INDIANAPOLIS-To linebacker Chad Greenway, even the 30,000-student University of Iowa campus must have been culture shock. Coming out of Mount Vernon, South Dakota (pop. 477), anything seems large.

Growing up, he helped his parents take care of their farm, which includes 15 stock cows, 4,000 pigs, and about 1,200 to 1,500 acres of corn and beans.

"Kids from South Dakota are the same as kids everywhere," Greenway said. "We also dream of playing professional sports, especially professional football. Growing up in a very athletic family, I always dreamt about and idolized the people in this situation that I'm in right now.

"Being here (at the NFL Scouting Combine) is almost surreal and it's also a lot of fun."

His high school graduating class included 29 people. His 45-man football team was made up of his school and another put together.

His team was so small it even played in a nine-a-side football conference. He was recruited mostly by Division II schools, but he did garner interest from Iowa and chose the bright lights of the Big Ten.

"It wasn't really that different," Greenway said of the nine-man game. "Its just football as we knew it in South Dakota. If you grew up playing 11-man football, you thought that was normal...To us it was normal playing nine-man."

The odds continued to stack against him when, in 2002, he tore his ACL during spring practice of his redshirt freshman season at Iowa. Miraculously, he returned to the field four months after surgery (kids, don't try that at home) and played the remainder of the season.

His sophomore year, he became a starter and was named second team All-Big Ten. He earned first team all-conference honors among talented competition during his junior and senior seasons.

He earned all three of these accolades despite never leading his team in tackles. That honor each year went to teammate Abdul Hodge. The senior linebacker also is a projected first-day draft pick.

"I joke with him sometimes," Hodge said. "Actually, he was leading (in tackles) this year up until the last game and I passed him up. I give him (trouble) every now and then, but it's all in good fun."

With outstanding athleticism and instincts, Greenway is being called one of the most complete and versatile linebackers in this year's draft. He is expected to be picked in the middle of the first round and could go to the Browns at No. 12.

He is well aware of the Browns' need.

"I think there are quite a few teams in this draft who need some linebackers," he said. "I think the Browns need linebackers and there are some others out there who are going to draft defense and may address that by drafting linebackers as well."

He said he'd most likely play outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense, but admits he doesn't have much experience rushing the passer because Iowa isn't much of a blitzing team.

"I think I have that ability to (blitz)," he said. "When I did get that opportunity in college I was pretty successful. I think I'd be a great fit, especially as an outside rusher, but I also have the physical capability of being an inside rusher too. I definitely could help a team and strengthen their blitz package."

Poised to be drafted in April, now, when Greenway travels home he's something of a local celebrity. But then again, you probably don't need to be an All-American football player to garner attention in Mount Vernon.

But he said, all in all things aren't that different. He still goes home and helps out on the farm whenever he can.

"You're just Chad Greenway who grew up right down the road a couple miles (away)," he said. "So it's fun to go back home and see everybody and to know that they're on my side and cheering for me.

"It's not as if there's a parade every time I go home. It's just Mount Vernon. How exciting can 400 people be?"