There was a time, not long ago, when Marquis Spruill couldn’t bear to tell his mother, Natasha, that he was leaving the house to play football.

In his junior season at Hillside (N.J.) High School, Spruill was embarrassed. He was playing positions — offensive guard and defensive tackle — he wasn’t meant to play. On top of it all, his team was in the midst of a 0-10 season.

Ashamed, Marquis never gave Natasha a team schedule. Never told her when Hillside had a game. Never had a good reason to.

‘I think he was embarrassed,’ Natasha Spruill said. ‘Every time I would ask him, ‘Marquis, where’s the game?’ He would say, ‘Ma, you don’t really have to come.’ I thought it really had to do with the fact that the team wasn’t winning.’

Spruill can’t hide from his mother, or anyone, any longer. Nor does he want to. Come Saturday at Akron (6 p.m., ESPN3), the true freshman will line up as Syracuse’s strongside linebacker next to senior stalwarts Doug Hogue and Derrell Smith.

Little known out of Hillside, Spruill received interest — but no offers — from any Division I schools. Eventually, he decided to spend a season at Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia. Saturday, he’ll take the field next to two of the Big East’s best at linebacker, after winning a training camp competition over senior Ryan Gillum.

‘I’m just ready to play,’ Spruill said Tuesday. ‘Honestly.’

Last Saturday at 6 p.m. — exactly one week before his team would be preparing for opening kickoff against Akron — SU head coach Doug Marrone had his players write down the emotions that were flowing through each of them.

Spruill wrote down feelings of thrill. Goosebumps. Excitement.

It’s the excitement that comes with a first college game, a first college start. The excitement that comes with being here in the first place.

‘At first, I kind of gave up my junior year (of high school),’ Spruill said. ‘… But I told myself I wasn’t going to give up. I kept pushing, and I got here.’

That junior year at Hillside was the low point. Zero wins, 10 losses. It’s a subject that still embarrasses Spruill.

‘It left a bad taste in my mouth,’ Spruill said, shaking his head furiously. ‘No, no, no. Can’t even speak on that.’

Enter new Hillside head coach John Power for Spruill’s senior season. Exit that offensive guard and defensive tackle nonsense. Spruill was a natural linebacker, and Power knew it from the first time he saw his new star in spring conditioning and agility drills.

Power saw the speed and athleticism, and he envisioned Spruill bolting from side to side, covering the entire field. He saw the aggressiveness and envisioned the big hits. He saw the intelligence and the quick learning, and he envisioned his middle linebacker.

Power’s instincts were proven right in Hillside’s first scrimmage that summer. The team’s offense ran an isolated running play to the right. Spruill knocked the fullback to the ground and proceeded to chase down the running back.

‘We knew we had somebody pretty special,’ Power said. ‘Everything we thought he was going to be, he was. As the season progressed, people would start to build offensive blocking schemes around stopping him.’

Behind Spruill — who finished the season with 109 tackles, including 22 for loss — Hillside completed a dramatic turnaround from laughingstock to Mountain Valley Conference champions. It lost in the semifinals of the state tournament.

It was enough to get Spruill noticed, but not offered. Power said Syracuse and Temple were the only two schools to show any sort of extended interest in Spruill.

‘The program itself was down,’ Power said. ‘He had been in different positions and not really played a ton of football. … A lot of people, when they came in, didn’t know about him.

‘You know how recruiting is these days.’

Without an offer, Spruill decided to spend a year at Fork Union, which helped him fill out into his current 6-foot-2, 223-pound frame. And the discipline helped him strive for perfection on every single detail on the field.

There was the 6 a.m. wake-up call, after which each cadet lined up for a salute of the U.S. flag. After breakfast came cleaning and organizing, when each cadet was expected to make his bed complete with hospital corners.

‘You had to be on top of everything,’ Spruill said. ‘That helps me here, as far as being on top of everything at SU. It really helped me a lot, as far as my discipline. You really focus that much more on every little thing.’

His maturation, combined with his continued on-field performance, sent Marrone, defensive coordinator Scott Shafer and linebackers coach Dan Conley back for another look. This time, they were sold.

‘I remember watching him on the film,’ Conley said. ‘… Coach Shafer and I watched his film, and we said this guy had a lot of potential. Coach Marrone said, ‘What do you think he can get better (at)?’ I created a list of things that I thought I could get him better at. We do that with every recruit. He’s got some very good potential. He’s an explosive guy. He can run. He’s got a good change of direction. He’s a smart football player.’

Out of Fork Union, Spruill was able to enroll at SU in January and get a jump on learning the Orange’s defensive scheme. Mentored by Hogue and Smith, he learned the intricacies of Shafer’s system, down to a max coverage scheme completely foreign to Spruill.

It was a six-month head start.

‘That was the key part of me being where I am right now, in the starting position,’ Spruill said. ‘I got to start playing with the ones, got in and learned the base defense.’

Spruill earned Marrone’s praise regularly throughout camp, eventually winning the starting job. And now he is here, helping anchor a unit that will be the Orange’s strength on defense and attempting to lead another team’s turnaround.

This time around, Natasha Spruill owns a copy of the season schedule — SU’s 2010 schedule. She’ll be at the Carrier Dome for her son’s games against Maine and Colgate later this month, at the least. Not that Marquis would want to hide it from her, anyway.

‘He can’t hide the schedule from me this time,’ she said. ‘I said, ‘I’m taking it upon myself, I’m going to go down to the school myself and I’m going to meet (Marrone). And I’m going to get a schedule.’

‘And that’s just what I did.’

bplogiur@syr.edu

Published on August 31, 2010 at 12:00 pm