Return of Air Augsburg

Jordan Berg and Royce Winford first met during the Augsburg football team's 2006 fall training camp. The chemistry was not instantaneous.

In fact, they don't remember speaking to one another until the season's second or third game.

Not surprising, perhaps. Winford was an outgoing city kid from Brooklyn Park who loves listening to music. Berg was a quiet country kid from Gaylord who loves tinkering with engines and hunting.

But somewhere along the way, something clicked. They have become one of the top passing combinations in the small college game and a major reason that Augsburg, a perennial MIAC doormat, won four of its final six games last season and enters 2008 with optimism.

Once Berg and Winford started speaking, they quickly became best friends. At the end of first semester in the 2006-07 school year they became roommates. And they still are.

"People would look at our different personalities and ask, 'How could they live together?'" Winford said. "I don't know. We just fit."

Asked if the closeness helps their communication on passing routes, they offer the predictable affirmative answer. But truth is, there's little that's predictable about the tandem, and another viewpoint of their friendship was quickly offered.

"It kind of goes both ways," Winford said. "I mean, it's never bad. But if he does something to mess up, or I do something to mess up, we kind of butt heads a little bit. We walk home not talking to each other. But once we reach home, we're cool again."

Different backgrounds

Their paths to Augsburg are as different as their personalities. Winford enrolled as a freshman out of Osseo High School, selecting the school mostly because it was the only college expressing any interest in his football skills. He had been a receiver in Osseo's run-oriented offense.

"He was just kind of a raw, skinny kid trying to figure it out when he got here," Augsburg coach Frank Haege said.

Berg was a more heralded high school athlete, earning a Division II scholarship to Minnesota Duluth. After redshirting as a freshman, he met with the coaching staff.

"They said that in a couple years, if I worked hard, I could be the guy [at quarterback]," Berg said. "But they told me if I ever wanted to get to that point, I had to stay up here [in Duluth] every summer and work out. I'm like, 'I'm going home.' I mean, I like being home. I have a brother I'm close to, and I like being around my family."

Thus began his search to find a new football home. He hit the Internet, checking out every MIAC school that appeared in need of a quarterback. He narrowed his list to Hamline and Augsburg, toured the campuses and chose the Auggies.

Success did not come immediately for either player. Winford as a freshman caught seven passes and the Auggies went 1-9. His receiving total jumped to 46 with Berg's arrival the following year, but the Auggies were again 1-9.

The breakthrough came last season, although you would never have guessed it early. Augsburg lost its first three conference games by a combined score of 183-59. But the following week the Auggies pulled off a 14-13 nonconference upset of 10th-ranked Wartburg.

Confidence grew as quickly as Winford's and Berg's statistical totals. Winford grabbed 101 passes, and Berg threw for 3,444 yards and 34 TDs.

Both clearly benefit by playing in Haege's wide-open spread offense. Haege says he hopes to throw the ball 75 percent of the time this season, a percentage based somewhat on Berg's limited ability to run.

"He's a great pocket quarterback," Haege said. "A lot of teams that run the spread have athletic quarterbacks, but he's kind of a throwback in that he doesn't run at all. At least he runs very little. He's a Dan Marino type. He gets back in the pocket, throws the ball and he's competitive."

The tattoo

Berg's passion off the playing field is working on a Harley Davidson motorcycle that he bought cheap after the machine had been involved in a crash. He almost completely rebuilt the cycle and proudly refers to himself as "a motor head."

A spinoff of that hobby is a fondness for drawing motorcycles, or, as he calls it, "hot rod art." He had one of his drawings reproduced as a tattoo on his right shoulder, accompanied by some of his family's favorite sayings, such as "Sometimes you have to have a little luck."

The drawings so impressed Winford that he asked Berg to work on something for him. What he got was a skull and wings that the receiver had tattooed on his left forearm last spring.

Winford already had two other tattoos, but this one is unique in that he has yet to show it to his mother.

He always has worn a long-sleeved shirt, even during the heat of summer, when he sees her.

"I've gotten pretty good at having my arm covered," he said.

Winford was advised that if a newspaper story contained a reference to the tattoo, his mom just might learn about it.

"That's OK," Winford said. "If you write about it, that'll break the ice. I'll call her and talk about it."

Consider it done.

As to what the future holds -- aside from Winford getting a lecture from his mother -- neither player is certain. Winford hopes to get an NFL tryout, and Augsburg staff members say scouts are taking notice. If that doesn't pan out, Winford hopes to become a coach.

Berg, too, would love keep playing football, although he realizes his likelihood is less than Winford's. As for backup plans, Berg is uncertain. He's an honors physics major who isn't sure about grad school because he disdains sitting in classrooms.

"Put me in a classroom more than five minutes and I'm already itching to get out," he said. "I like to have my hands on something, to be digging into stuff."

Only one thing is certain: They are destined to be lifelong friends, even if their career paths diverge after college.

"We're on the same level, right here," Berg said, pointing at his head.

Winford, after a moment's thought, added this disclaimer: "I'm not a gear head, though. Not at all.''