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Bright Lights, Big City for Up-North Boy
WEDNESDAY | OCTOBER 10, 2007
Eric Puls, a quiet and unassuming freshman, sat between redshirt sophomore Anthony Wright and highly touted freshman Manny Harris at U-M's annual media day Tuesday. He admitted drifting off from time to time, but he was always brought back by the odd questions asked to his media day neighbors. Waiting for a reporter to finish with K'Len Morris and get to him, Puls could only chuckle at where he was. "I didn't even know I was going to be a part of this. I didn't think anyone was going to want to talk to the freshman walk-on. I was a little nervous because, up in Alpena, you don't really talk to the media much. You've got the Alpena News, but that's about it."
It's a four-hour trip -- roughly 230 miles -- from Alpena to Ann Arbor. It is a trip Puls has taken before to watch his brother Dan, who is a pitcher for nearby Eastern Michigan. Now that Eric is a semi-permanent resident of Ann Arbor, he looks forward to taking his small town game to a higher level. "Coming in, I didn't expect to be at the level that everyone else is at, but I feel myself improving every day. That's the most important thing right now."
With plans to ease into his college career, Puls is focused on learning the system and building his game. "I have always known what it was going to be like. I'm going to redshirt this year, so I understand how Coach is going to want to work with the guys who are going to be playing and in the rotation this year before he has to work with me. That's okay with me because now I have time to improve. In the future, I hope I can get in that 12-man rotation, but we'll see."
After 20 minutes passed Puls was visited by two more reporters. He wondered if guys were keeping tabs on how many reporters were talking to them. "Two of the three guys that talked to me were guys that had worked in Alpena before," he said with a laugh. "It's an advantage I guess."
Before sitting back down, he was asked a final question: How was he passing the time between interviews "I will just keep listening to what Anthony is talking about. Oh, and watch Manny get all the attention. I don't know. It's fun." | | 2007 Archive
Sept. 24-Oct. 7
Sept. 4-23 | |
