The Particulars
Harvard opens its 137th season Saturday night with a
stern test against the Holy Cross Crusaders at Harvard Stadium. The
game is also live on GoCrimson.com.
For the fourth time in the last five years, Harvard was selected
to win the Ivy League championship in a poll of the national
media. The Crimson will once again have a tough test
immediately as reigning Patriot League champion Holy Cross will be
playing its third game of the season while Harvard is in its
first.
The Promotions
Harvard has a bevy of promotions for Saturday game. All Harvard
students, faculty and staff will receive free admission as will all
residents of Allston and Brighton.
Opening Day
Harvard is an impressive 111-23-2 in season-openers (.827). The
Crimson has won its opening game in seven of the last nine years
and is 10-6 on Opening Day under current head coach Tim Murphy.
Let There Be Light
Harvard is playing its fourth straight home-opening game under the
lights at The Stadium. Harvard is 3-0 in its previous openers
including a win over Holy Cross in 2008.
Series History
Saturday's game will be the 64th meeting between Harvard and Holy
Cross in a series that dates to 1904. Harvard, which enjoyed 36
consecutive home games in the series from 1904 to 1980, holds a
38-23-2 series lead.
Harvard has won six of the last eight meetings and 10 of the
last 13 although Holy Cross has taken two of the last three (both
at home) in what has become an early season meeting among teams
vying for national rankings.
Last Year's Meeting
In a battle of Top 25 teams at Fitton Field Saturday, 23rd-ranked
Holy Cross outlasted No. 25 Harvard by a score of 27-20 as the
Crusaders forced a late fumble to seal victory.
Holy Cross (3-0), playing its third home game of the season,
took advantage of several Crimson mistakes in the first half as
Harvard (0-1) was playing its season opener. In the end, a solid
effort by Harvard put the Crimson in position to tie or win it but
Holy Cross made a final defensive stand late in the fourth
quarter.
Harvard's Last Time Out
In a game of inches and legendary fourth down gambles to end its
2009 campaign, Harvard stunned Yale by scoring two touchdowns late
in the fourth quarter as the Crimson downed the Bulldogs, 14-10, in
the 126th playing of The Game in front of 52,692 fans at Yale
Bowl.
With Yale leading 10-0 late in the fourth, Harvard drove 76
yards in just 1:50 on six plays as Collier Winters
found a streaking Matt Luft for a 41-yard touchdown with 6:46
remaining. The score would never have been possible were it not for
Gino Gordon,
who spun out of a tackle on fourth-and-four from his own 30 yards
line, eventually rumbling 19 yards to keep Harvard's hopes
alive.
Yale eventually found itself in fourth down with 22 yards to go
from its 25 yard line at 2:40 on the clock. With the league's best
punter in Tom Mante waiting to boot it down field, Yale instead
called an improbably reverse run fake punt that fell seven yards
shy as Collin
Zych came up with the stop, giving Harvard the ball at Yale's
40 yard line with 2:25 as a stunned Yale crowd looked on.
It took Harvard just three plays to devastate the crowd again as
Chris
Lorditch cut across the middle of the field and then swiftly
past two defenders up the seam as Winters lofted a perfect pass
over the inside coverage. Thirty two yards later, Harvard suddenly
led 14-10.
Holy Cross' Last Time Out
Massachusetts quarterback Kyle Havens threw for 293 yards and two
scores as the Minutemen jumped on Holy Cross early and didn't let
up in a 31-7 victory on Saturday in Amherst.
In addition to Havens' performance through the air, the
Minutemen (2-0) rushed for 232 yards and two more touchdowns as the
Crusaders (1-1) failed to slow down a multi-faceted Massachusetts
offense.
The Minutemen jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter
after a 19-yard touchdown reception by Dan Sheeran and a 1-yard
touchdown run from John Griffin.
A Jonathan Hernandez 1-yard touchdown run followed by a 3-yard
touchdown reception by Rob Blanchflower and a 37-yard field goal by
Caleb Violette as time expired in the first half gave Massachusetts
a 31-0 lead.
The running back duo of Griffin, who rushed for 75 yards, and
Hernandez, who added 71, led the way on the ground for the
Minutemen.
Holy Cross was limited to 43 rushing yards and held the ball for
just 21 minutes.
Harvard Coach Tim Murphy
In his 17th season as Harvard's head coach, Tim Murphy enters
Saturday's game with a 104-55 record with the Crimson and a
136-100-1 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 11-4 all-time against Holy
Cross.
