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.