Go time

After a hectic scouting process, Ryan is primed for his leap into the NFL

Matt Ryan is having difficulty focusing.

"I think I've got the squints," says Ryan, his eyes narrowing to slits.

The man projected to be the first quarterback selected in next weekend's NFL draft is struggling to look naturally into the camera dispatched by the NFL Network to capture footage of the Boston College quarterback in his natural surroundings at Alumni Stadium.

On this sun-splashed spring day at The Heights, Ryan is having trouble keeping his eyes open for a close-up. He is on the mezzanine level of the stadium but he is blinded by the sun's harsh reflection off the aluminum seats.

To complicate matters, the shadows cast on Ryan's face have produced a "raccoon eyes" effect, prompting director Kimberly Wang of Eardog Productions and her director of photography, Tom Fahey, of Milton, to survey the stadium for a shadier location to shoot.

"It was like this all the time before home day games," Ryan says. "I'd be out there for warmups, throwing the ball, and I'd have no idea where it was going. But once the stands got filled with people, it was fine."

Wang decides to relocate her three-man crew to field level. The FieldTurf surface is one place where Ryan has never needed a foam reflector board to highlight his abun dant talent.

For the last four years, it is the place where Ryan has shined on his own merit, throwing for a school-record 4,507 yards last season and guiding the Eagles to an 11-win campaign - only the second in program history. He finished seventh in Heisman Trophy voting, and now his future is so bright that, well, he's having difficulty with the squints.

It's not as if Ryan has never had media attention before. Last season, he was the boyish face of the football program, with a self-deprecating sense of humor and an unerring sense of humility in the national spotlight.

"After the Georgia Tech game last year," says Chris Cameron, BC's sports information director, "our staff got together, and sat Matt down at the head of a conference table, and we talked about a Heisman campaign."

Ryan had thrust himself into the Heisman race by passing for a career-high 435 yards, completing 30 of 44 attempts - including a spectacular 39-yard touchdown toss to Brandon Robinson - in the 24-10 win.

"At first, Matt blushed; he looked down at the table, kind of giggled, and was kind of embarrassed about it all," says Cameron. "But we said, 'Matt, you deserve this.' And he said, 'OK, what do you need me to do?' And he was on board with it. Ever since then, he's not changed. He's been the same.

"But you got the sense he never wanted to be singled out over his teammates. He didn't want to be elevated to the point where he wasn't one of them anymore.

"So from that standpoint, he never wanted or sought any special attention."

Measure for measure

Ryan has all the attention he can handle these days.

He spent the first 2 1/2 months of the year preparing for the NFL Combine at the Athletes' Performance training complex in Tempe, Ariz., working out with other prospects. On his introductory tour of the facilities, Ryan was stunned to run into Red Sox slugger Manny Ramírez in the weight room.

"I was like, 'Oh my God, that's Manny right there.' It was pretty crazy," Ryan says. "Every morning, to be going in there to work out, and you're seeing Manny Ramírez, and Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, guys like that, it was fun."

Although he declined to throw at the NFL Combine - "I thought I would showcase my skill-set better at my Pro Day [at BC March 18]" - Ryan showed up in Indianapolis to be poked, prodded, psychologically probed, and asked questions like, "If you could be a cat or a dog, which would you be?" (For the record, Ryan chose dog.)

At a dinner during the combine, Ryan bumped into Falcons owner Arthur Blank, whose team picks third in the draft and needs a quarterback. Ryan met again with Blank when the owner led a group of 10 people from his team to BC for a private workout. It was the biggest NFL contingent to meet with Ryan.

"Matt was really, really impressed with Mr. Blank," says Ryan's father, Mike. "Matt really likes and respects him."

Bill Parcells led the Dolphins group, which included head coach Tony Sparano, general manager Jeff Ireland, and quarterbacks coach Dan Henning. Not once, though, did Ryan and Henning discuss the former BC coach's term with the Eagles (1994-96). "It was more about golf," Ryan says.

At the Combine, teams took measure of more than just Ryan's golf handicap. They documented his height (6 feet 5 inches), weight (224 pounds), speed (4.88 in the 40), and intelligence (a 32 on the Wonderlic test).

And yet, they still had not collected enough data.

"People see different things," says BC coach Jeff Jagodzinski. "I don't know what Miami sees, or Atlanta, or Baltimore sees. What the team has to ask itself is: Does he fit the criteria for what they believe is a good quarterback?

"Now, if I was picking, and I needed a quarterback, I'd want him as my quarterback. I had Matt Hasselbeck here about 10 years ago and I remember talking to the scouts then and asking them, 'Would you take Matt Hasselbeck as your starting quarterback?' and they said, 'No question.' Well, this guy's even better. He's the same guy, the same character, the same competitor."

After Ryan's Pro Day workout, five of the top eight teams in the draft order - the Dolphins, Falcons, Jets, Ravens, and Chiefs - circled back to Chestnut Hill to wine and dine him and conduct private workouts, with Baltimore conducting the most recent visit, last Wednesday. The next day, Ravens veteran quarterback Steve McNair announced his retirement.

Coincidence? Who knows? The most frustrating thing about the process, Ryan has found, is the penchant among NFL teams for playing it close to the vest. Nobody wants to divulge the slightest hint of their draft-day plans.

The Chiefs put Ryan on a plane Monday and flew him out to Kansas City for a meeting. It was the only visit he's made in this process, but he tried not to read too much into it.

"They just don't give you any feedback," he says.

The Jets sent Ryan their playbook two days in advance of their meeting.

"I've told all the scouts, 'Just hand him the playbook and get out of the way,' " says BC offensive coordinator Steve Logan. "He'll know the playbook very quickly, and conceptualize it, which is the idea of it. You don't want to memorize it; you want to conceptualize it. And he does that instinctively."

