CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard opens the Andrew Aurich era on Saturday as it is set to face first-time foe Stetson at Harvard Stadium. Kickoff in Cambridge is set for noon ET with ESPN+ handling the broadcast duties.

QUICK HITS

- The defending Ivy League champions are scheduled to open a football season on Saturday with someone other than Tim Murphy patrolling the sidelines for the first time since Sept. 18, 1993 -- a span of 11,327 days or 31 years, 4 days --- when Joseph Restic led the Crimson to a 30-3 win over Columbia in the 1993 lidlifter. Murphy retired from his post on Jan. 17, 2024, after 30 seasons at the helm.

- Aurich was announced as The Thomas Stephenson Family Head Coach for Harvard Football on Feb. 12, 2024, becoming the fifth person to lead the Crimson since the formation of the Ivy League. The 2006 Princeton graduate follows in the footsteps of Lloyd P. Jordan (1950-56; 1956 marked first Ivy season), John M. Yovicsin (1957-70), Restic (1971-93) and Murphy (1994-2023).

- The Crimson is in search of its fourth straight season-opening victory. Harvard defeated Georgetown in 2021 (W, 44-9), Merrimack College in 2022 (ot-W, 28-21) and St. Thomas in 2023 (W, 45-13). 

- Harvard on Saturday is looking to keep alive a lengthy home season-opening winning streak. When the Crimson has opened its schedule at home, it was won 12 straight games by a combined score of 409-187 (34.1-15.6 average score). Its last home loss in Game 1 occurred on Sept. 16, 2000, vs. Holy Cross (L, 25-27). 

- Since the start of 2011, Harvard is 18-2 (.900) at home against non-conference competition. The two blemishes occurred vs. Rhode Island in 2018 and against a Holy Cross team in 2022 that reached the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.

- The Crimson will look to keep its eight-game non-conference winning streak against unranked foes intact vs. Stetson. Ironically, Harvard's last loss to an unranked non-Ivy team came five years ago to the day on Saturday when it was on the short end of a 31-23 decision at San Diego on Sept. 21, 2019.

- Harvard enters its first home game of 2024 riding a six-game home winning streak after posting a 6-0 mark in 2023. Last season's performance came on the heels of a 2022 campaign in which the Crimson when 1-4 at home and 5-0 on the road. Prior to that one outlier season, Harvard had been very good on home turf, logging a winning home record each season starting with the beginning of the '01 campaign.

- The Crimson, which lost to Yale in its final game of 2023, has been resilient following losses. Harvard has responded to its last six losses with a victory, a streak that dates back to the 2021 season. The last time the Crimson dropped two games in a row was on Oct. 23, 2021 (at No. 17/22 Princeton; 5ot-L, 16-18) and Oct. 30, 2021 (vs. Dartmouth; L, 17-20). 

- September has been good to Harvard of late as the Crimson has won eight straight games in the calendar's ninth month. The last time Harvard played in September, it was celebrating a 38-28 road win at No. 5/6 Holy Cross at Polar Park in Worcester, which occurred on Sept. 30, 2023. The Crimson's last September loss came at San Diego on Sept. 21, 2019.