Walland's Got the Wand

Yale senior quarterback Joe Walland remembers the 114th playing of The Game with almost perfect clarity. One of his first games as starting quarterback, it ended with hordes of screaming Crimson fans storming his Yale Bowl in celebration of its undefeated Ivy season. He also remembers The Game for a different reason. If things had gone his way, he would have been part of the celebratory side. Harvard was his first college choice, but he found a rejection letter in his Crimson admissions packet.

"The choice was between Harvard and Yale," Walland said. "I got into Yale and I guess the academic index didn't work out for Harvard."

Bulldog Head Coach Joe Sidlecki is certainly grateful for Harvard's strict admissions standards. He also vividly recalls The Game as well. Despite the 17-7 loss, a fitting end to a 1-9 season and his first year in charge of the Elis, he knew he had himself a quarterback for the future.

"[Walland's] coming-out game was the Harvard game," Sidlecki said. "A lot of people thought they were going to blow us out and they didn't. That was the turning point for him and the program."

The program has certainly turned around. Yale now stands at 8-1 with a shot of an Ivy title of its own. Along the way, Walland has rewritten the Bulldogs' record books. He shares or holds outright 13 school passing records.

Among others, he has the most career offense, completions, touchdowns and pass attempts. Last year, he threw for a record 2,206 yards with a miniscule interception percentage of .016.

Entering the previous game against Princeton, his 147.1 quarterback rating placed him first in the Ivy and 12th in Division 1-AA. Amazingly, Walland has thrown just three interceptions this year. He is right up there with Brown's James Perry as the best quarterback in the Ivy.

"I'm confident in what I'm doing," Walland said. "I feel like I can score each time I get the ball. I don't look at specific accomplishments. I'm concerned with winning."

Ironically, even the Yale staff that brought Walland to New Haven, never expected all this to happen.

Walland was recruited by the team's previous coaching staff as a wide receiver. He spent his freshman year playing defensive back on the junior varsity team.

Still, Walland played quarterback for Lake Catholic High School in Cleveland, operating a run and shoot offense. He wanted his shot behind the center. So before the spring practice of 1997, he wandered into new-coach Sidlecki's office and asked.

"He came to see me in February and asked if he could come out for quarterback," Sidlecki said. "It was no stroke of genius. We had only two QBs in the program at the time and needed more just for spring practice."

Walland faced a tall order in impressing the staff. Standing 5'10 and possessing not the strongest of arms, unseating one of the two senior quarterbacks seemed near impossible.

"Speed was on my side; without that I'm not nearly as good," Walland said. "I do think that I have leadership and that has had a lot to do with my success."

That intangible quickly distinguished Walland from the Eli pack.

"He showed this incredible presence in the huddle," Sidlecki said. "That caught the attention of everyone and I said that this was going to be interesting."

Little did Sidlecki know that he had the perfect match for his offense. The speed and quick decision-making that Walland honed in high school was just the prototype to fit the Yale scheme.

"In high school, we moved the pocket a lot and we ran a lot of rollouts," Walland said. "We ran options that required the quarterback to really read the play. That prepared me for the concepts of what we were doing in college, if not the level of play."

While Sidlecki has not installed a run-and-shoot offense per se, it is a scheme that relies upon the quarterback to really read the defense and, in the coach's words, "take what the defense gives us."

Whoever takes the snaps must be able to react quickly and be highly mobile. Often, the defense "gives" a quarterback scramble and this style of offense welcomes the movement of the pocket and a fleet-footed passer.

This fits right into Walland's strengths.

"I'm not really a drop-back passer," he said. "I'm more of a scrambler, moving the pocket and making plays. I bring two options of running and passing and go to them both."

With those physical attributes plus Walland's accuracy has allowed him to throw for 5,068 yards in his career.

"Once we got through spring practice of his sophomore year, I knew that as a staff we had a quarterback that understands what we are doing better than anyone I've ever coached," Sidlecki said.

If the coaching staff was sold on his abilities after spring practice, the rest of the Bulldogs must have known they had someone special after the first game of the 1998 season at Brown.

The Bears held a 21-10 third quarter lead, but Walland managed to tie the score. Brown took a 28-21 lead with :54 left in the game. He then marched his team 81 yards, including a 27-yard touchdown pass with six seconds left, to hand the Elis a victory.

"The Brown game was the breakthrough for me," Walland said. "Scoring on the last play of the game was just an unbelievable moment. It was a big feeling doing it in front of thousands of people."

The Elis have continued to feel the good vibrations ever since as Walland has instilled a winning attitude in the squad.

Walland capped off the 1998 season by solving a fearsome Crimson defense in the fourth quarter. Shut down for almost the entire game, he awoke midway through the quarter to drive Yale 71 yards, ending with a 9-yard touchdown strike to cut Harvard's lead to 7-6 with 5:33 left to play.

The Yale defense did the rest, forcing then-junior quarterback Rich Linden to fumble the ball around his own 15-yard line to set-up the game winning field goal and a 9-7 Eli victory.

"That was an extremely windy day," Sidlecki said. "It was a tremendous drive considering the situation."

Now, with Yale standing at 8-1, he has really grown into a leader in the locker room. He blends in very well, embodying what he called a "typical Ivy football player."

A history major in Thomas Dwight College, he has plans on heading into investment banking upon graduation. While not leading his team to Ivy glory, he likes to jam to Metallica and claims to be a fair golfer.

A native of Cleveland, Walland is a tremendous Browns fan.

"We're back, baby," he said.

Most of all, he has earned his team's respect by keeping the focus always on the Bulldogs' success. The records are stories to tell his grandkids, not his teammates.

"I don't like thinking about the records while I'm playing," Walland said. "When I'm done, I'll look back and be shocked and amazed that I had all these accomplishments."

His experience and humility shined through when asked if there was anything he wanted to say to the Harvard community. Instead of offering up bulletin board material, he demurred:

"You throw away all the records when both teams play. It will be interesting. These are two good teams squaring off."

Despite not having a big ego, Walland knows that he is on top of his game. Picking up 263 all-purpose yards last Saturday against the Tigers, he is ready to go for the biggest--and final--game of his college career.

"I think I'm playing well as of late," he said. "I'm happy about my performances. They keep building every week."

The Harvard defense has done a terrific job containing great quarterbacks this year. It performed well against Colgate's Ryan Vena and Brown's James Perry. Walland is the last one on the list. Unfortunately, the Crimson offense didn't give the defense any help during those games and Harvard lost both.

Walland will try and make it three. He remembers The Game in 1997. This year is his opportunity to avenge a defeat whose sting began with a letter from the Harvard Admission Department.

For all his records, Walland does not have an Ivy title. If the Crimson faithful storm the field again, he won't get another chance.

"I remember last year and it was a huge game, but didn't mean much." Walland said. " If we win this year, I can't imagine what it's going to be like."