Senior quarterback Nate Sudfeld has just thrown a touchdown pass to tight end Anthony Corsaro, which brings more enthusiastic yelps.
“Can somebody cover Corsaro today?” the voice yells. “Somebody?”
It’s difficult to find the source. The sideline is full of players as tall as 6-foot-7, as heavy as 300 pounds. The voice is somewhere behind them, hidden.
As excitement simmers down and players line up for the next play, he makes himself seen. Mitchell Paige hops with his helmet off and his hair soaked in sweat. As the smallest player on IU’s roster, he doesn’t pass the eye test for a Big Ten football player. It’s hard to picture him leaping over a cornerback for a deep ball or bulldozing a linebacker on a slant route.
He didn’t earn a Division I scholarship out of high school, nor did he draw a long list of suitors from smaller schools.
But this season, 5-foot-7 Mitchell Paige may be IU’s starting slot receiver.
***
Andy Kremer laughs when asked if Guerin Catholic High School brings in a lot of future Big Ten-sized talent.
“Definitely not,” he says.
The former football coach at the Noblesville, Indiana, high school saw Paige transfer in from Carmel High School, sit out his sophomore year, then become one of the most prolific players in school history.
The program tried to put together a difficult regular season schedule each year to prepare for the Indiana 2A playoffs. Paige managed to stand out.
“I can’t remember too many games where Mitchell wasn’t the most electric player on the field,” Kremer said.
Paige finished his career with 23 school records and led Indiana high school football in collective kick and punt return yards his senior season.
However, on-field play does not always translate to national acclaim. It’s easy for coaches to ignore a 5-foot-7 receiver when wooed by physical specimens occupying some of the same territories. Paige had no offers coming his way.
He was invited to IU for what he called the “walk-on camp.” An IU fan as a kid, Paige was always interested in playing in Bloomington.
He came to training camp as small as ever — about 140 pounds — competing with a Division I football program.
“The first practice was, uh, different,” Paige says. “To be honest, it took a while to get comfortable.”
It took time to make a name for himself with the Hoosiers, and it became even more difficult to maintain that good name. He thought he did well in his first spring, then he struggled once fall came around. The next spring he felt confident once again, but he still had yet to catch a pass during a college football game.
He just needed an opportunity. This summer, he got one.
***
The news that sophomore J-Shun Harris tore his ACL and would miss the 2015 season broke just moments before IU Coach Kevin Wilson took the podium to speak to the media.
It was a blow to a receiving corps already stretched for depth. IU’s leading returning receiver would now be Dominique Booth, who had only eight receptions in 2014. The injury posed the question, “Now what?”
One recurring name was Mitchell Paige.
He had one quality every receiver craves.
“Nate Sudfeld trusts him,” IU Offensive Coordinator Kevin Johns said. “He is a savvy little guy who always finds a way to get open.”
Sudfeld praised the former walk-on, who earned a scholarship this spring and found himself in a major position battle. Sudfeld had undergone injuries and position battles of his own and enters his final season without an established target.
But he seems to have found something in Paige.
Although Paige is not as fast as his predecessor, Shane Wynn, what sets him apart is his mind. As Johns said, “savviness” has become the word to describe Paige.
Kremer says it. Johns says it. Sudfeld says it.
Paige prides himself on being able to find space. He said what makes him successful is he tries to know everything. He wants to know what the tight ends are doing, what the two outside wideouts are doing and what the quarterback is reading.
At his size, he can’t just blow by an Ohio State corner or jump over a Michigan State linebacker. He has to use his mind. So, if he knows that the tight end is running one route, then he also knows what space will be open.
“I’m not Shane Wynn fast,” Paige said. “I’m quick; I’m smart.”
Paige still talks to Wynn, the recent IU graduate who ended his career with more than 2,000 receiving yards. Both are listed at 5-foot-7. They have had similar obstacles to overcome.
The first thing Paige learned from the NFL rookie was how to get low.
“Those big guys are coming, they’re hunting,” Paige said. “We got to take those hits off us.”
But the main lesson Wynn taught Paige was the value of watching film. Wynn may have been faster, but he also understood the cerebral aspects of playing the position.
“He’s a big influence on the way that I play,” Paige said.
***
One day in July, Paige and Sudfeld went golfing.
Before Sudfeld could enjoy his strong start, Paige eagled the hole.
“I threw my club and said ‘I’m done,’” Sudfeld said.
At Guerin Catholic, Paige lettered in basketball, track and field, and golf in addition to football. Kremer said it didn’t matter if it was on the field or off, Paige was competitive in just about any setting.
Sudfeld and Paige may take pride in their trust and connection on the field, but they compete in just about everything off it. Despite Paige being 10 inches shorter and 64 pounds lighter, they play a lot of one-on-one basketball.
“We play make it, take it,” Paige said. “So I try not to let him get it. Once he gets it, it’s hard to play defense on him.”
Paige isn’t afraid to compete with any opponent or attempt any task. He returns kicks for the Hoosiers. He jokingly took snaps as a place holder after practice one day.
Now, he and fellow veteran Ricky Jones have to take the challenge of being the leaders of a young receiving corps despite having hardly any game experience. IU no longer has a Cody Latimer, Kofi Hughes or Shane Wynn. There is no obvious star receiver whom everyone follows.
“It’s an interesting role,” Paige said. “But I think we are taking it kind of in stride. We are excited, kind of putting our own imprint on IU football.”
***
Coach Johns likes to tell players, “Once you think you’ve got it, you’re about to get it.”
Claiming a depth chart spot isn’t reason to become complacent, Johns says. So Paige doesn’t accept he has the starting slot receiver position in the bag.
Experience aside, Wilson has referred to this group as the most skilled receiving outfit he has had in his five years. It can be viewed as a blank slate, with no roles set in stone. There are skilled young freshmen fighting for time, and Jones is always an option to move inside if need be.
In the meantime, Paige is impressing those around him. He said he had multiple successful springs that failed to turn into productive falls. Now, he is trying to put it all together for the first time.
“When you look at him, he doesn’t look like a Big Ten, 6-foot-4 receiver,” Johns said. “But when he steps on the football field, he’s one of those wiggle guys that can just get down the field and catches everything you throw to him.”
Jones said no receiver goes out there thinking they are small and have limits. It just adjusts the way they play.
Paige knows he isn’t particularly big, but he has never known what it is like to be any bigger.
Kremer doesn’t think the 5-foot-7 kid out of a small 2A high school focuses on how close he is to the ground, rather how much higher he can go.
“I don’t think he believes he has a ceiling,” Kremer said.
