QB of the Future Avoids Sacks, Swear Words

When Harvard faced Dartmouth last season, there were two very important Arizona residents in the stands. No, they were not U.S. Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, nor were they scouts from the NFL’s Cardinals.

Rather, they were sophomore quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick’s grandparents, who trekked 3,000 miles, from Gilbert, Ariz., to see him make the first start of his college football career. Down 21-0 at halftime, “Fitzy”—as he is known to everyone except the registrar’s office—orchestrated one of the most memorable comebacks in Crimson history.

“[That] was definitely my proudest moment here at Harvard,” Fitzpatrick recalls. “To have them come from so far, and to see how happy they were—it was great.”

Fitzpatrick’s most humbling moment also centered around his grandparents, specifically his grandmother. In this year’s battle with Lehigh, a game televised on DirecTV and viewed by his grandma, Fitzpatrick used a few choice words on the sidelines after overthrowing Carl Morris.

“I’m just not used to the games being televised. The next day I got a call from my grandma,” he says. “She was pretty upset. I’ve been trying to make it up to her ever since.”

And that’s just the kind of kid Ryan Fitzpatrick is. He’s a family guy. A modest guy. A quietly confident guy. He’s unassuming, yet considered a goofball. Understated, yet a standout.

Tell him his story is featured along with those of Carl Morris, Neil Rose, and Nick Palazzo, and he is dumbfounded.

“How’d I get in on a group like that?” Fitzpatrick inquires.

Could it be that he led the Crimson in rushing this year? Or that he was a consistent performer under center? Or that he has engineered five come-from-behind wins in just his first two seasons? Whatever it is, Fitzy seems to take it in stride.

And pressure?

“I don’t think so,” Fitzpatrick confidently replies. “You feel pressure when other people’s expectations are higher than your own.”

With talk of the Fitzpatrick-Rodney Byrnes combination emerging as what Rose-Morris was a year ago—or this year at Dartmouth—Fitzpatrick doesn’t feel pressure but is careful about making comparisons.

“That’s good company to be in,” he says. “It’s a little early still. We’ll see.”

But Rose is more confident in the potential of the dynamic duo in 2003.

“The combination is going to be Ryan to Rodney,” Rose says.

An even more hyperbolic comparison comes when people start talking about Fitzpatrick’s “Elway-like” ability to come from behind.

“Wow, that’s a stretch,” Fitzpatrick says. “But, all in all, you have to have confidence in your teammates. Too many times the QB gets too much credit.”

There’s that modesty again.

Fitzpatrick wasn’t always the Crimson quarterback of the future, drawing legendary comparisons. Coming into freshman year, Fitzpatrick was vying for third string with the man who currently fills that post, sophomore Garrett Schires. Both were behind Rose and then-back-up Conor Black on the depth chart.

But Black quit the team, Schires was outperfomed, Rose was injured and thus Fitzpatrick became a household name—at least in the houses of Dunster, Lowell and Currier.

“I just stepped up. The opportunity came to me, and I did what I had to do,” Fitzpatrick says.

Rose saw Fitzpatrick as his heir apparent from the start.

“I knew he was going to be the man. I knew right away. He stayed with me, and every night we went over the offense—it was Harvard 101,” Rose says. “He was doing really well. I look at Ryan—he’s going to be a complete quarterback. I do believe he’d be starting on any other Ivy team.”

That’s high praise from the man who holds a number of Harvard passing records.

As for the quarterback controversy between Rose and Fitzpatrick that emerged earlier this season, Crimson players diminish its significance.

“I think we’ve got two of the best quarterbacks in the league bar none, so it’s not a bad thing for us. Fitzpatrick is a great runner,” Morris says. “It really doesn’t make much of a difference to us. We know that regardless of who’s in, we’ll be fine. I think it’s more of a concern to people who write and talk about it than it is to people on the field.”

Fitzpatrick doesn’t know if he’ll see any time during The Game. In any case, he’s not quite sure what to make of all this Harvard-Yale business.

“I didn’t play in the game last year,” Fitzpatrick says. “So I’m not sure what to think of all the fanfare. The most exciting part of the whole circus is playing in front of 51,000 fans.”

While his family won’t be among scores of screaming Harvardians, they will certainly be watching at home. Among these relatives will be his elder brother, Brandon, whom he calls his “inspiration growing up.”

“I watched him play quarterback when we were kids and all through high school,” Fitzpatrick says. “I just wanted to be like that guy.”

He’ll get his chance on Saturday and for the next two years.

This reserved, goofy, family guy will strive to make his kin and the rest of Gilbert, Ariz. proud—especially his grandma.