Harvard and Yale meet for the 126th playing of
The Game on Saturday.
The Particulars
With Harvard still harboring hopes of an Ivy League
championship, Harvard and Yale play the 126th edition of "The Game"
at Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn.
Versus
Saturday's game will be shown live on Versus TV. Check
your local listings and cable/ satellite providers for information.
On Radio
All Harvard games can also be heard on a variety of radio
stations including AM 1120 (Boston), 1390 (Plymouth), 970
(Sturbridge) as well as Harvard's student station, WHRB-FM
95.3. Additionally, Saturday's game is the Ivy League Game of
the Week and will be heard nationally on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Live Statistics
All Harvard home football games will feature live game
statistics. Fans can visit the Live Stats
page to follow along on their computer.
Series History
Yale holds a 65-52-8 series lead against Harvard in the
125 previous editions of The Game, though the Crimson has won seven
of the last eight against the Bulldogs - including last season's
10-0 shutout of the Bulldogs.
Where We Stand
Penn controls its own destiny this weekend as the Quakers
can clinch the championship outright with a win at Cornell. A Penn
loss coupled with a Harvard victory would mean a shared title and
the Crimson's third-straight Ivy title.
Last Year's Meeting
After fighting through swirling winds, single-digit
temperatures and first-half miscues, Harvard emerged with a
commanding 10-0 victory over the Yale Bulldogs for the program's
13th Ivy League Championship in the 125th edition of 'The
Game'
With the victory, Harvard became just the eighth team in history
to come back from a loss in its league opener and still win the
championship.
The Crimson defense held McLeod to 65 yards on 21 rushing
attempts and the Bulldog offense to just 90 total yards - the
fewest Harvard has allowed since last year's game, when Yale was
held to 123 yards.
The Harvard offense, though it did not find the end zone more
than once, moved the ball and controlled the clock throughout. The
Crimson possessed the ball for 39:15 while netting 370 yards of
offense, 261 of those coming on the ground.
Running back Gino Gordon led the ground attack with 39 touches
for 168 yards and the lone touchdown. The 168 rushing yards by
Gordon mark the top day for a Harvard back against Yale since 2003
when Clifton Dawson ran for 174 on 32 carries, and the most rushing
attempts since 1998, when Eion Hu also racked up 177 yards on the
ground via 40 carries en route to a 26-21 Harvard victory.
Chris Pizzotti, in his final game in a Crimson uniform, had an
effective day in 30 mile-per-hour winds, finishing 12 of 21 passing
for 109 yards. He also ran 16 times for 74 yards.
Harvard's Last Time Out
Penn defeated Harvard, 17-7, last weekend at The Stadium.
The Quakers withstood a late charge from the Crimson, stopping them
on three consecutive plays within the 5-yard line including a
fourth down play from the one.
Penn ended the drive, stopping Harvard quarterback Collier
Winters at the goal line on fourth down with 2:40 left to play to
get the ball back.
An early second half touchdown from Winters to Chris Lorditch
was the only blemish on a Quaker defense that has allowed just 14
points in their last 18 quarters of play.
A close fourth down call went Penn's way as well early in the
game as Kyle Olson was ruled to have crossed the goal line on a QB
sneak before fumbling the ball into the hands of a Harvard player.
Despite driving rain throughout the entire game, Olson and
Keiffer Garton combined to go 20-for-32 for 181 yards and one
touchdown for the Quakers.
Yale's Last Time Out
Kenny Gunter gained 119 yards on 23 carries, including a
3-yard run for the game's first score, as Princeton defeated Yale
24-17 last Saturday.
The Tigers took a 14-0 first-quarter lead to win for the 50th
time in the series.
Princeton's second score came on a 2-yard run by quarterback
Tommy Wornham, who rushed for 55 yards and was 16-of-23 passing for
136 yards.
Matt Zimmerman's 30-yard run put Princeton ahead 21-3 with 11:04
left in the third quarter before Yale cut it to 21-17 on Patrick
Witt's 33-yard pass to Peter Balsam and Shane Bannon's 1-yard run.
Witt was intercepted by Dan Kopolovich at the Princeton 17 late
in the third quarter and by Glenn Wakam at the Yale 14 midway
through the fourth. Wakam's pick led to Ben Bologna's 27-yard field
goal for the final margin.
Harvard Coach Tim Murphy
In his 16th season as Harvard's head coach, Tim Murphy
enters Saturday's game with a 103-55 record with the Crimson and a
135-100-1 overall head coaching record, which includes five years
at Cincinnati and two years at Maine. Murphy is one of just five
coaches to win 100 games since the formation of the Ivy League in
1954. Murphy has led Harvard to five Ivy League championships
(1997, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2008). He is 10-5 all-time against Yale.
Yale Coach Tom Williams
Tom Williams is in his first season as the Joel E. Smilow
'54 Head Coach of Football at Yale. Williams had previously
served as a defensive assistant for the NFL's Jacksonville
Jaguars.
Great Eight
The Crimson has registered at least seven wins in each of the last
eight years, making Harvard the first team in the history of Ivy
League football to post such a string of successful seasons. Two
years ago, Harvard became the first Ivy team to post a string of
seven such seasons together.
The current stretch is the Crimson's best eight-year run since a
28-year streak of seven-plus win seasons came to an end in 1911.
The program has won 64 games over the past eight seasons for the
best stretch since a stretch from 1908-1915 when the program also
won 64 games.
Complete Game Notes
For complete games notes in PDF format, click on the link
at the beginning of this page.
