Cuccia: Betrayed By the Numbers

The numbers have always been kind to Ron Cuccia. From, Wilson High in Los Angeles, where he set eight national schoolboy records and 26 city marks, to the Harvard freshman team (games like an 18-of-24 passing day against Princeton or 77 yards rushing on five carries against Brown) to last year's stint as a wide receiver on the Crimson varsity (his 292 yards in receptions led the squad), Cuccia's contribution was never hard to find on the stat sheets, never hard to put a finger on at season's end.

Believe It Or Not

But this year has been different. Ron Cuccia has seen numbers this year he never thought he'd see--numbers like oh-for-four and one-for-two passing days, numbers like a sub-44 per cent completion rate, or a ranking of eighth out of eight starting Ivy quarterbacks. He has thrown for 200 yards once this year, in the season's second game, and 100 yards only two other times; this from a man who threw for 500 yards in a game four times in high school. He has thrown three touchdown passes all season, for example, three less than he threw in one game at Wilson.

And of course his famous winning streak has ended. Cuccia entered the season with a record of having never lost a game he started and finished at quarterback, dating back to junior high. This year his ledger stands at 5-3-1.

"I Told You So"

It is not surprising, then, that there has been criticism of Ron Cuccia, from the knowing and unknowing, both inside and outside the program. Those who fault his performance can be divided into two types: (a), the people who feel that the statistics are symptomatic of Cuccia's ineffectiveness at quarterback--and there are some of those, and (b), the people who feel that the game plan, the Multiflex offense that is geared to short passes and roll-outs instead of a free-wheeling air attack, is to blame for the inefficiency--and there are many of those.

Others feel there has been no inefficiency. Halfback Jim Acheson, for example, says "his numbers are deceiving; his presence can be seen and felt by the defense in a special way. They know that he can run, and that's a great weapon." Offensive lineman Greg Brown calls Cuccia "the greatest field leader I've ever played with," and tight end Bill McGlone says, "He's the best athlete I've known." But the doubts and the questions remain for all who see the numbers: Has Ron Cuccia been a success this year as Harvard's quarterback?

The man himself answers yes and no. "It's been an interesting year," Cuccia says. "I didn't expect it to be this way, but we've run the ball quite a bit. I guess I'm happy in some ways and disappointed in others; if you lose any games, you're a bit upset. Sometimes I feel I've done fairly well and we'll lose and then I don't feel like I've done well, because the most important thing is to win."

Dry Spell

Victory-wise, Cuccia had a bad stretch earlier this year. In five weeks of football--from Holy Cross to Princeton--Harvard only won once, a 27-10 swamping of Cornell. Since tying Princeton a month ago, however, the team has not lost, recording impressive wins over Brown, William and Mary, and Penn. And Ron Cuccia's stock has risen.

"Two weeks ago you just got a sense in the locker room that a change should be made and [reserve quarterback] Donnie Allard should step in," one teammate says. "A lot of people were getting discouraged about the fact that he wasn't spotting his receivers and just wasn't getting the job done. Fortunately for Ron, the change wasn't made."

In the three weeks since the 17-17 deadlock against Princeton, Harvard has scored 109 points. Ron Cuccia has thrown 13 passes and completed six for 128 yards. Obviously, the offense can be effective without utilizing Cuccia's arm.

"The way the offense is structured this year, he has done an outstanding job," says tight end Linus O'Donnell. "I don't know why we haven't opened up passing, but that's up to [Harvard coach Joe Restic]. But Ron can do it all--and if he ever gets the opportunity to open up you'll see things that have never been done before at the Stadium, not by Kubacki, not by Brian Buckley, not by anybody."

It is a given that Cuccia is a tremendous athlete ("One of the best I've ever played any sport with," says Acheson. "He can do things I've never seen any quarterback do.") Holy Cross coach Rick Carter, whose team beat Harvard, 33-19, but allowed Cuccia to throw 27 times for 219 yards in his best passing display of the year, says Cuccia is "impossible to stop because he can pass, run and do so very many things to you." Others call him "the most amazing athlete I've ever seen" and "incredible to watch."

A Long Way Up

But ironically it is a physical failing--his size--that some say prevents Cuccia from reaching greatness on the college level. "He's so small (listed at 5-ft., 8-in. but probably an inch shorter] that he's got to have trouble throwing drop-back passes and over the middle," one teammate says. "I tend to wonder if he can see over some of the players," says another. Adds a third: "He can't do all the things that a winning Ivy football quarterback should be able to do."

