No one will be watching this weekend's National Football League draft more closely than Dartmouth's all-everything quarterback, Jay Fiedler '94.
"I'm getting very anxious. I'm excited," Fiedler told The Associated Press. "I've been waiting for a long time for this day to come."
Fiedler is hoping his three prodigiously successful years as a Dartmouth starter, where he has smashed almost every school record that exists, and a successful off-season this year might land him a spot on an NFL squad.
The NFL draft has seven rounds, and several prognosticators have projected the strong-armed, 6 foot 3 Fiedler to be a late pick. One national football weekly ranked Fiedler the 10th best quarterback available in the draft.
"I've got no expectations about where I'll be picked. Then if I'm down in the lower rounds, or not picked, I won't be disappointed," Fiedler told the AP.
Fiedler has worked out for at least eight teams - Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Kansas City, the New York Jets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. Coach John Lyons, who has been to many of those workouts, said Fiedler impressed the scouts.
"Pro people are going to tell you what they think you want to hear," Lyons said. "But I think they've been impressed with him. They like his athletic ability, they like his strength, they like his feet, they like that he's a bright kid. There like a lot of intangibles about him."
Lyons, who has coached several professional players during their college years, compared Fiedler to Billy Brooks, a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills who Lyons coached at Boston University.
"They're very much the same type of kinds - they're winners," said Lyons, who said he thinks Fiedler has a "pretty good" chance of being drafted.
After a wildly successful junior year, when Fiedler led the team to an Ivy League championship while tossing for 2,748 yards with 25 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, Fiedler was being billed as a definite draft choice.
He was also Ivy League player of the year and led all Division I-AA schools in passing efficiency.
He started this year slowly, with eight interceptions and only five touchdowns in his first five games - four of which were Dartmouth losses.
Then he caught fire, tossing for an average of 305 yards over the last five games with 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
He also lead Dartmouth to three breathtaking, come-from-behind victories, in which he made plays that "were just unbelievable," Lyons said.
After the season, Fiedler had impressive outings in the Epson-Ivy Bowl, where he completed eight of 13 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns, and the East-West Shrine Game, where he also was eight for 13, with 150 yards and one touchdown.
He was named Most Valuable Player of the Epson-Ivy Bowl, and co-offensive player of the East-West Shrine Game.
"Some of the things he's done in the off-season have upset some of the beginning of the year things," Lyons said. Lyons said people who have followed Fiedler his entire Dartmouth career "still really like him."
Even if Fiedler is not drafted, he can still go to a team's training camp as a free agent, which may be better for him, Lyons said.
"It's better because he can pick out a better situation for him to go to," Lyons said. "He'll wait and see. He has kept a real close look on these things, but it changes every day."
