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Hard Work, Faith Boost Dunning 9/15/2005 By Meggie Butzow Football is a sport of paradox. Much has been written about its violent nature and cold-weather temperament. Its athletes are routinely pointed to as examples of the empty-headed jock stereotype. But football is a sport of depth and layers, and it is within these layers that the paradoxes can be found. There is the athlete who instinctively understands how the play will unfold, and runs his routes accordingly. The tough guy who has his way with would-be defenders on the field, and still shows up to Bible study every week. The football player who also excels in the classroom. The hard-blocking lineman with the best hands on the team. It is in these ways, and more, that senior tight end Dustin Dunning personifies the contradictions of his sport. So far, the 2005 season and school year seem to serve as perfect examples of Dunning’s simple complexity. The fifth-year senior picked up a second major, an interdisciplinary study focusing on Public Policy and international business, to go along with his Economics degree; he serves as the vice-president of Vanderbilt’s chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes; and he’s busy playing an integral role in the football team’s 2-0 start. “It’s definitely important for me to have a life outside of football simply because we do spend so much time involved with it,” Dunning said. Such a full schedule can be chaotic, but it allows him to appreciate the joys that football brings that much more. With the rest of his senior classmates, Dunning went into this season determined to end his Commodore career with a bang. It is probably no coincidence, then, that he has helped the team open play this year in that very way — explosively. In each of Vanderbilt’s two come-from-behind road wins, Dunning played a crucial role in Vanderbilt’s late, game-winning drives. Against Arkansas, four of his five receptions came in the fourth quarter, and all four catches went for first downs. Dunning would be the first to tell you, though, that these early-season playmaking abilities have been long developing, through years of hard work in the weight room and on the field. When he arrived at Vanderbilt as a freshman, he was already familiar with the fine points of route-running and catching the ball, thanks to his Hoover, Ala., high school’s five-wide offense that exploited his natural abilities. Dunning knew, though, that he needed to bulk up physically and begin to absorb the intricacies of blocking to be fully competitive as an SEC-caliber tight end. “There’s a big difference, physically, between high school and college ball,” Dunning said. “So it was a big change at first. “I always consider myself a work in progress,” he explained. “But especially the last couple of years, I knew that in order to be able to compete I’d have to get bigger and stronger, and that was basically my motivation.” Dunning didn’t just spend his past few years in the weight room, or even just on the football field, though. When he wasn’t lifting, practicing or mightily trying to absorb 7,000-9,000 calories a day (to gain weight), he spent much of his time in the Who U With House, an off-campus location that harbors Vanderbilt’s representatives in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). “It’s definitely important for me to have a life outside of football simply because we do spend so much time involved with it,” Dunning said. “Balancing school, football and FCA is just a product of four years of getting used to it. It can definitely seem like a lot on my table at once sometimes, but?the FCA has been a great source of relief” from the hectic life of a college athlete. A faith-based organization comprised largely of athletes, the FCA provides its members with a chance to meet weekly and participate in Bible studies and other socializing activities. Dunning, in his third year as an officer, is the current vice-president and is in charge of organizing events, games and general gatherings. Teammates Andrew Pace and Trey Holloway join him on the executive board. “I’m able to get out of my usual surroundings with other athletes who love the Lord and have some time to just forget about school and football for a while,” he explained. “It’s really been an important part of my college experience here at Vanderbilt, as I’ve met a lot of my good friends there.” When you’re winning, though, it can be good to stay in one’s usual surroundings — and the first two games of the season leave Dunning and his teammates quietly optimistic about the rest of the year. On the field, the soft hands and sticky fingers that are so central to his success may be unexpected for a lineman; but the apparent contradiction only parallels the many ways in which Dunning himself personifies the complexity of football — the rawest, and purest, of sports. |
