getting used to the speed of the rushers and the complexities of the defense, those are things that we had to try and build on fast in camp. (Cullen) did a great job.”
As if making those adjustments wasn’t hard enough, Cullen also replaced four-year starter and All-American Zane Beadles. For their part, however, the Utes made it clear that Cullen should not hide behind Beadles’ shadow.w
“You can’t expect a guy to come in and be Zane Beadles,” Schramm said. “Just expect him to be the best John Cullen he can be.”