Payne worked his way to a solid season, garnering Second-Team All-Region honors in his final year at Mesa as well as earning a First-Team Academic All-American selection for the second time.

As he worked his way back into shape, he contacted Harvard—a program that had recruited him back when he was a high school senior. Payne had not jumped aboard then, but revisited the idea of playing in Harvard Stadium.

“He remembered his visit earlier and contacted us,” says Harvard offensive coordinator Jay Mills, who recruited Payne in high school and is currently in charge of the Crimson’s recruiting out west. “We encouraged him to continue and play another year. It took him a little bit to get back, but he has an incredibly strong drive in addition to great athleticism.”

According to his coach at Mesa, David Rice, Payne’s special athletic ability was evident from his high school days.

“I remember thinking he was the second best player in the state, next to Todd Heap,” Rice says. (Heap is now the starting tight end for the Baltimore Ravens.) “He’s a relentless player, very aggressive, one of the hardest working kids around. But his speed sets him apart. He used to place in the 100 meters. We looked at him and said, no question, he is definitely Pac-10 material.”

But the appeal of a Harvard education and his impression of his prospective teammates as a “down-to-earth” bunch (“People you can really talk to,” Payne says) led him back to Cambridge. Payne, who says that this past offseason has helped him finally get back to peak physical condition, has seen a major difference between JuCo football and the Crimson.

“In community college, there were definitely a lot of star players, but the thing I like about Harvard is that it’s just a really good team,” Payne says. “It’s not just really good individual players—although we do have really outstanding individual players. But as a whole team we’re a lot better than we were at Mesa. And I suppose that’s due to the fact that we also have juniors and seniors on this team, not just freshmen and sophomores.

“I was really impressed the first day when we had seniors like Jesse Brush, Mike Armstrong and Pat Lavin taking leadership roles. The upperclassmen are really pushing each other through the drills.”

Now, Payne is suddenly one of those upperclassmen. Transfers like Payne are not necessarily an easy answer to the Ivy recruiting crunch. Players from other programs with Payne’s academic credentials, particularly on the junior college circuit are difficult to find, especially at a time when three percent of Harvard’s transfer applicants receive acceptance letters.

But when they come along, it probably doesn’t hurt much to have someone with a little experience enter the fold—game experience and otherwise.

—Staff writer Martin S. Bell can be reached at msbell@fas.harvard.edu.