Tim Murphy Quotes From Ivy Football Teleconference

Head coach Tim Murphy during a victory against Holy Cross on Sept. 18, 2010.

Tim Murphy Quotes From Ivy Football Teleconference

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 82nd season - begins at noon and features head coaches, players and administrators from around the region from all levels of NCAA competition. This year's event will be streamed live via the web on GoCrimson.com and is part of the All-Access and Football Season Pass for streaming.

• Harvard's Multimedia Page (View Live Streamed events) 
• 2010 New England Football Writer's Luncheons Recap Page
• 2010 New England Football Writer's Video Highlight Page (Youtube)

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.

Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy on the team’s win against Holy Cross
It was a very solid start for us. Playing against a very good team playing their 3^rd game, we had some concerns (as a coaching staff). We didn’t have a lot of penalties and didn’t turn the ball over and when you do that, you have a chance to beat everyone.

On playing Brown
Brown is always a tough, physical team. They get excited to play us; they are always very well-coached… Right off the bat, we know that we will get challenged.

On playing in the 1^st night game at Brown and being on the other side of that night-opening experience
Personally, I think its great for our kids and good for the students (to play at night). We’ve had a great reception for our games and would like to expand that. We’re very excited about it; it is a special type of atmosphere… the students seem to get more excited. You can’t really do it in the Ivy League in late October or November (with the weather). We do have a little bit of familiarity with playing at night. It will be a little interesting with temporary lighting.

On the play of Andre Hatch
I think he did a very solid job (against Holy Cross). People have asked me about him because he is a unique story. People ask, ‘how good is he?’ and I say I don’t really know. He probably has as much ability as anyone we’ve had here include Ryan Fitzpatrick, who is starting this week for the Buffalo Bills, but you don’t really know about a kid getting into a tense situation - what kind of intangibles he has. He proved that he is a very tough kid.

On the defensive play and holding a very good Holy Cross program to a late score
I thought our coaches did a good job having an appropriate game plan for Holy Cross. We’re a more athletic team with our top 11 players than we were a year ago. We’ve got some pretty good depth on the defensive line. The two kids that make us go up front are Josue Ortiz and Victor Ojukwu - they are strong guys and physically mature. As far as we go, it what’s up front that counts. We’ve got four or five end guys that we can run in there. For playing Brown, this will be a big step up for us this week

On the play of freshman David Mothander
David dia  great job. We thought he had a chance to win the kicking job. Wep;ve got two relatively young kids (kicking). He was pretty much perfect on the day. Theres always things you want a freshman to do better but he handles things pretty well

On Harvard’s ability to develop freshmen under his tenure
(Like some other Ivy coaches) we’ve all gone through it; freshmen just aren’t going to play at a high level. If you can bring them along (slowly), that really helps. One of the great things about the Ivy League is the J.V. schedule; not only from the development level but to give those kids something to look forward to. It’s the greatest game in the world when you are playing, so giving them something to look forward to is a special thing.

On Harvard’s offensive balance and spreading the ball around
If you watch our offense over the years, we try very hard (as a coaching staff) to be a balanced offense. People somehow get the opinion that we just throw the ball around (all the time). We’re going to be physical on every unit. We still need to improve in a lot of areas. Our offensive line has the potential to be an outstanding group and we want to run the football as much as we can.