Aug. 23, 2003

Charleston, SC - BY JEFF HARTSELL Of The Post and Courier Staff

Lew Dawson slides his 297 pounds into a seat in The Citadel's mess hall and settles in behind a tray from the buffet line.

His plate is piled high with mac and cheese. A bowl is filled up with French-toast sticks, sprinkled with cinnamon. And on the side is a stack of four chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips, and a glass of water.

"It really wasn't that hard to lose the weight," Dawson says between mouthfuls. "I just had to watch the quantity of food that I ate."

The Citadel's Lew Dawson (from left), Jared Perdue, Dan Blary and Kevin Olecki are all fifth-year linemen who will lead the Bulldogs through the 2003 season.

Irony aside, Dawson -- who stands 6 feet, 6 inches tall and is often greeted by calls of "Big Lew" -- has earned this meal. The Citadel's fifth-year offensive tackle, who arrived on campus four years ago as a 340-pound "blob", has lost nearly 90 pounds, put almost 50 back on and in the process transformed himself into a player who might get a shot at the NFL.

"He has made just tremendous strides, in every area," said Citadel strength coach Todd Lair.

Dawson is not the only Citadel lineman who has come a long way in four years. He is one of a group of four fifth-year linemen -- along with center Kevin Olecki, guard Jared Perdue and tackle Dan Blary -- that Bulldogs Four Citadel fifth-year linemen will form team's core this season for Bulldogs coach Ellis Johnson regards as the nucleus of his third Citadel team.

"That group, to me, epitomizes what we have to have here at The Citadel," Johnson said. "All of those guys came in together, some on scholarship, some as walk-ons, and they've all started for three years off and on. We'll be a good team when we start getting players to stay here four and five years to play.

"To me, they are the picture of our football team this year."

It's a picture that took a while to come into focus.

Blary (6-2, 295) and Perdue (6-2, 260) both came to The Citadel as walk-ons under former coach Don Powers and spent frustrating years on the scout team. Blary finally earned a starting job last year and tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the seventh game, against Furman. Perdue, who has moved from tackle to guard this season, rose from walk-on to starter as a redshirt sophomore and has started 21 of 22 games the last two years.

"It's tough as a walk-on," Perdue said. "I pretty much got an earful every day about how worthless I was. I went through so much stuff to get here, there was no way I was going to give this fifth year up."

Dawson and Olecki (6-5, 265) both came to The Citadel in 1999 as scholarship players. While Dawson has spent his career battling his weight, Olecki has spent his trying to pack on the pounds. He broke his leg against VMI in 2001 and has played guard, tackle and center.

"These guys have always had the weight," Olecki said at the lunch table, pointing at Dawson and Blary.

"For me and Jared, we struggle to put the weight on. I'm in my fifth year, and I'm just now able to maintain a decent size."

Of the four, Dawson has changed the most in four years. As a freshman out of Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville, N.C., he came to The Citadel in 1999 weighing almost 340 pounds.

"A blob," Lair said. "He couldn't really move, he was real weak. I always tell the kids, if you are thinking about being all-conference or about going to the NFL, you are only going to be as good as you make yourself. Lew's a good kid, a quiet kid who doesn't miss a day of work."

By dint of diet and hard work, Dawson went from 340 pounds to about 250 by his estimation. He then built himself back up to his current 297 while adding strength and quickness. Lair said Dawson has a vertical leap of 33 inches, a standing broad jump of 9 feet, 4 inches, bench presses over 400 pounds and squats almost 600.

"He would rate in the top 10 percent of NFL linemen," Lair said. "For a kid to jump that high with that much weight on him, that's phenomenal. He has great explosion. We do a lot of lifts where we emphasize speed, and he pulls the bar so fast. He's got great hips."

NFL scouts already have started showing interest in Dawson, and a solid final season would only help his prospects.

"As long as I have a shot, I'm going to try," he said. "It'd be worth it to see what I can do. I just want to have fun with it, and whatever happens, happens."

Their trials and tribulations have formed a bond among the four. Blary and Olecki live together off-campus, while Perdue and Dawson share an apartment.

"We've had a lot of ups and downs over four years," Perdue said. "There are times when we do everything together, and times when we're tired of each other."

There is one last thing the four would like to accomplish together. To a man, they think they can do it.

"This what you dream of as a freshman," Perdue said. "You think, 'We're all going to be fifth-year, playing on the starting line, winning the Southern Conference championship.' We have the opportunity to fulfill a dream."