That was evident when Ryan met with Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, and head coach Eric Mangini.

"After dinner at the Four Seasons," Ryan says, "we went up to a suite, I got in front of a dry eraser board and started going through their plays."

The Jets officials nodded their heads, collected their playbook, shook his hand, and wished him well.

"It's interesting," Ryan says. "You sit down and you have these discussions with them and you think, 'Yeah, that went really well, I think they're very interested.' And they could be, or they could not be. You just don't know."

Trying to enjoy it

On this gorgeous spring day, Ryan is spending seven hours on a shoot for the NFL Network's draft show. He shoots scenes in BC's weight room doing curls, bench presses, squats ("Do you want sound effects with those," he says, offering a grunt), pull-ups ("I think we might want to limit the number of those," he cracks after a set of six), and delivers taglines such as "Live in the now," and "My future is now," and "Now is the time."

At the beginning of the season, Ryan hardly registered a blip on the radar for the Heisman Trophy or any other award. Louisville's Brian Brohm, Southern Cal's John David Booty, and Michigan's Chad Henne were the names being bandied about. Now they all take a back seat to Ryan, the consensus top QB in the draft.

"I think Matt Ryan's a true franchise quarterback," says Mike Mayock of the NFL Network. "Knowing Matt pretty well, and knowing what he brings to the table, I'd love to see him go to Baltimore.

"He's the kind of kid - and I don't throw this name out there lightly - who reminds me of Peyton Manning from an emotional, tough mind-set. When Peyton Manning came out of Tennessee, I had done seven or eight of his games for CBS. I had watched tape with Peyton Manning, and I knew how tough he was emotionally. And Matt is the same kid."

Says ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr., "To me, in terms of the way he goes about his business, he's very similar to an Eli Manning, a Ben Roethlisberger, and a Philip Rivers. Those three quarterbacks, that particular year, if he were blended in with those three, there would be a lot of similarities. Two of those three have already won Super Bowls, and that's why he's the No. 1 quarterback."

"It's been a roller coaster," Ryan says. "Not to say that you weren't confident in what you could do, and that this wasn't your goal or aspiration, but to have it actually be coming true, it's pretty unbelievable.

"In terms of being the top quarterback drafted and stuff like that, it really wasn't on my radar either at the beginning of the year."

But now Ryan is on everyone's radar. Kiper rates him a mortal lock to be selected among the top eight picks. During a recent appearance on the "Mike and Mike in the Morning" show on ESPN Radio, Kiper staked his 30-year career as an NFL draft expert on it, saying that if Ryan isn't selected by then, "You will hear the last of me. I will not be around if Matt Ryan gets past 8; I'm done."

"The one thing is, you can't get caught up in all the hype," Ryan says. "You have to do this stuff because there's a time and a place when it's appropriate. You have to find time to take care of the things that are going to improve your chances of success and you can't forget about what you do is play football. You've got to remain focused on what really matters."

Wang approaches to alert Ryan that the crew is ready to resume shooting. Ryan holds up a finger and says, "One second," before finishing his thought.

"I've talked to Eli Manning," he says. "His one thing was - and it's not to say that I needed advice or that I needed to listen to him, but he was very cool about it - he said, 'My one piece of advice would be to just enjoy it, don't get stressed over it, don't worry about it, it's out of your control. Just go out there and do what you do and enjoy the process.'

"I mean, you're only going to go through this process once, so there's no sense in being miserable through it and stressed and worried and all that kind of stuff.

"I just don't think that's my nature, anyway."

Shades of greatness

Ryan wraps up the action on the field and retreats to the locker room to change as the crew loads up and relocates to another location on campus before heading out to shoot one last scene in front of the State House.

Dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved blue shirt, Ryan is behind the wheel of his GMC Yukon, navigating Back Bay traffic with the aplomb of a seasoned Boston driver. As he drives past Tom Brady's neighborhood, Ryan is asked if there's any NFL quarterback he would like to pattern his own career after.

"I think Tom Brady's done it the right way," he says. "From what I've seen of him up here, and I've never met him, but from what I've seen watching all kinds of different stuff, I think he's done it the right way. I think he's been humble; he does a good job with his media obligations and, ultimately, shows up and plays very well on Sundays.

"I think he's meticulous in his preparation, but I would want more of a private life than that. I would want a little more quiet of a life."

That might be a tad difficult with a girlfriend named Sarah Marshall (yes, the former BC basketball player from Falmouth, Maine, whom Ryan has dated for 3 1/2 years) and a just-released movie titled, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." But Ryan doesn't expect their relationship to invite any unwanted attention from the paparazzi when he shows up in New York next week for the draft.

"I thought one of the things I did a good job of while I was at BC was not letting things get blown out of proportion and not letting things get out of control," Ryan says. "I believe that's something that I can maintain. It's part of the position and I understand that. There are certain things that go along with playing quarterback, especially quarterback in the NFL. But that's all it is; it's a part of doing your job.

"I think I'm ready in that sense. I've got a good support system around me in my family and close friends who are willing to keep me humble."

The NFL Network shoot wraps after Ryan knocks off a few "hero" shots in front of the State House. He peels off his dress shirt, opting to go with the white T-shirt underneath. As he steers his SUV down Beacon Street, into the late-afternoon glare, Ryan dons a pair of wraparound Oakley sunglasses. Very Hollywood. Very fitting of an NFL first-rounder.

Matt Ryan is having no trouble focusing now.

He's prepared to take the next step with his eyes wide open. Not even the squints can distort his vision of his future.

Following Matt Ryan: For a photo gallery of the former Boston College quarterback, go to boston.com/sports/football/gallery/04_16_08_matt_ryan