Athlete of the Week: Carl Morris '03

There's a popular misconception in football that for a quarterback to have huge numbers, he has to throw the ball a long way through the air.

On Saturday afternoon, sophomore wide receiver Carl Morris decided to clear that one up.

Morris caught 10 passes for a Harvard record 220 yards with two touchdowns in the Crimson's stunning 42-37 upset at Brown on Saturday. He

earned most of those yards on the ground, taking junior quarterback Neil

Rose's relatively short offerings and carrying them a long way.

The result was a banner day for the Harvard attack, racking up 586

total yards--third highest in school history--and Rose setting a record himself with 412 passing yards. Because of Morris, who was named the Ivy League Player of the Week, the Crimson rolled up 35 second-half

points to knock off the Bears, one of the preseason Ivy favorites.

With Harvard trailing 30-21 at the start of the fourth quarter, Morris transformed the game into his own personal highlight reel to give the Crimson its first lead of the game-and season.

On second down from the Crimson 37, the Bear rush bore down hard

on Rose. The junior scrambled right and just before an impending sack, found Morris cutting to the near sideline. Morris shook his cover-man and darted to the middle of the field-into the end zone.

Brown then went three-and-out and punted the ball over the goal

line so the touchback set the Crimson up at its own 20. Morris lined up as

a flanker and ran a basic out pattern towards the left sideline near his

own 45-yard line. Rose quickly spotted the wide-open Morris, who turned

around and had nothing but daylight.

No safety was going to deny Morris his second TD in as many plays.

The 80-yard touchdown pass was the third longest in school history and

Harvard's furthest since 1976 when Jim Kubacki '77 found Larry Nonnan

against Boston University .

"This was a great day for me," Morris said. "I got a good ball from Rose and some excellent blocking down field."

Led by a simply outstanding Morris, the Crimson proved that it has a deadly wideout corp against Brown. Rose, engaged in a battle for the starting job entering the contest, looked like Harvard's quarterback for the next two years by getting the ball to them timely, accurately and letting Morris work his magic. If Harvard can merely approximate this performance for the rest of the year, then it will be a serious Ivy contender.

And Rose didn't even have to throw the ball far.