His coach calls him "The Natural."

Adam DiMichele earned the nickname from Temple football coach Al Golden when he arrived at the Philadelphia-based school prior to the 2006 football season and impressed the coach with his multiple talents.

DiMichele, a Sto-Rox High School graduate, won the starting quarterback position in training camp, about one month after he arrived on campus.

"Coach Golden calls him Roy Hobbs [the main character in "The Natural"] because he's a natural at anything and everything he does on the football field," Temple offensive coordinator George DeLeone said. "He just has such an amazing feel for the game."

In his first season, DiMichele helped the hapless Owls snap a 20-game losing streak with two touchdown passes in a 28-14 win over Bowling Green on Oct. 28, 2006.

A 6-foot-1, 185-pound right-hander, DiMichele started nine games for Temple in 2006, leading the team in total offense. By the end of the year, he became the focal point of Temple's offense.

But DiMichele's success didn't start at Temple, it merely resurfaced.

In his senior year of high school in 2004, DiMichele became the first-ever athlete in Western Pennsylvania to be named to the Post-Gazette's Fabulous 22 for football, Fabulous 5 for basketball and the all-area team for baseball in the same season.

He holds the WPIAL career passing record, compiling 6,471 yards as a four-year starting quarterback at Sto-Rox. He won two WPIAL titles and a state title with the Sto-Rox basketball team.

DeLeone remembers DiMichele when he was a high school sophomore. DeLeone was the associate head coach at Syracuse at the time, and DiMichele was participating in Syracuse's summer football camp.

DiMichele was so talented, DeLeone said, Syracuse offered him a scholarship on the spot.

"I remember thinking he was just an exceptional athlete," DeLeone said.

A long and winding road took DiMichele from that fresh-faced high school recruit to starting Temple quarterback. DiMichele originally committed to Penn State, but his desire to play professional baseball and the school's preference to play him at defensive back wrested him away from State College.

"I wanted to play quarterback, but they said they'd rather have me at defensive back," DiMichele said. "Plus, I had a great baseball season [at Sto-Rox] the spring and summer after I had committed."

When Penn State wouldn't release DiMichele from his scholarship, he transferred to Okaloosa-Walton Community College in Niceville, Fla., which produced current Cleveland Indians outfielder Jason Michaels.

"Instead of trying to tackle [former Minnesota and current New England Patriots running back] Laurence Maroney and [former Ohio State tailback] Maurice Clarett, I played baseball," DiMichele said, laughing. "Baseball was the first sport I ever played, and I always had a soft spot for it."

DiMichele pitched and played every field position at Okaloosa-Walton in the 2004-2005 season. After his first season, the Toronto Blue Jays drafted DiMichele as a right-handed pitcher in June 2005, but DiMichele hit the ball so well in his time as a position player that he decided to return for his sophomore season.

DiMichele hit .364 with 22 RBIs solely as a position player his sophomore year, but a pulled oblique muscle and a strained elbow ligament squashed his chances of being drafted again, forcing him to think things over.

"I had to switch things up and look at my options," DiMichele said. "I thought about playing football again. I had my brother [Alex] give coach Golden my tapes from high school."

DiMichele's younger brother, Alex, who walked on to Temple's football team as a freshman, helped convince Golden to bring Adam to Philadelphia. DiMichele knew Temple would be the kind of challenge he desired.

"Everywhere I've ever been, we've won," DiMichele said. "Coach Golden wanted to turn this program around, and I wanted to be a part of that."

After a promising first season, before which he hadn't been through any off-season conditioning, DiMichele worked on his quarterbacking mechanics. The progress, DeLeone said, has been amazing.

"At the beginning of his time here, Adam was really rusty," DeLeone said. "After all the offseason stuff [in 2007], he has built up his football endurance. He's gotten to the point where he's not thinking about what he's doing; he's reacting."

DeLeone and the rest of Temple's coaching staff believed DiMichele was a special player. As Temple quarterbacks coach Matt Rhule put it, DiMichele has the "it" factor.

"He can make plays," Rhule said. "He's a triple threat -- he can pass in the pocket, pass on the run or scramble."

After a tough 0-5 start to the 2007 season, Temple started winning. DiMichele was the catalyst. The nimble quarterback pressed his teammates to keep working and playing hard, and his actions on the field inspired them. The Owls won three games in a row, the program's first three-game winning streak since 1990.

"There were times [during the winning streak] when he just said, 'We're going to move the ball,'" Rhule said. "He would take hits and keep fighting to get yards. While remaining disciplined, he took it upon himself to make explosive plays. He refused to be tackled."

En route to the third victory of the winning streak, a 24-17 win over Miami (Ohio), everything for which DiMichele had worked came crashing down. Midway through the second quarter, just three minutes after DiMichele's 1-yard touchdown run pushed Temple ahead, 14-7, Miami (Ohio) linebacker Clayton Mullins sacked DiMichele 11 yards into the backfield.

A kid who normally hops up after big hits and refuses to acknowledge injuries, DiMichele lay in pain on the Lincoln Financial Field turf.

"I knew something had to be really wrong when he didn't get up," Temple trainer Dwight Stansbury said. "He doesn't spend much time lying on the ground or in the training room."

DiMichele suffered a comminuted tibial fracture, which is an angled fracture in one of the leg's two shinbones. He is out for the remainder of this season.

After successful surgery on Oct. 21, during which doctors placed a metal rod in DiMichele's shin to keep it stable, team doctors and coaches think DiMichele could return for seven-on-seven drills in spring practice.

He will avoid full contact until training camp next summer.

In the meantime, DiMichele will enter a long rehabilitation process. Stansbury said his staff has a regimented program in place for DiMichele, starting with muscle exercises to keep his legs active.

"Without putting any weight on [his leg], he needs to keep his leg muscles working," Stansbury said. "Once the stitches come out of his leg, we can start working on range of motion activities. Then, when the doctor allows him to fully exercise, Adam will start moving his legs in a swimming pool for resistance-based exercise."

With a physical therapist seeing him three days a week and the training staff handling him two more days, DiMichele is confident he will be back for the 2008 season.

"I will be back stronger than ever," DiMichele said. "[In the meantime,] I can build up my upper body and coach the younger players. I will be back."