Flutie Prodigy Paul Ghilani Chooses Rhode Island Over BC

BOSTON —  The next Doug Flutie would stand by the Boston College bench and watch the first Doug Flutie play. Paul Ghilani, still in high school, looked forward to the day he would move from the sidelines to the headlines.

“I always think about being in his position,” Ghilani said. “Around my sophomore year, I really started thinking about college football, possibly Boston College.”

It seemed so right, like a fairy tale needing only a happy ending.

Doug and Paul are pals. They live just three miles apart. They’d play football and basketball together in their spare time.

Ghilani, a close friend and former teammate of Doug’s brother Darren, has slept over at the Flutie house in Natick, Mass. When Boston College played at home, Ghilani was allowed to root from the field.

“All the people around here expected me to go to BC,” Ghilani said.

For 2 1/2 seasons, Doug Flutie was the very successful quarterback for Natick High School. A year after he left, Ghilani moved into his spot and didn’t lose a game in three years.

“He’s such a super kid, one of the most impressive young men I’ve ever been involved with,” Boston College recruiting coordinator Barry Gallup said. “It’s almost like talking to Doug.”

“It seems identical,” said Bob Ghilani, an assistant coach on his son’s football and baseball teams at Natick High. “The schools that came in (to recruit Flutie and Ghilani) are almost the same, only Doug wound up at BC.”

Paul wound up at Rhode Island, an NCAA playoff semifinalist last year. But it is a Division I-AA team, a step below Boston College’s level.

Doug’s success nurtured Paul’s dream. In the end, that success ruined it.

Flutie’s Heisman Trophy year, thrilling style and cooperative, clean-cut image drew national attention. He was a convincing advertisement for Coach Jack Bicknell’s wide-open offensive philosophy.

Mark Kamphaus, David Thompson and Mike Power, three of the country’s top high school quarterbacks, answered that call. At Boston College, Ghilani would have to beat out them and perhaps six others.

“I had to look at it realistically,” Ghilani said.

On Sunday night, Feb. 10, Kamphaus called Boston College to say he would go there. The next day, Gallup went to Natick High to talk with Paul.

The message was simple: Ghilani could have a scholarship, but would be better off elsewhere. The emotions were complex.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in recruiting,” Gallup said. “I’ve known Paul since he was a freshman in high school. ... He was almost like a friend.

“We weren’t telling him he wasn’t good enough. We just told him we rated some other kids ahead of him. You’re not supposed to get emotional about recruiting, but it was hard.”

The 6-foot-1 Ghilani had the credentials. Natick was 32-0 in his three seasons. He was 16-0 on his eighth-and ninth-grade teams. He threw for more than 40 touchdowns and more than 3,000 yards in three varsity years.

He was, said Gallup, “a better pure high school quarterback” than Flutie.

But he didn’t have the timing.

Four years ago, when Flutie was recruited, and last year, when Boston College didn’t sign any schoolboy quarterbacks, Ghilani would have been welcome, Gallup said.

“He was disappointed when Bicknell and Barry told him the facts of life, or the facts of big-time football,” Bob Ghilani said. “He just got caught in that year when there are numerous talented quarterbacks.

“He is confident enough that he figured he’d keep the Flutie dream alive and just change the name but he’s the type of kid who recovers from disappointment quickly.”

Paul could see it coming.

Boston College didn’t show great interest after his season ended on Thanksgiving Day. Newspaper reports didn’t list Ghilani among Gallup’s top recruiting targets.

“Maybe we knew too much about Paul,” said Gallup, who attended at least 10 of his games. “Maybe we were looking at his weaknesses more than his strengths.”

“It was kind of a natural connection” between Paul and Boston College, said his father, “maybe too natural.”

On a Friday, two days before Kamphaus called, Gallup and Bicknell met with the Ghilanis and Tom Lamb, Natick’s head football coach. They told the trio that Kamphaus, from Cincinnati’s Moeller High, was leaning toward Boston College.

“They put all the cards on the table,” Bob said.

That weekend, just days before Flutie was to sign a rich contract with New Jersey of the United States Football League, he and Paul tossed a football back and forth in the Natick High gym. They went for a ride in Doug’s new Porsche. They talked.

“I asked him what he thought about me going” to Boston College, Paul said. “He said it would be tough because of the competition.”

After talking to Gallup on Monday, Paul knew what he had to do. That night, he called Rhode Island with the news: He would go where the opportunity was, even if it meant never finding out how he would do against the country’s best players.

Rhode Island showcases its quarterback. The Rams threw the ball more than Boston College last season. They have just two other quarterbacks in their program.

Ghilani also will have more freedom to play baseball than he would have had at Boston College. When he was a 14-year-old freshman, his pitching record for Natick’s state championship team was 10-0.

“In four years, he’s going to have a big career decision for the rest of his life, and I think baseball at that time could be as big as football,” Lamb said.