At Purdue, they showed Dustin Keller clips of Dallas Clark.
When the Jets made Keller a surprise first-round pick in 2008, they dreamed he would one day be their Dallas Clark.
Now it is time for Dustin Keller to be Dallas Clark.
There aren’t quite 81 reasons why this is the year it should happen, but close enough.
You can start with the friendship and telepathy between Keller and quarterback Mark Sanchez, a chemistry that has long existed between Clark and Peyton Manning..
“We had like a photo shoot a month or so ago,” Keller began, “and even when we were wearing our full gear and there for the camera, he still was making me go out there and run routes and stuff which, uh, is really hot.
“I wasn’t too happy about it,” he said with a smile, “but you got to put in the work.”
Sanchez and Keller spent countless hours studying film together during the lockout.
“He’s definitely a Pro Bowl-caliber player, no doubt, with his ability. . . . This could be a really big year for him,” Sanchez said yesterday.
“The biggest thing we have to do is just get that level where me and Sanchez are in that Manning-and-Clark feeling of he knows where I’m going to be at all times and I can kind of sense things,” Keller said. “You can’t always just talk about these things, you just have to kind of feel it more than anything.”
Though coach Rex Ryan’s Ground and Pound never will remind anyone of Manning’s air force, Sanchez will be trusted more to open up the offense. If Keller gets open, Sanchez will feed him the ball. And maybe a trip to Hawaii with it.
“I definitely have the ability to do it,” Keller said, “and I think we have the connection for me to get in that position. It’s just a matter of getting it done. Anybody can have the ability, you have to go out there and actually make it happen.”
There is Tom Moore, the longtime former Colts offensive guru, who has played Me and My Shadow with Keller in his new advisory role for the Jets.
None other than Dallas Clark is on the phone from Indianapolis to talk about what an invaluable resource Moore be for Keller.
“[Moore] never let me get comfortable,” Clark told The Post. “He was just always riding me. For about two years I did not like him at all. He just wanted to get the best out of me, and I think he did. He just didn’t have time for people making mistakes. He expected perfection. You either understood it, and did everything you could to handle your business, or he didn’t have time for you.”
To Clark, Moore’s “constant coaching, constant correcting” was instrumental in making him a 100-catch weapon who finally made his first Pro Bowl in 2009.
“It’s a valuable asset to have, what he knows about the game of football,” Clark said.
Perhaps Moore can have the same impact on Keller. Clark had 91 receptions over his first three NFL seasons; Keller has 148.
“It’s definitely not gonna hurt him, that’s for sure,” Clark said. “It’ll be a huge bonus to have him critiquing and giving him tips and giving him things to look at and all that.”
Keller is an eager student.
“[Moore has] been there, done that, doesn’t matter what situation it is, just a lot of the nuances, a lot of the small specifics of the position, there’s so many things that he can teach me,” Keller said. “He had Dallas Clark playing at the highest level of any tight ends, and I’m just going to pick his brain, and I need to get to that level where I’m playing at a higher level than any other tight end.”
Finally, there is the end of bachelorhood. Not that he ever was Broadway Dustin Keller.
“There’s no random things I have to worry about popping up at night time to do,” Keller said. “I think it’s more than anything, just getting in a regular schedule, and that’s what I have with [my wife Erin].”
Erin is the sister of one of his best friends, Tye English. Keller met her at the Gansevoort Hotel April 10, 2009. And got engaged April 10, 2010 at the Gansevoort, following dinner at Per Se.
“Tony Richardson actually performed the ceremony,” Keller said. They were married July 9, 2011 in Austin, Texas.
“She’s so understanding of everything, and we fit together perfectly,” Keller said.
Now if Keller and Sanchez, and Keller and Moore fit together perfectly? Meet Dallas Clark in a Jets jersey.