Schires Directs Successful Offense

It really wasn’t the best set of circumstances for the Harvard offense on Saturday.

There was a battered offensive line, a hobbled tailback and an experienced Lafayette team with wins over Princeton and Columbia to its credit.

And, oh yeah, no Ryan Fitzpatrick.

But luckily, Harvard had the perfect ingredient to add to this recipe for disaster—Garrett Schires.

The junior back-up quarterback filled the biggest set of cleats in the Ivy League admirably, shaking off a less-than-stellar first quarter to complete 11 of his final 14 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really that nervous,” Schires said. “It’s my third year in the system, and our coaches did a great job of preparing me all week, showing a lot of different looks and things that they were going to bring.”

The preparation worked. Even when things weren’t going well—like at the end of the first half when Harvard fell behind for the first time all season—the lefty never panicked. He scrambled instead of taking sacks. He threw the ball away instead of forcing it into coverage.

It was Schires—not Fitzpatrick—who posted the team’s first interception-less showing.

“The guy who deserves most of the credit for [Harvard having no turnovers] is Garrett Schires,” Murphy said. “He did a great job in his decision making, running the team and ball security.”

And once he settled in, he didn’t pass too badly either.

Schires opened the game almost two full seasons removed from his last complete pass, which came at Columbia his freshman season. And after his first three attempts also fell incomplete, it would have been easy to implode.

But aided by a monster 218-yard output from freshman tailback Clifton Dawson, Schires made the passes when he needed to, finishing the day 12-of-20 for 201 yards and a score.

On Harvard’s 82-yard, game-clinching drive that put the Crimson up 27-20, Harvard ran eight running plays and four pass plays. Schires completed all four passes for 49 yards. It was a perfect combination—Dawson ran through the defense, and Schires ran the offense.

“The O-line did a great job and was able to open it up,” Schires said. “When a guy runs for 200 yards it makes my job a lot easier.”

But dealing with the pressure of keeping Harvard’s season perfect was anything but easy, and Schires dealt with it like a veteran.

And he credits it, of course, to learning from the best.

“I’ve been here three years, and I’ve gotten to see two great quarterbacks, Neil Rose [’02-’03] and now Ryan [Fitzpatrick], who’s an outstanding quarterback,” Schires said. “So you learn a lot just sitting on the sidelines.”

—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.