The border town of El Paso lies in the crook of west Texas, a place where young kids skip stones across the Rio Grande into Old exico and men with faces worn by the harsh sun and wind sip bottles of tequila with a worm at the bottom.

A map will tell you that El Paso is 2,180 miles from the Bronx, N.Y., but John Skelton will tell you the map is lying. He’ll tell you it’s further than three times zones away. Fordham’s sophomore quarterback will tell you his new home is like an alternate realm compared to his old one.

In the fall of 2006, Skelton was bolted by a 10,000-volt culture shock. The Franklin Mountains were gone, replaced by a canyon of skyscrapers. So was the murky Rio Grande, the toxic Hudson River in its place. But the football was different too. This was different from Burges High School, where his father John had been an assistant coach,

where his little brother Stephen had been one of his favorite receiving targets, where Skelton had thrown for 2,172 yards and been named all-District in three different sports.

The bleachers at Jack Coffey Field weren’t jam-packed each Saturday afternoon the way the stands at UTEP-Sun Bowl Stadium had been on Friday nights. It just wasn’t the same.

“It was a huge cultural and social difference,” Skelton says. “In high school, our whole school was out for every game, my mom and family were always there. I took that all for granted. Ever since tee ball, it was a family thing.”

For the first five games of the 2006 season, Skelton stood on the sidelines, getting acquainted with Head Coach Tom asella’s new offense, all the while pining for the friendly faces and delicious Mexican food of a Texas border town. But in a midseason match with Duquesne, Skelton came off the bench, shook off his homesick blues, and came into his own. After throwing for 160 yards and a touchdown, he was named Patriot League rookie of the week and was handed the keys to Masella’s offense, the first Fordham freshman to start at quarterback in half a decade.

Since then, the 6-foot-5, 220-pounder has been hotter than the El Paso sun. He rounded out 2006 by torching Georgetown for 228 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-30 win. This season, he has thrown for 1,262 yards and 12 touchdowns, leading the surprising Rams to a 4-2 start and first place in the Patriot League.

“He can throw, and he’s a better athlete than people give him credit for,” Masella says of Skelton, who played basketball and baseball and ran track at Burges. “But the thing about John is that nothing rattles him. He’s real laid back.”

Skelton’s calm demeanor has passed the acid test of Patriot League play in the last two weeks. When the Rams fell behind 24-13 at Colgate two weeks ago, Skelton led them back, tossing three touchdowns in a 34-31 win. Last Saturday, after the Fordham defense let Lehigh rally back from 11 down, Skelton outshone all-American candidate Sedale Threatt Jr. down the stretch and blew the Mountain Hawks away. After throwing for at least 200 yards in five of his last six games, Skelton was named the Patriot League player of the week on Monday.

Skelton credits his recent success on being more comfortable – not only in Masella’s offense, but in the Bronx as well.

“Football has eased the transition, just being able to make friends out on the field,” Skelton says. “This year, I know where all my receivers are going to be. I am 100 percent comfortable.”

This season, Skelton has his favorite receiver back at his side. His little brother Stephen decided last spring to follow John to the Big Apple and is now a freshman tight end.

“They have a pretty good relationship, but they go back and forth with one another because they are so competitive,” asella says of the Skeltons, one of three pairs of brothers on the Rams roster. “John is trying to get him the football. I’m looking forward to hearing `Skelton to Skelton’ for years to come.”

Masella counts his blessings that John Skelton came in the first place. After his senior season at Burges, Skelton caught the eye of coaches at Holy Cross, Colgate and Columbia, where three of his uncles had gone. In New York for his official visit at Columbia, Skelton hopped on a subway in Harlem and dropped in on the Fordham coaches’ office. Masella, who had just been hired, was baffled.

“When he showed up on campus, we were like `Who is this guy?'” Masella remembers. “Then we looked at his tape. It’s one of those deals where he did a lot better of a job recruiting us than we did of him, but we are fortunate to have him.”

With his brother by his side and the Patriot League in the palm of his hand, it appears as if John Skelton has found a home at Fordham. But he still misses his Mexican food, and the friendly people.

“It’s tough,” Skelton says. “People are just so much nicer in Texas.”