Nevada-Reno guard John Bender is hoping he's improved enough to play in the N.F.L

[cowboyjoe]

Bender is not just an enigma. He's an enigma squared in size-15 shoes and a 4XL jacket. And since he's Canadian, you have to account for the exchange rate, which means he's an enigma to the 2.7th power. "He's a very unique character," junior center Jeff Meads said. Not since John Dillinger brought home puppies has any individual demonstrated such diametrically opposed personality traits.

"He's a guy off the field who's a scholar. He goes to class and takes care of business. He's somewhere around a 3.5 (GPA) student in business. He's real quiet, real mild-mannered," offensive line coach Cameron Norcross said. "When he's on the field he plays angry and he's not real nice. He's nasty. If he has a chance to beat up on someone he's going to take it. ... That's his job, playing on the edge of legal and playing on the edge of dirty. He's not dirty, but he plays on the edge. Every great offensive lineman is going to play right on that edge. That's what makes him great. "But off the field he's the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet." The 6-foot-8, 320-pound Bender is in total agreement with that assessment.