CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – Ryan Fitzpatrick confessed to being misty-eyed before his last college practice.

He should save the tears: Unlike most senior quarterbacks at Harvard, he might not be saying goodbye to football after The Game against Yale on Saturday. About two-thirds of the NFL teams have scouted Fitzpatrick this season.

“I don’t think there’s any question Ryan Fitzpatrick can play professionally,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said this week as the undefeated Crimson (9-0, 6-0 Ivy) prepared to play their archrivals. “He is an outstanding quarterback in every way.”

No Harvard quarterback has played in the NFL since before the Great Depression, when the team competed for the national championship and regularly sent players to the pros. Al Miller took the snaps for the 1929 Boston Braves and Joe McGlone did it for the Providence Steamrollers and Boston Bulldogs in 26.

The Ivy League school has sent just 14 players to the pros since the days of leather helmets – none of them quarterbacks. Only two Harvard graduates remain on active NFL rosters: Minnesota center Matt Birk and Seattle linebacker Isaiah Kacyvenski.

Before Fitzpatrick can start thinking about a pro career, he and the other Harvard seniors can accomplish something even more rare: Winning The Game four straight years for the first time since the Class of 22.

“That’s one of the things you get asked after you get done with college: How did you do against Yale,” Fitzpatrick said. “But they’re going to be fired up because their senior class has not beaten us.”

Yale (5-4, 3-3 Ivy) has 31 seniors trying to beat Harvard for the first time, and become the 12th Elis team in 17 tries to ruin a perfect Harvard season. The last was in 1968 when, with both teams entering The Game 8-0, the Crimson rallied to a 29-29 “victory.”

This year, Yale hasn’t been able to match Harvard. “There’s not much in it for us but to have fun,” Yale captain Rory Hennessey said.

A win would change that.

“We have one more opportunity to show what kind of offense we thought we would be,” coach Jack Siedlecki said.

Harvard is the last unbeaten and untied school in Division I-AA, and has a chance for a second perfect season in four years; until 2001 the Crimson hadn’t done that since 1913. Because the Ivy League prohibits its members from participating in the I-AA playoffs, this is Harvard’s final game of the season.

“This is like a bowl game for us, between the atmosphere and what’s at stake,” Murphy said.

Harvard has already clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title thanks to a 31-10 victory over Penn, the Crimson’s first win at Penn since 1980.

Fitzpatrick threw for 186 yards and ran for 44 against the Quakers, giving him the school’s career record for total yards with 6,530 (5,110 passing, 1,420 rushing). Harvard is 17-3 in games he has started.

“It would be hard to list the things he brings forth,” said running back Clifton Dawson, who leads the conference with 113 yards per game. “We all admire him. We all look up to him. This Saturday, we want to do something special – not just for him, but for all the seniors.”

AP-ES-11-19-04 1705EST