Aaron Woods had 34 receptions for 569 yards and three touchdowns through six games entering Saturday's contest against Idaho State. His 16.7 yard per catch average leads the team. Woods also leads the Vikings in kickoff returns with 17 for an average of 25.9 yards per return. Woods ranks seventh in catches, fourth in receiving yards and first in kickoff returns in the Big Sky Conference.

At this stage in his life, junior wide receiver Aaron Woods can't imagine life without football.  And, he knows what that's like because he's tried.

Even though he was all-conference as a running back and slot back his junior and senior years at Sunset High School, the 5'6” Woods hadn't made it onto the radar screen of college recruiters.

“I didn't pass the eye test?people looked at me and didn't think I was big enough--so I didn't get any offers to play in college,” he recalled.

Disappointed, he got a job.

That didn't last very long because “I couldn't stand working and not playing football,” so he enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College in the rolling hills of the Napa Valley about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

“It's green and a little like Oregon, except the sun shines.  I really liked the area.  In fact, it's 85 degrees down there today (weather in Portland was partly cloudy and in the high 50's when he made that comment),” he said.

For three years at Sunset, Woods was a running back and wasn't called on to catch many passes.  There was a little more pass catching activity during his senior year when he became a slot back which involved a lot of motion and hand-offs.

Santa Rosa's coaching staff thought he had the makings of a wide receiver, so he was assigned to their wide receiver coach, who he describes as the “best coach I ever had.  He made me what I am today.”

Woods credits his Santa Rosa experience with helping him improve his speed, his quickness, his ability to focus on the ball and his overall knowledge of the game of football.

Santa Rosa's spread offense threw the ball around 75 times a game, so Wood's talent was regularly on display.  He had a career high 24 catches while there (already this year, in the Run-and-Shoot offense, Woods has 34 catches).

Recruited by former PSU Head Coach Tim Walsh, Woods was looking forward to playing close to home. But, he remembers the day his coach called him in to tell him that Walsh had left the program for a position at Army.

“I thought ?uh, oh, what do I do now.  My coach suggested I call the new PSU coaches to find out what was happening.  When I found out that the Run-and-Shoot was a passing offense, I thought it would be a good fit,” he said.

And, a good fit it has been.

“Aaron is a play maker.  He has the most catches over 25 yards of anyone on the team so far this year,” said PSU wide receivers coach Kevin Strasser. “He can get down the field with his speed, which he doesn't get much credit for.”

Woods is a restless competitor and he thinks life without the competition of football would be pretty dull.  

His biggest challenge, he said, is making decisions on the run.  “We have to make reads, adjust what we do based on what the defense gives us.  We don't have set routes.”

The PSU coaching staff decided to give Woods a redshirt year in 2007, so this season is his first on the field.  And, Coach Strasser thinks that worked well for him.

“He was with us last year and we considered playing him.  But, he really benefited from watching and learning the system last year.   This way, we get another year with him, too,” Strasser said.

Beyond his speed and ability to “do something with the ball once he catches it,” Strasser said that Woods is fun to be around.  “He has a joy for life that he brings to practice every day.”

Woods considers himself a student of the game and is intrigued by the almost mystical connection between the quarterback and receivers in the Run-and-Shoot.

“The connection between the quarterback and receiver is crucial.  We have to develop body language so the quarterback knows what we're going to do.  It's a real challenge for us to communicate,” said Woods.      

After college, the communications major would like to continue playing football.  His role models are 5'9” Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers and Darren Sproles, a 5'6” running back with the San Diego Chargers.  Today, speed and quickness are more important than size, he believes.

For now, school and football take up just about every waking hour.  “I wake up at 4 or 5 a.m., then it's football practice and the rest of the day involves going to class, eating, studying and preparing for the next day,” he said.

Recognizing that football doesn't last forever, though, Woods (a communications major) isn't sure what he'd like to do  “but I know I want to work with kids, work with youth groups.”

When he was young, he said, organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs provided him with a lot of encouragement. “They had a big impact on my life.  If it had an impact on my life, maybe I can do the same for someone else,” he said.