They’ve been coming all season, huddled in pairs in the press box or watching silently at practice. They come from Oakland, from Pittsburgh, from Indianapolis, drawn by a highlight reel and a rumor. They come because somehow or other they’ve heard that tucked away in the dusty corner of the football world that is the Ivy League, a future NFL quarterback is waiting to be discovered.

They’ve been coming to watch someone who received exactly one scholarship offer out of high school—from Division I-AA Eastern Washington. They’ve been coming to check out someone who plays in a league that doesn’t allow athletic scholarships and bars its champion from the playoffs.

But still they’ve been coming. They’ve been coming because despite it all, this player has been ranked as one of the top NFL quarterback prospects in the country, ahead of guys from Miami and Auburn. They’ve been coming because they think that the 6’3, 220-lb. kid from Gilbert, Ariz., just might repeat the same success that he’s had in four years with Harvard on a professional level.

They’ve been coming to see Ryan Fitzpatrick.

And so far, they like what they see.

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Fitzpatrick has gone from being a high school senior without a single I-A offer to a reportedly fourth-round—or higher—draft prospect, with pit-stops in the Harvard record books in between.

It’s an astonishing change of fortune, and one that’s hard to account for with a year-by-year charting of progress and statistics.

That’s because, according to Harvard coach Tim Murphy, Fitzpatrick has something unquantifiable.

“The thing that has helped Ryan develop into a great college quarterback are intangibles,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy says. “Because we knew he could throw, we knew he was athletic, a big kid. What you don’t know, and what I didn’t know when I visited him at his house in Gilbert, Ariz., was how tough he was. Mentally and physically. How much he thrives on pressure and competition.

“Those are things you never really know until you spend a lot of time in critical situations around an athlete,” Murphy continues. “And that has helped Ryan transform from a very solid college quarterback in terms of physical skills into a great college quarterback, who is a legitimate professional prospect.”

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Of course, it’s not all guts and instinct. Fitzpatrick has gotten physically bigger since he’s been at Harvard, packing on muscle particularly after the 2003 season. On the field, he credits his development as a player to the position coaches he’s spent time with in his past four years, particularly former offensive coordinator Jay Mills and current assistant coach Dave Cecchini.

As for players, Fitzpatrick looks to the man he split time during with his first two years.

“I know one of the biggest things was Neil Rose [’03], who I had the privilege of spending two years watching play,” Fitzpatrick says. “He’s such a student of the game—very smart, great instincts out there in the field, great leader. I think that’s one of my biggest things, was I was able to sit and learn from him.”