O’Connor humbling opponents> Normally shy receiver roars past defenders now

PORTLAND – Drew O’Connor has made a career out of fooling people.

When shorter cornerbacks eyeball his 6-foot-5 stature and figure him for being slow, he sneaks on by before letting his natural gifts take over.

Blessed with height, speed, jumping ability, and hands the size of baseball gloves, the University of Maine wide receiver doesn’t fool many defenders any more.

After all, No. 1 is the same guy who snared 61 passes and scored seven touchdowns as a junior.

Well, he’s still got the wool pulled over one guy’s eyes, it seems.

His name is coach Jack Cosgrove.

After O’Connor’s 1998 debut, during which he snuck around enough to grab seven Mickey Fein offerings for 125 yards and a school record-tying three touchdowns, Cosgrove warned gathered media about his star wideout.

“These will be the first two words he says today, by the way,” Cosgrove said after a question was directed at the smiling O’Connor, alluding to the player’s quiet nature.

Make that his “alleged” quiet nature.

“He doesn’t know how I am around the guys,” a sheepish O’Connor admitted – once he’d walked a safe distance, out of his coach’s earshot.

“It’s when he’s out of the locker room,” Fein said.

According to O’Connor, things were pretty simple. He ran routes. Quarterback Fein threw passes. He caught them. A largely sedate Fitzpatrick Stadium crowd of 4,998 clapped politely during a 30-13 Black Bear win in the season opener.

“A lot of times they were blitzing. On the first touchdown they blitzed and the linebackers disappeared, so Mickey just waited for me to clear,” O’Connor said. “The other times it was just one-on-one and I tried to beat the guy.”

Fein said the first touchdown was a bit of a surprise in that it came on a play that hadn’t proven very successful in the preseason.

“We didn’t hit that play all through camp, then we come out here and he makes plays,” Fein said.

O’Connor started in motion from wide on the right side, made a quick slant across the middle after the snap, and outraced defenders 35 yards into the end zone to make it 10-0 with 4:10 left in the first.

The second scoring strike was a 20-yard lob to the right flag.

And on the third TD play, O’Connor clawed his way back to the inside over the top of cornerback Tory Smith and pulled in a 12-yarder that made it 30-6.

“Bad ball, huh?” Fein asked, before describing a low-and-in throw he made on a fade route. If the throw’s high and away, O’Connor is virtually unstoppable.

But sometimes, as O’Connor explained, things don’t work according to plan. But even that’s part of the plan.

“If I can’t get a good release off the line, Mickey’ll throw it behind me, because the D-back is gonna have his back turned,” O’Connor said. “It gives me the advantage.”

On Thursday night that advantage was enough.