Anthony Fucillo doesn't care if you call him Van Wilder.
It's no big deal. Seriously.
Tufts' starting quarterback is, after all, in his sixth season of collegiate football. So associating him with the graduation−averse title character of National Lampoon's 2002 frat−boy flick only elicits laughs as he casually shrugs off the comparison.
"He's a cool dude," Fucillo says. "I don't mind."
Aside from the extended stays on campus, the resemblances between Ryan Reynolds's creation and his real−life counterpart end there. Van Wilder stuck around because he was too lazy to graduate; Fucillo just wants another chance to get back on the field.
The horror list of injuries began when Fucillo was at Div. I Colgate and continued once he transferred to Tufts, a destination closer to his Winthrop, Mass., home. He went down in the seventh game in '08 and, after suffering an ankle injury during the first series in a preseason scrimmage with Bowdoin, he never made it into a regular−season contest in '09.
Now, he's back for one last go−around, leading an offense that was second− worst in the NESCAC in 2009 but is now obsessed with proving the rest of the league wrong.
"It's been a while," Fucillo said. "But you don't lose that taste in your mouth of how it feels to go out there and play. I think that's something you carry with the rest of your life. It feels good to be back."
For all intents and purposes, the 2−6 record and the 11.8 points per game last season were humiliating, a statement the team isn't afraid to make. But with the top three receivers all returning to line up alongside Fucillo, the league−leader in pass efficiency in '08, it's all a thing of the past.
"Guys are more zeroed in," Fucillo said. "People were embarrassed about what happened last year. We were lowest in the conference pretty much in total offense and scoring — we were awful. We're not afraid to say that, and we're embarrassed about that, but we want to go out and prove differently this year."
In order to do so, the Jumbos will turn to an overflowing bevy of wideouts that includes speedster senior Steve Cusano, who sat out part of last season with a broken hand but still finished as the team's second−leading receiver, as well as classmate Billy Mahler and sophomore Mike Howell.
"I really think we're going to move the ball prolifically this year," Mahler said. "With our weapons, we have really great team speed on the perimeter, and I think we're really going to run by a lot of guys. And Anthony can really put the ball wherever he wants it for the most part. If we get some time, I think we can be really dangerous."
And then there's senior Pat Bailey, perhaps the most dangerous skill−position player on the team, if not in the league. You'd never expect it, looking at the 5−foot−7, 170−pound running back, who finished second in the league last year in all−purpose yardage, single−handedly accounting for 52 percent of the team's receiving yardage, 37 percent of the Jumbos' rushing game and 63 percent of return yardage.
When Fucillo was a senior in high school, he played against Bailey, then a sophomore at Beverly (Mass.) High. Fucillo's father — now Tufts' wide receivers coach — directed his son, who had assumed kicking duties, to never let Pat Bailey get the ball on special teams.
"He's been a stellar athlete, a stellar player since he was younger, and to have him on our side is huge," the younger Fucillo said. "I hated preparing for him in high school, and now you love having him on your side, and I think teams hate preparing for him.
"He's a deadly weapon," he said. "He can catch the ball as good as a receiver and he can run as well as any running back in the league. He looks like he weighs 150 pounds soaking wet, but the kid runs like he's 200 pounds — he puts his head down and he runs hard."
Any discussion about offensive expectations begins with the line, Fucillo and offensive coordinator Jay Civetti insist. Fucillo's protective unit returns senior Tom Didio, a two−year starter; sophomore Ralph Faia, who opened for six games in '09; sophomore Andrew Rayner; and juniors Evan Murray and Dave Lloyd, who all saw significant playing time for the injury−plagued Jumbos squad last season.
"Without the offensive line, we don't really get much going," Civetti said. "Those guys have worked incredibly hard. I think that's where a lot of the focus and attention need to be right now because they've done a really nice job so far."
A certain air of defiance exists within the Jumbos this year, one derived from what coach Bill Samko called the best offseason he's ever witnessed in his 22 seasons with the program.
The attitude extends back to a 2009 squad that, despite scoring under 10 points five times, nearly took down Trinity and brought undefeated Amherst to the brink.
"I didn't see anybody lay down or jump ship," Samko said. "I wasn't happy with the record, I'm not going to lie. But effort levels and the way they would punch you back and not just roll over and die? You can write that down. That gives me tremendous hope. I was disappointed in the record — I was not disappointed with that team. I will go to the grave with that. They never backed down one time."
The door to Samko's office, amid the jumbled mess of other papers, bears the offense's slogan for the season: "Get comfortable with the uncomfortable." With tomorrow's opener against Hamilton on Zimman Field nearing, the Jumbos must settle into the unfamiliar and forget the pain associated with a losing season.
"They're very high," Fucillo said, when asked about the offense's expectations. "I don't think the league thinks that, but we think that. We want to do some damage in the league."
