Cougars' speedy receiver Johnny Forzani is learning on the fly

PULLMAN — Johnny Forzani is living the American dream.

Which is sort of funny, considering he's Canadian.

But his dream revolves around American football. And playing in the NFL.

"If you have the athletic ability and you have the work ethic and you get some good coaches, you can learn," the Washington State receiver said of the chances of reaching his goal.

Forzani is that rarest of Division I football players, a neophyte trying to learn on the fly.

It's all because Forzani can fly, running a 4.3 40-yard dash by some accounts, and that skill is what propelled him off the basketball courts — he played a year of basketball at Canada's Douglas College — and onto the field.

"I was just so green," said Forzani, a mature, funny, self-deprecating 21-year-old. "I literally knew how to run fast. That's completely it."

He spent a season running pass patterns for the practice team of the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL, a league in which his father played in the previous century. It was his dad's connection to a former teammate, WSU receivers coach Mike Levenseller, that brought the younger Forzani to Pullman.

In Pullman, Forzani immediately ran into Levenseller's tough-love approach to turning out fundamentally sound, NFL-ready receivers.

It was a sea change from his time in Calgary.

"I didn't have yelly, or Levy, constantly yelling, ripping me," said Forzani of last year, a Freudian slip of NFL proportions. "As much as I hate to admit that, yes, I need his approach. It's pretty necessary."

But don't get the idea Levenseller is a grouch. He's just a perfectionist about the art of playing wide receiver. His charges over the years have all come to appreciate the attention to detail.

The usual high-school player is an unfinished sculpture that needs some rounding at the edges. But with Forzani, who has seven receptions for 265 yards, a 37.9-yard average, Levenseller is working with a block of clay.

"High-school kids have at least played football," Levenseller said of Forzani's lack of experience. "He just hasn't played any football."

Levenseller knows what Forzani is trying to achieve. That makes the coach even more focused on daily improvement.

"He's getting better and better and better," said Levenseller. "My deal is I can't let up on him. I have to keep on him. Otherwise, he gets comfortable."