He Needs a Second Opinion : Holiday Bowl: The nation’s top defensive back, Greg Myers of Colorado State, wants to be a doctor, but the NFL also beckons.

After completing his senior season in football at a small high school in Colorado, Greg Myers weighed 160 pounds and was considering scholarship offers from Wyoming, Air Force and Colorado State.

He eventually signed with Colorado State, but not because of football, even though the Rams were coming off a victory over Oregon in the now-defunct Freedom Bowl, the school’s first bowl game in 41 years.

“I really chose Colorado State for the academics because I want to be a doctor,” said Myers, recently awarded the Jim Thorpe Award as the top defensive back in the nation.

“I really didn’t think the football would work out, so I wanted to have my education to fall back on.”

He played almost all positions in high school, but then-Colorado State Coach Earle Bruce considered Myers a defensive back and had him sit out a season to bulk up.

The next season, in 1992, Myers returned 15 pounds heavier and became a starter and only the second freshman in Western Athletic Conference history to receive first-team conference honors. He finished with 96 tackles and six interceptions.

Three years later, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound senior is the first player to make the All-WAC team four consecutive seasons. He also returns punts and was among the nation’s leaders this season with a 15.9-yard return average and three touchdowns.

Myers, 23, is considered a top prospect in the upcoming NFL draft and will be showcased tonight when Colorado State (8-3) meets 10th-ranked Kansas State (9-2) in the the 18th Holiday Bowl at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Defending WAC champion Colorado State, coached by Sonny Lubick, is making its second bowl appearance in a row for the first time in school history. It lost to Michigan, 24-14, in last year’s Holiday Bowl. Kansas State, which finished third in the Big Eight Conference, is making its third consecutive postseason appearance, its first in the Holiday Bowl.

The game will highlight a Colorado State defense that’s giving up 17 points and 326 yards a game against a Kansas State offense that’s averaging 37 points and 400 yards.

Myers will be up against the most efficient quarterback he has faced this season in Matt Miller, a senior who has completed 64% of his passes for 2,043 yards and a conference-record 22 touchdowns.

Miller probably will throw away from Myers, a free safety who finished the regular season with 83 tackles and three interceptions, including a game-saving catch against Air Force in September.

A finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award as junior, Myers edged Chris Canty of Kansas State in this year’s balloting. Hours after winning the award earlier this month, the Colorado State captain was presented the Honda Scholar-Athlete award as the most academically accomplished football player in the country. He’s a premed major with a 3.8 grade-point average.

NFL scouts may be impressed with his athletic skills, but some have expressed concern over his commitment. Myers missed most of spring practice earlier this year and almost all summer drills throughout his college career because of work-related obligations. He has been working as a rehabilitation technician at an orthopedic hospital in Fort Collins, assisting patients who have just come out of surgery.

While his teammates were participating in the annual spring game last May, Myers was taking his entrance exam for medical school. He recently won an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.

“Of course I want to give the pros a chance, but my primary goal has and will continue to be to become a doctor,” he said. “I can’t lose sight of that.”