To compensate, Cuccia does not pass from the pocket but rather throws on the run, moving left, moving right, backward, forward, underhand, sidearm and even (twice this year) left-handed. Nobody questions his arm ("I've seen him pinpoint guys 55 yards downfield in practice," says running back Scott McCabe), but his effectiveness throwing long is another matter.

"He can throw long, but one of the prerequisites of doing that is that you be a drop-back passer," says wide receiver Paul Scheper. "That definitely limits our attack and potency offensively."

But as Cuccia points out, the Multiflex limits that to begin with. "We really don't have any long passes in our offense," he says. "I mean, I was a wide receiver last year and I didn't catch any." And a teammate adds, "It's really strange, but I don't think the fly pattern is even in our playbook. At least, it's never called."

With his arm neutralized by the nature of the offense, Cuccia has been forced to live off his intangibles, including some things that might not be noticed outside the huddle.

"He has tremendous field sense," says O'Donnell. "Like a Gretzky or a Larry Bird, he knows where everyone is on the field, offense and defense, at any time, as well as where the defense is supposed to be," Brown adds, "It's a pretty good feeling on third and ten with Ronnie back there, knowing he can do anything. He can scramble for the ten if he has to."

And even though these things don't translate into statistics, they do translate into wins. That's one reason the squad has won three in a row--Cuccia has learned what he can and cannot do on the college level. Another reason is his increased confidence.

"I always knew that he was going to be the biggest influence on our team's record," Scheper says. "I felt that in the beginning of the season there was a lot of pressure on him and perhaps the pressure got to him. But he's come along, there's no question about that."

McCabe agrees. "At the beginning of the year, everyone said it's do-or-die with Ronnie, but it doesn't work that way. I think a lot of time when Ronnie was out there he felt, 'My God, if I don't do it, what'll happen?' But he's getting over that. We've had a lot of people chip in to make this a winning ball club."

The success of the rest of the offense has helped to take some of that pressure off Cuccia. The running attack, led by Jim Callinan (whose 994 yards rushing this season set a Harvard record) and helped by a superb offensive line including sometime-blockers O'Donnell and McGlone (at tight end) and flanker Steve Bianucci, has taught Cuccia and the Cuccia-watchers that he doesn't have to throw to be successful.

Great Expectations

But always in the background there lurks the specter of the numbers, haunting every Cuccia performance. "I think in many ways he hasn't lived up to my expectations because he had some of the best passing statistics in the nation and he's not the passer I thought he would be," one teammate says. And it has to bother Ron Cuccia to call a one-for-two effort a day's work when he knows he is capable of throwing for 500 yards. But that's where the learning aspect of college football comes in, one reason he came East to school in the first place. Cuccia has found solace in his play-calling.

"I've been working on my play-calling, for instance, and I'd have to say that's improved a lot," Cuccia says. "When we didn't throw much I really had to exercise something else so I tried hard to work on my play calling, and I think I've improved."

If the pundits don't notice, his teammates do. "He's called some great games, especially recently," says McGlone. "That's one of his real strengths."

On Saturday, Ron Cuccia will quarterback his first Harvard-Yale game. There's an outside shot that he will quarterback Harvard to its first Ivy title since 1975. But win or lose, the game will close the book on his first season as the Crimson signal-caller, end the testimony for the jury to ponder.

It would have been hard for Cuccia to win his case. "If he had done three times what he's done people would still be disappointed," says McGlone. But tell Ron Cuccia before the season started that he was going to rank dead last in the Ivies in passing, and throw two more interceptions than touchdown passes, and he would have looked as incredulous as he did the day a rival high school, losing, 63-0, refused to leave the dressing room at halftime.

A win in The Game, and the voices of the critics will be stifled. A win in The Game, and Ron Cuccia will leave the dressing room a success. Ron Cuccia's Passing Statistics Columbia  5-13, 65 yards  (W, 23-6) Holy Cross  15-27, 219 yards  (L, 33-19) Army  8-18, 116 yards  (L, 27-13) Cornell  5-13, 50 yards  (W, 27-20) Dartmouth  5-15, 45 yards  (L, 24-10) Princeton  5-11, 95 yards  (17-17) Brown  0-4, 0 yards  (W, 41-7) William and Mary  5-7, 114 yards  (W, 23-14) Penn  1-2, 14 yards  (W, 45-7)