Fifth Year, Off-Year

Sometimes, a single play can foreshadow a full season of frustration.

For the Yale offense, such an omen came the first week of the season against Dayton. Leading 24-17 and marching down the field in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs were primed to score again and salt away their first win of the season.

“We ran a play-action pass, a one-man route to [Chandler] Henley,” says Yale’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Joel Lamb. “He was open and we didn’t connect. A year ago, those were the plays that we made.”

A year ago, things were much different for the Yale offense and its leader, quarterback Alvin Cowan. 2003 was an unforgettable season for the senior from Austin, Texas—Cowan set Yale records for passing yards (2,994), TDs (22), yards of total offense (3,429), and completions (227), while leading the Bulldogs to a 6-4 mark. Set to return to the Elm City for one last season, Cowan was a popular preseason pick for Ivy League player of the year, and expectations were at an all-time high for Yale’s offensive production.

This year, however, hasn’t unfolded the way Cowan foresaw it.

“Our whole team came in with high expectations, myself included,” Cowan said after Yale’s loss to Brown, “and to say that a 4-4 record was what we were shooting for would be a lie.”

Cowan was certainly shooting for a better individual season than he has had to this point. Through nine games, Cowan was 157-279 for 1,909 yards passing, with 16 touchdown passes against nine interceptions—numbers that look pedestrian when compared to his record-setting stats from ’03.

“I don’t feel like I’ve performed badly,” Cowan says. “The way we ran our offense this year, I felt that I performed pretty well.”

Yale decided to alter its offensive philosophy prior to the season, moving from the pass-heavy attack that produced Cowan’s breakout season to a more balanced offense that relied to a greater extent on the talents of tailback Robert Carr.

“At the end of [last] year looking back, there were games where we threw the ball 40, 50, 60 times and ended up losing, and we thought that that offensive strategy wasn’t getting it done in terms of winning games,” Cowan says. “We made a conscious choice to get Rob the ball more often—we felt like he needed to get back in the game, and get more touches.”

Carr has certainly been more involved in the offense this season. He has averaged nine more carries a game than last year, and his rushing yardage has jumped from 800 all last season to 1,129 through Saturday. At 5-4, however, Yale sits one game worse than it did last year entering the Harvard game.

“Maybe if we had thrown the ball more we would have been more successful,” Carr says. “You can’t rule out that idea of going to a more balanced attack as one of the reasons that we’ve lost.”

Carr’s more prominent role in Yale’s offense has certainly affected Cowan’s ability to run the ball, an important aspect of his game and Yale’s offensive production.

“Alvin is a very intense player, a great competitor,” Lamb says, “and one of the ways to get that emotion out is by running the ball…it almost loosens him up a little bit.”

Cowan has netted just three yards on the ground with zero touchdowns. Last year, he scrambled for 435 yards and seven scores.

“Given the choice, we always want Rob running the ball,” Cowan says. “Last year people were really loading up against Rob, and the only way to have a threat of a running attack was to use Rob as an extra blocker and run the ball with me. This year, we’ve been successful running Rob.”

That success in the running game has not translated into points, though, mainly because the Yale offense has been characterized by a lack of big passing plays. Last season Yale scored 35 points a game, mostly due to Cowan’s ability to eat up yards through the air.

“Last year we really just were incredible offensively,” Cowan says. “We had so many guys on the team that were threats, and such a great offensive line. This year it’s been a tough transition at times to a team that doesn’t have an NFL tight end.”

Nate Lawrie, the 6’7 tight end who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after a sensational career at Yale, was Cowan’s favorite target last season. Lawrie led the team with 72 catches and averaged 81 yards receiving per game. The Bulldogs also lost Ron Benigno, whose nine touchdown catches led the Bulldogs in 2003. Also graduating was P.J. Collins, who Cowan called the fastest receiver on last year’s squad, and whose 19 yards per catch stretched opposing defenses.

“We had a lot of threats,” Cowan says. “Defenses couldn’t defend them all—they didn’t have enough guys, and that contributed to getting other guys open.”

Cowan clearly had a special chemistry with Lawrie, Benigno and Collins, who combined to catch 128 of Cowan’s 227 completions.

“All the guys that [were seniors] last year, I’d been throwing to them for years,” Cowan says.

Last year was effectively Cowan’s senior season as well. He entered Yale with the players that graduated in 2004, opting for a fifth year after an injury ended his sophomore campaign. Cowan was also Yale’s captain in 2003, an honor always bestowed upon a senior Bulldog. This year, Cowan chose not to enter the election for the captaincy, honoring tradition.

“I decided in the spring that I came in with the class of guys that I graduated with last year,” Cowan said, “and I felt like it was a class award, and it should be somebody from the class of seniors that is graduating this year.”

Understandably, Cowan has not been able to find the comfort zone that he was in last season.

“It’s a little bit of a different story this year,” Cowan says. “It’s been hard for me at times throwing it to new guys.”

Lamb, who has worked closely with Cowan throughout his Yale career, echoes those sentiments.

“We haven’t had the players,” Lamb says. “Alvin really looked to [Lawrie] last year, and I think that’s the guy that he misses this year. Just the size of Nate—having that 6’7 guy you can throw to over the middle…not having that guy has been a factor.”

In the absence of the departed senior pass-catchers, others have had to step up and fill larger roles, including senior Ralph Plumb and junior Chandler Henley. While Cowan has grown comfortable finding Plumb, developing a rhythm with Henley has been a struggle.

“Chandler and I took some time to develop our relationship as far as quarterback and receiver,” Cowan says. “To a certain extent, even now sometimes we’re a little off as far as deeper balls.”

Cowan and the Yale offense have been just that—a little off—all season long. But all that can be erased with a win at Harvard Stadium. For Cowan, it would be the perfect end to a career that, despite this year’s disappointment, will rank among the best ever for Yale quarterbacks.

“I think anytime you’re a senior and you play in the Harvard-Yale game, you want to go out with a bang,” Cowan says, “but looking back, I’ll say I don’t have any regrets.”