Crimson Heads North To Face Resurgent Big Green

Dartmouth hasn’t posed much of a challenge for Harvard football in recent years.

Over the past five seasons, the Crimson has dominated its Ivy League rivals, going 5-0 and outscoring the Big Green by an average of over 22 points per game.

But tomorrow in Hanover, N.H., Harvard (4-2, 2-1 Ivy) could find things significantly tougher against a much-improved Dartmouth (4-2, 1-2) squad.

“They’ve grown up,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said of the opposition. “They’re a big, physical, aggressive team. When they were competitive a year ago, they just couldn’t finish; now they’ve finished games...They have the people, the personnel, and the scheme to play with anybody in our league. It’s clear they’re the most improved team.”

The Crimson’s chances for success will begin at quarterback. After senior Andrew Hatch threw two interceptions last week against Princeton, he was benched in favor of junior Collier Winters—2009’s second-team All-Ivy QB—who made an unexpected return to action after missing the season’s first five contests with a torn labrum.

Murphy said Winters would get the call tomorrow­—making him the team’s third starting quarterback this season–and for the foreseeable future.

“Collier’s our guy,” Murphy said. “We don’t foresee any circumstances where that would change.”

Winters will look for continued reliable play from sophomore tight end Kyle Juszczyk, who has 11 receptions and three touchdowns in his past two games. Junior wideout Adam Chrissis leads the team with 251 receiving yards on the year.

But Harvard hasn’t had to rely on its passing game very much in recent weeks, thanks to the superb play of running back duo Gino Gordon and Treavor Scales.

Gordon rushed for 204 yards against the Tigers—his fourth consecutive hundred-plus yard effort—propelling him into the league’s lead in yards and earning him Ivy Player of the Week honors. The senior ranks second nationally with 7.8 yards-per-carry and is the Crimson’s all-time leader in that statistic.

“Gino is arguably the premier player in our league this year, and one of the premier players in the country in the FCS,” Murphy said.

Scales added a career-high 134 yards against Princeton, placing him second in the conference and 10th in the nation in yards-per-carry. The running game will try to control the ball against a Big Green squad that has only averaged 27 minutes of possession per contest on the year.

“We started off as a pass-first team, but lately we’ve been a run-first team, and now we intend to be a balanced team,” Murphy said. “We’re going to make people defend all aspects of our offense...we like to be in a position where we can dictate what we want to do.”

Dartmouth has a solid running game of its own, led by junior Nick Schwieger, who leads the Ancient Eight with 141.8 yards per game and seven scores. Classmate Connor Kempe has provided stability at quarterback, throwing for 180 yards per game and seven touchdowns. The duo is protected by a strong offensive line that has only allowed one sack this season.

“First and foremost our plan is to stop the run,” junior cornerback Matthew Hanson said. “That’s always our plan of attack–to stop the run and make our opponent one-dimensional.”

The Big Green offense has combined for 27.2 points per game, second in the Ancient Eight to Harvard’s 29.7.

But the Dartmouth defense has been another story, allowing 22.8 points and a league-high 232.8 passing yards per contest.

These struggles are the reason Dartmouth has already lost two close league games to Penn and Yale. Cornerback Shawn Abuhoff leads Dartmouth with three interceptions.

The Crimson defense, led by captain Collin Zych and defensive end Benjamin Graeff, ranks second in the Ivy after Penn. Graeff leads the conference with five sacks while Zych is fifth with 55 tackles. But the team has allowed nearly 25 points per game in conference play.

“Our concern is not just to stop the run, its to stop their offense,” Murphy said. “We’ve got to be much more disciplined on the back-end of our defense if we’re going to beat Dartmouth.”

The game—which will be televised on NESN—will represent the 114th meeting between the rivals, and Harvard is 12-1 in its previous 13 games against the Big Green. But the Crimson knows that this year’s Dartmouth squad—whose four wins are already its second-most in 13 years—cannot be taken lightly.

“They’re definitely better,” Hanson said. “Just watching the film, they’re a very balanced team. They execute their game plan well. We’ve just got to play our style of football and not make mistakes.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.