Boyhood dreams of playing professional football aside, Harvard senior Jamil Soriano has another reason to look forward to this weekend’s NFL draft.

He needs a job.

“A lot of my friends have things lined up for next year,” Soriano says. “I’ve got nothing.”

At this point, it’s pretty much a sure thing that Soriano’s name will be called at some point this weekend. Soriano, who anchored one of the Ivy League’s best offensive lines the past two seasons as Harvard’s left tackle, says he’s been told upwards of 14 teams have him on their draft board. His agent has told him he could go as early as the fifth round. Popular wisdom lately says that he could even be selected ahead of superstar wideout Carl Morris, whose 40-yard dash time has not wowed scouting personnel at recent workouts.

But Soriano’s stock hasn’t been helped by some long-held prejudices about Ivy League athletes. One easily accessible scouting report, compiled by the people at Pro Football Weekly for ESPN.com, lists his Harvard background—Soriano is a biology concentrator and has plans to one day attend medical school—as a weakness.

“Does not need football,” the report reads. “Both parents are doctors, and he will have a Harvard degree to hang on his wall.”

A similar charge, you’ll recall, was leveled at former Crimson great Isaiah Kacyvenski three years ago, and all he’s done is earn the starting middle linebacker job with the Seattle Seahawks. All-Pro center Matt Birk ’98 has squashed those stereotypes, too. Sooner or later, you’d think that coming out of Harvard—hotbed of overachievers that it is—might actually be considered a selling point. But Soriano says questions about his commitment to football keep coming up in interviews.

When they do, he simply explains how football works at Harvard. How there are no scholarships keeping players from leaving the team. How the only thing keeping athletes playing is desire and personal pride.

It’s true Soriano doesn’t need football—he hasn’t needed it for four years. All the less reason to question his commitment to it.

“My grades have taken a hit because of football,” Soriano says, noting the sacrifices he’s already made for his sport. “I could’ve gotten a part-time job. My free time in general has taken a hit. I could have quit after freshman year. I could have quit at any point. But I love playing.”

With the possibility of medical school open to him, Soriano probably needs football even less now. Yet he’s shelved those applications indefinitely.

“I’m not going to apply until [later on],” he says. “I could have applied this year and deferred admission, but there’s a lot involved with the application process, and my first priority since the season ended has been getting ready for the draft.”

To that end, Soriano has been working out every morning all winter long with fellow senior lineman Jack Fadule, who’ll likely sign a free-agent deal after the draft. The pair have been hitting the weight room and working on their overall conditioning.

That’s why he didn’t quite understand another of his so-called weaknesses, according to the same report on ESPN.com.

“Has not done enough work in the weight room,” the report reads, “and it shows.”