Following his heart
ADAMS TWP — Billy Bair wants to run the football in college. Who can blame him?
The Mars senior ran for a state-record 2,428 yards and scored 32 touchdowns last fall. But a number of college programs wanted him on defense.
"Northwestern (and Boston College) liked him as an outside linebacker, but Billy has no interest in that,"Mars coach Scott Heinauer said. "And you don't go where your heart isn't."
Bair became part of Duquesne University's first football scholarship class of the modern era when he signed a letter of intent with the Dukes Thursday.
Duquesne was 6-4 last year and is 20-10 in three years under coach Jerry Schmitt. A member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference since 1994, Duquesne will be an associate member of the Northeast Conference next season.
"They like him as a running back and they'll like what they'll see,"Heinauer said. "I'm looking forward to seeing him play there. He's going to have quite a career before it's over."
Other schools on Bair's final list included Miami of Ohio, New Hampshire, Georgia Southern and Massachusetts.
"The best way I can help a team is by running the football,"Bair said. "That's what I'm used to doing.
"I didn't want to go to a big Division I school and ride the bench for a couple of years. The running back situation at Duquesne is wide open and I feel like I can play my freshman year if I show what I can do during summer camp."
Pine-Richland graduate Greg Hough led the Dukes with 191 carries for 801 yards and five touchdowns last season. He's only a junior, but is moving to linebacker during spring camp.
The remainder of Duquesne's roster combined for only 303 yards and four touchdowns rushing in 2007.
Bair and running back-linebacker Larry McCoy of Wytheville, Va., are the only backs among the 12 scholarship players signed by Duquesne this year.
"I love what's going on at that school,"Bair said. "It's a football program that's on the rise, they're getting a new field, new bleachers and a new locker room within the next couple of years.
"Division I-AAis pretty good football and I was hoping to play ball close to Pittsburgh. They've got a great business school there, too, so I'm going to get a good degree."
Carrying a 3.5 grade-point average, Bair plans to major in business economics.
He didn't sign with a school until three weeks past the national signing date "because I wanted to give myself time to process all the information and make the right decision,"Bair said.
Heinauer lauded Bair for his patience.
"You have to walk into a situation that's going to make you happy and Billy's doing that," the coach said.
Duquesne won 39 consecutive MAACgames from 1999 through 2006 and won or shared the conference title each of the past nine seasons.
The Dukes' active streak of 14 consecutive winning seasons is third-longest among Football Championship Sub-Division schools, trailing only Eastern Kentucky's 30 and Montana's 22.
Bair's 204 points scored in 2007 tied for the most by a player in the WPIALin three decades. He averaged 24 carries for 220.7 yards per game last year and rushed for 4,702 yards and 65 touchdowns in his high school career.
