Former Harvard QB Stays in the Game

Despite Harvard’s status as one of the nation’s four undefeated Division I football teams this season, you’d never see the Crimson take the field for a primetime bowl game on New Year’s Day.

A certain Harvard football alumnus, however, got to spend some time in the glow of ESPN’s cameras this Jan. 1.

Brian White ’86 may not have sported Harvard colors for almost 20 years, but the former Crimson quarterback hasn’t left the gridiron yet. Now the offensive coordinator and running backs coach for Wisconsin, White celebrated 2005 by coaching the then-No. 16 Badgers in the Outback Bowl.

Wisconsin ultimately fell to Georgia, 24-21. But while the Badgers’ year ended with a loss, White’s assistance in leading Wisconsin to a 9-0 start and national title buzz did not go unrecognized. In December, he was named the Division I-A Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.

The honor is only the most recent in a coaching career that took White from Cambridge to Madison, with stays in between at Fordham, Notre Dame, UNLV and Nevada.

When White graduated as second all-time on Harvard’s passing chart with 2,335 yards, he knew that football was still in his future.

“[Coaching] pretty much was always in my thought process,” White says, adding that he was influenced by the fact that his father was a coach and both his parents were teachers.

The first stop was at Fordham’s graduate school of communications, where White pursued a master’s degree while coaching. He earned an M.B.A. while coaching at Notre Dame and then accepted a full-time assistant coaching position at UNLV in 1990. After a stint at Nevada and then back to Las Vegas, White ended up at Wisconsin in 1995.

But his career highlight came in 1999, the same year he was named offensive coordinator for the Badgers.

“Coaching Ron Dayne, Heisman Trophy winner,” White answers immediately.

Dayne, now a running back for the New York Giants, is college football’s all-time leading rusher. White was an instrumental part of that Heisman-winning season.

Other career highlights, he says, include coaching in two Rose Bowls (1998 and 1999), both of which Wisconsin won.

It seems like a long way from the humble sidelines of Harvard Stadium to the Granddaddy of Them All, but White says that the switch from playing and coaching at Division I-AA and coaching at I-A wasn’t too difficult.

“Surprisingly enough, the only difference is people in the stands,” he says. “The game is the same, the importance to players is the same. It’s just as important to players at Harvard as it is to players at Wisconsin.

“The pressures are a little more severe, more intense for these players,” he admits.

Like any good alum, White keeps tabs on current Harvard football, and cheered on the Crimson in its undefeated season while his Badgers rocketed to a similar undefeated streak.

“I’m very proud of what Harvard has accomplished,” he says. White also added that visiting NFL scouts, upon hearing about his Harvard connection, spoke highly of Crimson pro-prospect, quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick.

“They talk about him all the time,” White says.

-Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu