The metaphorical itch surfaced when Johnny Lindquist walked away from football.
An all-state quarterback at Highland Park High School outside Chicago, Lindquist almost never even sniffed the East Coast. The senior quarterback matriculated at Michigan, spurning collegiate athletics for a school eight times Tufts' size.
"Honestly, I was a little burnt-out my senior year in high school," said Lindquist after Monday's walkthrough practice, with a football tucked underneath his right arm. "I played three sports for four years, and I thought it would be all right just going four years without playing a sport. But I realized that wasn't the life I wanted to live."
He missed the built-in segments, the daily routine of working out and practicing with teammates and friends alike. Lindquist soon found himself working out on his own for a couple of hours each day. Eventually, he figured he'd give football another shot, transferring to Tufts after his freshman year.
The Jumbos are sure glad he did.
"It's all about the journey, and there's lots of different turns that come in your way and a bunch of different experiences," interim head coach Jay Civetti said. "We're fortunate to have him, starting quarterback or not. He's a great team guy, and he's focused on making his teammates better, making his friends better, [and] making himself better."
Despite a statistical deficiency in collegiate experience, his leadership qualities and poise have made him an ideal replacement suitor for Anthony Fucillo (LA '11), one of Tufts' most prolific passers of all-time. Lindquist won a preseason quarterback battle with junior John Dodds and will start Saturday's opener at Hamilton, looking to turn around a team that went 1-7 in 2010 — its worst season since 1996.
An economics major on a pre-med track with the team's highest GPA, Lindquist has quickly developed a reputation among fellow Jumbos as a fierce leader, a quality he attributes to a desire to maintain pride.
"I respect a lot of the guys who do rather than say," Lindquist said. "It's important to put your head down and go to work rather than talk about it. I realized that was a good approach to life and to football."
During the team's preseason Judgment Day training, now a staple among Tufts teams, the former Marines running the program awarded Lindquist with a leadership honor for directing the Jumbos through the various intense drills.
With the directors yelling instructions into his ear, Lindquist took a deep breath, led the Jumbos in suicides and exhibited the calm collectedness that's gotten him to this point.
"He just took the reins, really," junior wide receiver Marty Finnegan said. "The Marines were adamant about us taking over our own team, and he was the man."
Though Lindquist appeared in just two games last season, attempting only one pass and rushing for 12 yards on three carries, he watched and learned while Fucillo set single-season program records for yards, attempts, completions and touchdowns, biding his time.
Fucillo, according to Lindquist, was a vocal leader whose intensity and rapport served as an up-close model for success and leadership, qualities Lindquist has emulated throughout the preseason competition.
"Just watching how Anthony approached it gave me ideas on how to be the best quarterback I can be," Lindquist said. "He's a vocal guy, and I try to do the right thing… lead by example. I picked up times when he'd step in and talk to linemen, let them know when they're doing a good job or feel people out."
When the offseason rolled around, and with the battle with Dodds looming, Lindqust prepared for his golden opportunity the same way he always approaches the offseason.
"I just worked out with a friend of mine back home, threw routes, worked out, lifted, ran," Lindquist said. "I didn't really think about it. You sort of get in your own head if you think about it too much, so you just play your own game."
In directing an offensive unit that lost 86 percent of its rushing game and 58 percent of its receiving game, Lindquist has a heavy task at hand. So far, he's appeared up to the challenge.
During a Friday scrimmage at Bowdoin, he went 5-for-8 for 60 yards on his first two series, numbers that look even more impressive considering that two of his incompletions were dropped passes.
Perhaps more importantly, with his first collegiate start on the horizon, fellow Jumbos are throwing their support behind the quarterback whose journey almost never brought him here in the first place.
"It goes back to who he is as a person," Civetti said. "He's a great team guy, and he's focused on making his teammates better, making his friends better, making himself better."
