September 29, 2009

Tim Murphy Quotes From Ivy Football Teleconference

Photo: Alexios Nicolaos Monopolis, for GoCrimson.com

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Tim Murphy, the Thomas Stephenson Family Head Coach for Harvard Football, recently took part in the Ivy League's weekly teleconference. Below are his quotes from the event.

Additionally, coach Murphy will give more insight into his Crimson as he takes part in the weekly New England Football Writers' Association Luncheon Wednesday afternoon at Harvard's Dillon Field House.

The event - the nation's oldest weekly football media gathering, now entering its 81st season - begins at noon and features head coaches, players and administrators from around the region from all levels of NCAA competition. For the first time, this year's event will be streamed live via the web on GoCrimson.com.

Fans can login to Harvard's Multimedia section of the website to watch the streams. Recaps of the event will be posted in the afternoon and will be sent to media and area schools as well. Local fans can do even better as the event is open to the public for a fee of $10 per person.

Each school's coach/administrator will speak briefly about his team's last game, a preview up the upcoming games and an assessment of his team's top players. Additionally, the weekly Gold Helmet Award is given to the preceding week's top players. The award is sponsored by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston and the weekly winners - one from Divisions I and one from Divisions II/III - are presented with a plaque.

Tim Murphy Quotes from the weekly Ivy League Teleconference
Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009

Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy opening statement:
Obviously it was a very solid win against Brown. The bottom line is, we made our share of mistakes but played hard until the end and if you do that you have a chance to win.

On play of Collier Winters who is starting at QB the first time and was named the Ivy League Offensive Player of the Week:
We think he's done a great job in his first two games. He has no interceptions in his first two games; he has proven to be an accurate thrower and he has shown to make some plays that you can't necessarily coach.

On participating in the FCS coaches poll and winning margin influencing the voting process:
For me (winning margin) does not (influence the vote). The Ivy League cannot compete in the FCS playoffs and we've been in some situations where we've had a couple of perfect season where we feel that we could have competed for the national championship. We have never been in the situation where we've felt the need to beat up on people... Scheduling (good) competition is ultimately decisive in making those votes... you look at it at the body of work rather than one game, no question

On getting a win in the league opener:
Honestly I think it is a little bit of a relief... we all start off with very tough openers that are nonconference. (a win) gives you some confidence and some momentum ... you can win (the league championship) with one loss but of the championships that we've won, only one has been with a loss - the rest have been with undefeated league records.

On Harvard's matchup against Lehigh:
This comes across as a bit of a cliché but Lehigh might be the best 0-3 team in the country. They allowed just four first downs to Princeton last week and didn't come away with the win.

Every time we play them it is one of our toughest games of the year. They are very well coached by the way, but they haven't had a lot of luck along the way. We expect a very, very challenging game in Bethlehem, Pa.