DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — First, Nate Mahon dropped baseball at Georgetown College to become a Miami University fullback. Now Miami has dropped the fullback position.

Oddly enough, it's all good for Mahon.

"Camp's been great," said the 6-foot-1, 240-pound senior from Hamilton. "I made the position switch from fullback to tight end and it's a better fit for me. I'm playing on the kickoff return team right now. I was working with the ones (first string). Hopefully that will pan out and I'll get to play in the first game."

"We're going to use a lot more tight end formations," explained Miami coach Shane Montgomery, whose RedHawks open the season Thursday, Aug. 30 at Ball State. "We sort of did away with the fullback position. We can be a little more multi-dimensional by using multi-tight end sets."

Mahon has been switched to tight end and junior Nick DeBartolo, who had been the starting fullback, now is a defensive lineman.

Mahon had been an instant success at Georgetown, where he played football and was named Mid-South Conference Freshman of the Year in baseball. After two seasons he transferred to Miami.

"It was definitely a risk," said the former Big Blue linebacker and West Side Little League All-Star. "I came here as a walk-on trying to start over a little bit. One of the reasons I came here was Miami's tradition of walk-ons getting scholarships and getting to play a lot. That was the plan."

Half of the plan has succeeded. Last week Mahon was told he had earned a scholarship.

"It was always a dream of mine to play Division I football," he said. "I miss (baseball) a little bit, but with everything that's happened here, it's hard to be sorry."