Football Notebook: Football's Schedule is a Killer

After Saturday's 27-25 loss to Holy Cross, Harvard football Coach Tim Murphy criticized the new trend in Ivy League scheduling that--for the first time in 25 seasons--forced his young football team of 16 new starters to open against a non-league opponent with a game already under its belt.

From 1976 to 1999, the Crimson opened its season against traditional Ivy League doormat Columbia. Because Ivy teams play only ten games as opposed to eleven-plus per season, they start a week later than all other Division One schools. Another disadvantage in scheduling a non-league opener, up until 1994, was the Ivy League's lack of spring practices.

Now that the spring practice system has been in place for six years, other Ivy programs have grown more confident in their ability to open outside of the conference, but the one-week delay before the start of the Ivy season is still a glaring handicap, and Harvard administrative rules--which bar freshmen from practicing during the week before the season opener--augment the problem.

"It makes no sense to [open] with a nonleague game," Murphy said. "I'd much rather play Columbia where they have the same number of practices as us."

Harvard wasn't alone among Ivy teams struggling in their nonleague openers. Against the Patriot League, the Ivy League went just 1-5 on Saturday, as opposed to 11-8 over all of last year.

Against the middle-tier teams of the Patriot League--Lafayette, Holy Cross, and Bucknell--Ivy teams were 5-2 last season, but winless in three tries this weekend.

While in the early going Ivy League teams have suffered from the scheduling maladies, the Patriot League teams have reaped all of the benefits. Crusader Coach Dan Allen recognizes what his first victory over Harvard in five tries means for the future of his football team.

"Harvard's got a very good football team, they're very talented, and I think they're going to have a very good year--there's no doubt about that--but to beat them on their home field is a tremendous feat for our program," Allen said.

Losing to Holy Cross at home does not help Harvard in its local recruiting wars. Gone now is the sales pitch that says the Crusaders haven't beaten the Crimson since 1995. Such success against Holy Cross can be crucial in winning players like Harvard sophomore safety Niall Murphy, whose family legacy seemed to destine him to be a Crusader.

Opening against Holy Cross would not be in the best interests of the Harvard football program if the relative strengths of the two programs continue to be distorted by the schedule.

Defensive Gems

One of the biggest question marks going into the game was how the Crimson defense would perform with only three returning starters. Although Harvard was victimized by the rushing attack of quarterback Brian Hall, the defense was otherwise solid.

Harvard did not allow a pass reception longer than 11 yards to any Holy Cross wide receiver and held the top Holy Cross running backs to just 72 yards on 25 carries.

"I thought our defense played well overall," Murphy said. "Under the circumstances I thought we hung in there. The fundamentals were pretty solid."

It was a big day for the defensive line duo of senior R.D. Kern and junior Phil Scherrer. The two teamed up to kill the Crusaders' first drive of the day into Harvard territory. On first-and-5 from the Harvard 38, Kern rolled over his lineman and nailed Hall for a seven-yard loss. On the subsequent play, Hall momentarily bobbled the ball while rolling left. Scherrer, taking advantage of the distraction, managed to get into Hall's face just as he recovered and sacked him for a five-yard loss.

On the opening play of Holy Cross's second drive in the third quarter, Kern and Scherrer teamed up again for the first Crusader turnover of the day. Upon penetrating the backfield, Kern downed Crusader back Giancarlo Cerrigone, and the ball popped up towards the hands of Scherrer. Showing quick reflexes, Scherrer grabbed hold of the ball and returned it three yards to the Crusader 18. The play would lead to Harvard's second touchdown of the day.

Unfortunately for Scherrer, his day would be marred by his failure to bring down Hall one-on-one in the backfield on Hall's game-breaking 54-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

Kern finished with an astounding 17 tackles, as many as any pair of Harvard players combined. He also had three of Harvard's four sacks on the day. No Harvard player had more sacks or more tackles in any single game last season.

"Going in R.D. has to be our best player on defense," Murphy said. "He's one of the two or three best defensive tackles in the Ivy League, a three year starter, and he's one of only two starters returning from last year, so he's got to be our big tough, and stop that run. He was all over the field."

The Harvard secondary was equally as impressive as the defensive line. A big contribution came from a player who wasn't even listed in the starting lineup--sophomore safety Eric LaHaie. When the Crusaders realized that it was absolutely futile to run up the middle against the Harvard, they resorted to pitching the ball wide, allowing their running backs to find the open field. But LaHaie, a former track star, had the ability to streak across field and cut off the Crusader backs before they could dart down the sidelines.

"Eric's a kid I thought who really was a catalyst for some of the big hits," Murphy said. "And I think he saved a couple first downs, third downs where they needed first downs. He made some great plays."

LaHaie was also a big part of Harvard's nickel coverage. The starting secondary of Niall Murphy, junior Willie Alford, senior Mike Brooks, and junior Andy Fried did not allow a long passing play the entire day.

"Right now our secondary is really a strength," Murphy said. "With as much three or four wide receiver sets as you're going to see, your nickel team is a big part of your defense and we're fortunate to have five or six of these guys."

The two long passes Hall completed were both to tight end Nate Robbins - one was the 32-yarder where Robbins was left wide open on the final play of the game, and on the other play Harvard junior linebacker Mike Cataldo stayed with Robbins on the fly all the way downfield. The 31-yard completion was only made possible by a perfect pass from Hall.

It was hardly a successful game for Brooks, even though he proved himself capable of returning a blocked kick for a score for the second consecutive game. Brooks let a sure touchdown go right through his hands early on in the game. He also overran Hall on a wide-open blitz, and was nowhere to be found on Hall's long touchdown run.

Backfield Breakthrough

Sophomore Matt Leiszler put Harvard back in the game with a 31-yard touchdown run at the end of the first half that cut the score to 14-10. With the injuries he went through in the off-season, for Leiszler to even be playing in the season opener was a big accomplishment.

The spring before Leiszler reported to Harvard, he had reconstructive knee surgery. And on the first day of his freshman preseason, he re-injured himself and needed surgery on the same knee.

"I thought Matt Leiszler did a tremendous job," Murphy said. "I talked to our team about him as a great example of perseverance and fighting through adversity. I'm always looking for kids who can do that because they have a tendency to play a level up as opposed to some guys who won't ever have a chance to fight through adversity and won't know how to deal with it. That was a very gutsy effort by Matt today."