CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In what is the only Ivy League contest this week between two undefeated teams, Harvard begins its conference slate on Saturday (noon ET, ESPN+) when it makes the 53-mile trek south to Providence, Rhode Island, to face Brown.
Quick Hits
- The Crimson opened the Andrew Aurich era last week with a decisive 35-0 home victory over Stetson. The blanking was Harvard's first in a season opener since 2004, when it defeated Holy Cross by the same margin on Sept. 18, 2004. The shutout was also the Crimson's first since Oct. 17, 2015, when it earned a 42-0 win at Lafayette.
- Harvard limited the Hatters to 101 yards of total offense, which was tied for the second-fewest yards allowed by a Crimson defense since 1996 (at Bucknell, 1996). Harvard allowed 90 yards of total offense to Yale in 2008, which is the program's top mark since '96.
- The Crimson held Stetson to 85 yards passing, which was its 10th fewest allowed in a single game since 1996. Its 5.67 yards allowed per completion was also the 14th-lowest average allowed in an FCS game this season (through Sept. 22).
- Quarterback Jaden Craig finished with 217 yards passing and a career-high three touchdowns in two-and-a-half quarters of action vs. Stetson. On the receiving end of those TD passes were Scott Woods II (43 yards), Ryan Osborne (24 yards) and Cooper Barkate (25 yards), who finished with a team-high four catches for 76 yards. Running back Shane McLaughlin added a 4-yard rushing TD as part of his 68-yard rushing day.
- Linebacker Mitchell Gonser picked off his first career pass in the first quarter against the Hatters and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown. The score propelled Harvard to a 21-0 lead with 8:01 left in the period. The senior added a team-high seven tackles, including one for a loss of three yards. For his performance, Gonser was named Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week for the first time of his career.
- Harvard's dominant victory over Stetson extended a number of lengthy win streaks. The Crimson has now won four straight season openers, 13 consecutive home season openers, nine in a row vs. unranked non-league foes, nine straight in the month of September, and seven consecutive at Harvard Stadium.
- The Crimson has been one of the elite programs nationally in games played on the road. Since 1996, Harvard ranks second among current FCS programs in road winning percentage (.706; 89-37), trailing only North Dakota State (.731; 79-29). Since the start of the 2021 campaign, the Crimson is 11-3 on the road (.790).
- Harvard heads to Brown looking to extend its 12-game series winning streak, including five in a row on the road. The Crimson last played in Providence in 2022 -- a 35-28 win -- but Saturday will mark just its second appearance in The Renaissance City since 2018. The schools' every-other-year rotation was put to end by the global pandemic in 2020.
- The Crimson enters its clash with Brown as a team receiving votes in both major FCS top-25 polls. Harvard is the eighth team out of the AFCA rankings (top Ivy school), effectively 33rd nationally (19 points). In the Stats Perform poll, the Crimson is 10 spots back (19 points) from No. 25, and the second Ivy behind Columbia, which is just in front of Harvard with 21 points.
