Aside from the camaraderie of the other wide receivers on the team—juniors James Harvey and Brian Edwards and fellow freshman Danny Brown—Mazza has gotten support from a slightly surprising source—Morris himself.

“He’ll give me some pointers during the games,” Mazza reveals. “Anyone who’s been there, done it, those are the people you listen to…Ivy League Player of the Year twice, that’s enough to sell me.”

And even if the freshman is determined to be his own man, he’s aware of the history.

“It would definitely be an honor to be mentioned in the same breath as guys like him,” Mazza says.

“It’s too early,” Fitzpatrick says, to tell what will be Mazza’s place in the canon of notable Crimson players. “Obviously he’s off to a great start, and there’s no telling how talented he could be.”

“I figure at a point in the next couple years to really be a key facet, to really contribute,” Mazza says. “Athletically, I don’t know how [things will change]. I could get two tenths of a second faster in the next three years or I could get two tenths of a second slower, you know?”

Then he checks himself, unable to even admit the possibility that he won’t fulfill any challenge that the Harvard, the Ivy League, or even destiny sets before him.

“Well, I’m not going to get slower.”

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