Holy Cross Coach Tom Gilmore
Tom Gilmore is in his seventh season at Holy Cross sideline, and
he enters the game against Harvard with a 40-28 record with the
Crusaders. Gilmore, who played at Penn as an undergraduate, was the
1985 Ivy League player of the year. He is 2-4 against Harvard as a
head coach.
Elite Company
With 104 career victories on the Harvard sideline, head coach Tim
Murphy ranks second on the Crimson's all-time wins chart. Murphy is
13 wins away from Joe Restic's school record 117 wins (from
1971-93).
Ivy Era Coaches
Since the formal naming of the Ivy League in 1956, just five
coaches have reached the 100-win plateau with two of them being
Harvard men.
Carm Cozza, Yale: 179
Bob Blackman, Dartmouth 127
Al Bangnoli, Penn: 122
Joe Restic, Harvard: 117
Tim Murphy, Harvard: 104
Success
Over the past 12 years, Harvard has won five Ivy League
championships (four outright) and had two undefeated seasons while
posting the Football Championship Subdivision's second-highest
winning percentage this decade.
Did You Say Nine Times?
The Crimson has finished with at least seven wins in each of the
last nine years, becoming the only program in Ivy League history to
have such a stretch of success. Three years ago, Harvard became the
first Ivy team to post a string of even seven such seasons
together.
The current stretch is the Crimson's best nine-year run since a
28-year streak of seven-plus win seasons came to an end in 1911.
The program has won 65 games over the past nine seasons.
Coach's Road Trip
This summer, Tim Murphy embarked on a week-long journey overseas
to speak with men and women of the United States military as part
of the Coaches Tour 2010. The purpose of the trip was to provide
service men and women with a break from the rigors of active duty
while providing a temporary outlet of something sports-related.
Murphy was joined on the trip by Oregon head coach Chip Kelly,
Illinois coach Ron Zook and West Point head coach Rich Ellerson.
Murphy and Kelly were also guest lecturers at the USC Coach of the
Year Clinic at The Galen Center Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif.
earlier in the summer.
Oh Captain, My Captain
Harvard captain Collin Zych was named as the Ivy League Preseason
Defensive Player of the Year by the College Sporting News as part
of its 2010 FCS Yearbook edition. Zych was named to the same honor
by The Sporting News and has also earned the honor from
Lindy's.
This summer, Zych was named to three different preseason
All-America teams and also has an invitation to the Football
Championship Subdivision Senior Scout Bowl later this year.
Tough Scheduling
Harvard has the toughest non-conference schedule as compiled from
the preseason rankings from Any Given Saturday and The Sports
Network. In order of hardest schedule:
1.Harvard- #14 Holy Cross, TOP 50 Lafayette, TOP 50 Lehigh
2.Princeton- TOP 50 Lehigh, TOP 50 Lafayette, #21 Colgate
3.Penn- TOP 50 Lafayette, #1 Villanova, Bucknell
4.Brown- TOP 50 Stony Brook, Rhode Island, #14 Holy Cross
5.Dartmouth- Bucknell, Sacred Heart, #14 Holy Cross
6.Cornell- Wagner, Bucknell, #21 Colgate
7.Columbia- Fordham, Towson, TOP 50 Lafayette
8.Yale- Georgetown, TOP 50 Albany, Fordham
Conference Call
Harvard has won 16 of its last 21 non-league games dating back to
2003. Harvard's last undefeated nonleague schedule came in
2008 (3-0) and was the fourth time in a six-year span that the
Crimson went undefeated against the Patriot League's trio of Holy
Cross, Lafayette and Lehigh.
League Matters
Harvard was picked first alongside in the 2010 Ivy League
preseason media poll for the fourth time in the last five years.
The Crimson received 10 of the 17 first place votes.
1. Harvard (10)
128
2. Penn (6) 124
3. Brown 95
4. Yale (1) 83
5. Columbia 61
6. Princeton 55
7. Dartmouth 39
8. Cornell 27
Crimson Tide, Crimson
Harvard currently ranks ninth among all college football programs
— and second among FCS schools — in all-time wins.
School
Wins
1.
Michigan 878
2.
Yale
857
3.
Texas
845
4. Notre
Dame 837
5.
Nebraska 826
6. Ohio
State 818
7.
Alabama
815
8. Penn
State 812
9.
Harvard
805
10. Penn
799*
*Penn forfeited five wins in 1997 due to the use of an ineligible
player.
Complete Game Notes
For complete games notes in PDF format, click on the link
at the beginning of this page.
