Sept. 4, 2006

Throughout his collegiate career, Jason Tomlinson has been more than willing and able to carry out whatever task he's been asked to complete.

Whether - as a wide receiver in Navy's run-dominant offense - that means delivering blocks rather than catching passes.

Or - as an island unto himself returning punts -he is left alone to wait for the football in the face of the crazed opponents stampeding toward him, each harboring nothing but bad intentions.

Tomlinson's done it, without rival, without complaint. For 38 straight appearances the last three seasons as well as last Saturday.

About the only thing he seems reluctant to do is talk about all that he does.

Ask how he's able to serve in such a selfless way at a position often populated by selfish individuals and Tomlinson reminds you of the "bigger picture."

"You're going to do what it takes to win games," he says. "I don't think about how many balls I'm going to catch."

Inquire about his influence on the younger teammates who likely see Tomlinson as the walking, running and blocking definition of a receiver in the Mids' triple-option attack and he'll shy away from speaking for others.

"You'd have to ask them," Tomlinson will politely say.

Left with no other choice, you seek out someone like Tyree Barnes, who spent last fall as a freshman understudy to Tomlinson.

"I can really attribute a majority of what I've learned from Jason," Barnes wrote in an e-mail. "After coming in and seeing Jason's work ethic, I realized how hard I would have to work in order to make a positive impact on the field."

What Navy's wide receivers coach Brian Bohannon observes is a work ethic consistent with the kind of individual who cares enough to take precise routes, exercise textbook form and maintain complete concentration.

"What an outstanding young man," Bohannon says the instant Tomlinson's name comes up in conversation. "He's humble, a very hard worker who puts himself last. He's a quiet kid who works his tail off.

"Every one of our kids watches him practice."

Much the same way Tomlinson took his on-field cues in practice from Amir Jenkins and Lionel Wesley, a fellow Texan, who graduated in the Class of 2005.

"With our team unity, they didn't think they were too good for (me)," Tomlinson says of his former teammates and fellow receivers. "I try to help the younger guys as much as (Jenkins and Wesley) helped me."

Occasionally, that means well-chosen words from someone who's led in the past with what he did, not what he said.

"Up until this year, Jason led purely by example," says Bohannon. "(But) sometimes in practice now, he can be heard more often, if he feels like it's necessary in certain situations."

When that's the case, Tomlinson commands an attentive audience.

"I learned that I can be a huge difference in a game without catching five passes or scoring touchdowns every game," wrote Barnes.

In other words, wide receiver remains as important as any other position.

And whether springing someone else into the open field, carrying the ball on a reverse or being on the other end of a long completion, no one is more valuable than Tomlinson.

"Coach (Paul) Johnson does a great job of utilizing our system," Bohannon says of his boss, who's presided over an offense that led the nation in rushing two of the last three years. "He'll find a way to get (Jason) the ball.

"(Our receivers) have to know what we do and embrace it. And when an opportunity comes their way, they have to make the most of it."

And Tomlinson has.

"He's made a lot of big plays that changed the course of a lot of games," said Bohannon.

One such play occurred in the 2004 opener against Duke. With Navy trailing, 6-0, inside the final minute of the first half, Tomlinson sprinted along the left sideline to eventually run under a 58-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Polanco.

Momentum swiftly shifted, the Mids took the lead seconds later on an extra point and they were on their way to a 5-0 start and their first 10-win campaign in nearly a full century.

Another instance resulted not from a reception, but rather a reverse late in the third quarter of the inaugural Poinsettia Bowl last December. Immediately after what had been a 34-10 lead over Colorado State was pared to 10 points, Johnson called for an end around.

Tomlinson motioned from right to left and galloped 22 yards to start a scoring drive that would ensure the Mids' second straight postseason win.

As for personal favorites, Tomlinson cites a 2003 visit to Vanderbilt - where he scored his first career touchdown as a freshman - and last October's 27-24 victory over Air Force.

Helping Navy complete one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of the Commander-In-Chief's series, Tomlinson had a career-long 61-yard touchdown reception before the Mids rallied for 10 points in the final 2:22.

He finished that rainy afternoon with four catches for 114 yards. The following week against Kent State, Tomlinson became the first Navy receiver in seven years to reach the 100-yard mark in back-to-back games.

And while focus is first centered on Massachusetts this weekend, there's a sense that next Saturday will mark an opportunity he'll relish more than most.

Making its first trip to Stanford since 1965, Navy will travel to a place Tomlinson once envisioned as his own home campus.

Back then, Jason was lettering in baseball, basketball, football and track - and somehow finding time to play soccer - as a student at Kennedale High School in Arlington, Texas.

Close friend Landon Johnson committed to play linebacker for the Cardinal and Tomlinson, who even then was overshadowed somewhat in a run-oriented style of play, hoped to join him in Palo Alto.

But when Stanford failed to offer a scholarship, Tomlinson was introduced to Annapolis by Navy assistant Todd Spencer.

Football aside, the benefits of an Academy education were obvious.

"My main concern was to get my education," said Tomlinson, an international relations major. "Even if I couldn't play football, everything would be paid for."

With two brothers who'd already enlisted in the Navy, Tomlinson could also look forward - with a laugh - to the day he'd outrank his older siblings, Dwight and Machell.

"I'd always rub it in," Jason says of a running joke within the family. "They would have to salute me. They didn't like that idea very much."

In his own way, through his words, Tomlinson instead seems to be saluting them.

"My brothers had a hand in shaping me," says Jason, who considers his greatest influence to be his father, Stanley. "My dad, we've always been close. He never pushed me into anything. He loved to watch all my games, whatever I played."

In his youngest son, Stanley was raising both a talented athlete and gifted artist - a young boy who balanced his love of competition with a separate passion that to this day provides a creative outlet.

"Even when he was young, it was always sports and drawing," Stanley told Jon Gallo of The Washington Post last November. "He would play a game, and then he'd go to his room and start drawing cartoons."

Years later, Tomlinson is doing much the same. Playing a game, then retreating to his room. Only now, he sketches portraits rather than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of his youth.

"I just pick up my pencil and draw . . . family members, portraits and pretty much anything that doesn't move," Tomlinson said in the Post article. "I don't worry about anything, not football or my schoolwork that's waiting for me. It's my break."

Perhaps it also reveals what's made Tomlinson so valuable to the Midshipmen.

Despite being in a position that can easily breed a me-first mentality, as exhibited by the many receivers who publicly demand the ball and crave attention, Tomlinson still sees the bigger picture.

Others may resort to orchestrated celebrations in the end zone, but he would rather exercise his freedom of expression in the solitude of his room at Bancroft Hall.

Alone with pencil and notebook. Leaving it to someone else to offer a portrait of Jason Tomlinson.

"Jason has great balance, he has confidence, not arrogance, and humility," says Bohannon. "He has goals in mind and always keeps them first and foremost.

"I don't know that I've ever been around anyone like him. When he graduates, I'm going to miss him for his character more than anything else."