ON HIS SHOULDERS

Cory Paus pulls off his helmet and gives his unruly sandy-blond hair a hard shake as a television reporter leads him in front of a camera.

It’s one in a seemingly endless summer of interviews, and the UCLA quarterback looks every bit the California kid, laid-back and sun-drenched. The Bruins didn’t go far to find him, someone watching would conclude, probably just had to persuade him to shelve his surfboard for shoulder pads.

How looks deceive.

He grew up in a home on two wooded acres 20 miles from Chicago. It was waterfront property to an extent--during the winter he and friends poured water on a lighted tennis-basketball court in his backyard, waited for it to freeze and played hockey until the wee hours.

The family photo album chronicles water skiing on the Great Lakes, camping trips from Ohio to Iowa and throwing touchdown passes on frigid Illinois nights.

He’s Midwest, not Manhattan Beach. More Toledo than Malibu.

Maybe that’s why he fits in so well.

Bruin Coach Bob Toledo is a former quarterback who establishes an easy rapport with his passers. He recognizes the qualities needed at the position. He sees them in Paus, a 6-foot-2, 218-pound redshirt junior.

“From the time he came in, Cory had an air of confidence about him,” Toledo said. “He spoke loud, he asked good questions, and he made some plays. He showed that he had a bright future.”

Toledo repeatedly tried to hand him the job, although the last two years the coach gave politically correct lip service to competition, pitting Paus against Drew Bennett in 1999 and Ryan McCann and Scott McEwan last season.

This time there is no pretending. It’s Paus, Paus, Paus, without pause.

“Last year there were four or five days of who’s going to be the starting quarterback,” Paus said. “I don’t have that pressure anymore.”

Another question won’t go away. Can he stay injury-free?

For a kid from the city of broad shoulders, he is pretty brittle. Ribs and collarbone included. Every time Toledo gift-wraps the job for him, it’s sent back on a gurney.

His senior season in high school ended with a separated shoulder. In his first game as a Bruin starter in 1999, he completed his first eight passes against Fresno State, then exited in the second quarter because of bruised ribs.

He came back to beat Oregon, passing for 332 yards, struggled in other games, then broke his collarbone during a nine-yard run Nov. 13 against Washington, ending his season.

In the opener against Alabama last season, he suffered a separated shoulder on the first play from scrimmage and sat out the next three games. He returned and performed well for seven games--although UCLA was 3-4 during the stretch--and led the Pacific 10 Conference in passing efficiency and yards per game.

Then in the Sun Bowl he was hurt again, breaking his collarbone two plays before halftime in a 21-20 loss. Bruin fans were wounded, but it was Paus who slept in a chair for a month.

Perhaps only a mother can understand the extent of the pain.

“It breaks your heart,” Nancy Paus said. “The night he’s hurt, he is devastated, brokenhearted. But the next day he is upbeat, asking what he can do to make the recovery go faster. He’s already on the rebound.”

This time the medicine is preventive. Paus takes calcium pills. He worked out harder during the summer and added eight pounds. He is wearing thicker shoulder pads.

And he has the freedom to change a play or blocking scheme at the line of scrimmage when he recognizes danger.

“Unless somebody gets beat on a block, it will be my fault if I get hit,” he said.

He has no problem with accountability. He doesn’t point fingers, a lesson learned as a 1998 redshirt watching Cade McNown, a Bruin quarterback adept at the blame game.

“I saw a lot in him in what to do, and a lot in what not to do,” Paus said.

Beneath the laid-back looks lies a Type A perfectionist, the no-nonsense, meat-and-potatoes son of a heating and air-conditioning contractor. He rides a mountain bike around campus and sometimes sits with linemen during meetings.

“He’s got a fire burning inside him to be successful,” Bruin quarterback coach John Pearce said. “Not a fire because of injuries or bad luck. He’s just a natural-born competitor. His gut is hungry. He’s like a guy who hasn’t eaten in a month.”

Paus used to eat himself up when he made a mistake. He says he has come to terms with the occasional miscue.

“I’ve learned not to be so emotional,” he said. “I realize how much a hand I have in the offense. A lot of bonehead mistakes I made when I was a freshman were because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have a good enough knowledge of the offense to perform. Those mistakes aren’t happening anymore, which makes it easy not to be hard on myself.”

His focus is less on himself than on teammates, and that helps too.

“Nobody is talking when he’s in the huddle and has something to say,” tailback DeShaun Foster said. “Everybody is listening. If I’m down, he notices. He has that leadership.”

Paus has played quarterback since third grade. The huddle is a second home, and he feels like the host. It was the same during those hockey games, when his parents laid out 40 pair of skates and the entire neighborhood gathered on the ice.

“It matters to him what people around him think,” Nancy Paus said. “He’s always wondering, are they comfortable? Are they having a good time? What can I do to make it better?”

Paus had such a pleasant upbringing it seems odd he bolted far from home. He was a high school All-American, leading Lincoln Way High to a 27-1 record his last two years in Illinois’ highest classification. He was widely recruited and most Big Ten schools made offers. But he took unofficial trips to UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State the summer before his senior year and committed to the Bruins while on campus.

Westwood, ho.

“I felt it would be a great opportunity to use my athletic talent to go somewhere I wouldn’t have been able to go otherwise,” he said. “I visited with my mom and said, ‘This place is amazing. Look at this.”’

His brother, Casey, a freshman quarterback at Washington, had similar wanderlust. Casey visited Cory at UCLA, saw his brother make friends easily and realized leaving home can foster growth.

UCLA has been everything Paus expected. He is everything UCLA expected. Yet expectations for the team, and for the quarterback, have not been fulfilled.

“We need to win, and I need to stay healthy,” he said. “Those things happen, and this will be a great season.” A lot of bonehead mistakes I made when I was a freshman were because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have a good enough knowledge of the offense to perform. Those mistakes aren’t happening anymore, which makes it easy not to be hard on myself.”