CSUN Serves Up Blue-Plate Special : Travis Hall: Tight end regains his position and leads team in receptions and yardage.

Travis Hall is shocked, too.

Last year at around this time, he was summarily yanked from the Cal State Northridge lineup. Even worse, the team basically eliminated his position, tight end.

Talk about absorbing a body blow. He was erased without a trace.

Has it only been 12 months?

“I never expected this,” said Hall, a junior from Chaminade High. “It’s a great feeling to know they have confidence in me.

“Before, they were holding their breath when I was in the game.”

Coaches still hold their breath. But now it’s the staff on the other sideline.

Hall continued what has become a storybook start with seven more receptions for 95 yards in Saturday night’s 28-23 loss to Southwest Texas State.

This from a guy who was being converted to safety two months ago. Now the team can’t get him the ball often enough.

Against Southwest Texas, he caught passes four times on third-and-a-mile and rolled up sufficient first-down yardage.

He is too fast for linebackers to cover, a fact that seems to have escaped the notice of defensive coordinators at Boise State, UC Davis and Southwest Texas.

“He’s a good tight end with great speed,” Northridge Coach Bob Burt said. “It makes sense to get him the ball.”

Hall leads the pass-happy Matadors in receptions (18) and receiving yardage (246).

Not bad for a guy who last year was asked if playing safety might be a more-realistic way of cracking the starting lineup.

Last year, Hall (6-foot-2, 220 pounds) was playing at 200 pounds and was getting pushed around by defensive linemen who outweighed him by as much as 100 pounds.

He added some bulk as he prepared to switch to safety. A broken finger over the summer essentially ended the defensive experiment because Hall wasn’t getting enough practice time.

So Burt asked him if he wanted to try his hand at tight end. Again.

“I wanted to come back,” Hall said. “I was yanked halfway through last season, and they had every right to do it. I wasn’t doing the job. But it hurt.”

At Chaminade High, he was a quarterback. Northridge recruited him as a safety. Ever since the only constant has been his state of flux, so to speak.

“I just had to find a position,” Hall said. “I wish it hadn’t taken so long.”