Ortiz, Mathews Win Asa S. Bushnell Cup

The good news just keeps on coming for Harvard senior defensive tackle Josue Ortiz.

In a ceremony held Monday at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City, Ortiz and Cornell quarterback Jeff Mathews earned the Asa S. Bushnell Cup, the equivalent of the Most Valuable Player award in the Ivy League.

This year marks the first time that the Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year shared the award.

The Ivy League named four finalists—two from both the offensive and defensive sides—for the cup. Ortiz beat out Penn senior linebacker Erik Rask, while Mathews topped Dartmouth senior tailback Nick Schwieger.

For Ortiz, the accolade marks the end of a remarkable multi-year transformation. Once seen as an underachieving player, Ortiz grew to become the most dominant defensive player in the Ancient Eight. Considered perhaps the strongest man in Ivy League football, the Avon Park, Fla. native drew double teams on nearly every snap. Yet, he managed to lead the league with 10 sacks.

He also earned a reputation for stepping up on the biggest of stages. Against Penn, with an outright Ivy title on the line, Ortiz had his most impressive game of 2011, forcing and recovering a fumble while tallying two sacks and 10 tackles.

In the coming months, Ortiz is expected to receive NFL attention.

On the offensive side, in a season The New York Times preemptively dubbed the “Year of the Quarterback in the Ivy League,” Mathews emerged as the best of them all, leading all Ivy passers with 3412 passing yards (Yale’s Patrick Witt was second with 2368) and 25 touchdowns through the air. His 67.9 percent completion percentage paced the conference as well.

The sophomore took his play to a whole new level in the season’s final two games. Against Columbia, Mathews’ 521 passing yards set a school record, as the sophomore led the Big Red to a 62-41 victory. The following week, against a favored Penn team, Mathews broke his own record, throwing for 548 yards en route to a 48-38 win.