Sonny Dykes met Rob Gronkowski on a recruiting visit in 2007, and he remembers the décor of Gronkowski's spartan dwelling as much as anything. The prep star was living with his dad in a mostly empty apartment in Pittsburgh, after moving from the Buffalo area the year before.

"We walk in and it's pretty cool," says the Cal coach, who was an offensive coordinator for Arizona at the time. "Gordy, his dad, he's a piece of work. He's got a bench press and a leg press machine sitting in a living room. We did the whole interview with my legs on the leg press."

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This is another in the growing list of Gronkowski tales, virtually all involving either sheer strength or sheer goofiness – sometimes both. Fans are equally mystified by the tight end's ability to catch everything thrown at him and then dance in the end zone (or after the game) like only the worst athlete possibly could. After scoring three touchdowns in the Patriots' season opener last Thursday, Gronkowski arrives in Buffalo this weekend as one of the most dominating and entertaining people in the NFL.

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But Dykes' use of Gronkowski at Arizona shows a side of the player that probably should get more attention: his speed.

"He is the most versatile football player I've ever seen," Dykes said.

Dykes is known for a fast-paced offense – one of the fastest in college football. (In his first season at Arizona, the Wildcats piled up an additional 130 yards per game.) As one of the heirs to Hal Mumme's Air Raid offense, Dykes doesn't have time for lumbering players. To him, Gronkowski was just as much a wideout as a tight end.

"You could put him in a game and he could block a defensive end as a freshman," Dykes said. "Or put him out by himself and he could function as a wide receiver. He gave us so much flexibility. We could run screens where he's blocking the corner – a 270-pound guy blocking the 170-pound corner."

We saw Gronkowski's open-field speed in Week 1, as the Pittsburgh Steelers clawed back to within seven in the fourth quarter and the Patriots had the ball deep in their own territory. Gronkowski found himself wide open and grabbed a Tom Brady pass midstride before racing 52 yards. It was decidedly rapid. A lot has been made of the emergence of a modern tight end in the NFL: the basketball-player-turned-football-player who can outleap any linebacker – Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, Julius Thomas, Jimmy Graham. Gronkowski augurs another evolution, perhaps: the tight end who can block and move and catch equally well in any kind of offense. Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end who had a breakout Week 1 in Houston, played quarterback in the Wildcat formation during college. He has already been compared to Gronkowski.

"The defense doesn't know what to do," Dykes said of his former player. "Is he gonna play power football? Just his ability to run through the middle of the football field and what that meant to a defense."

The knee-jerk response to Gronkowski is to jam him at the line and then put a safety over the top. It's a form of double coverage and it seems to make sense. But with that speed, jamming him at the line isn't a sure bet to slow him down when he breaks through the interference.

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