March to the Sea: Murphy Made the Right Decision

Hindsight’s 20/20, Brenda Lee. It’s easy to second guess Harvard coach Tim Murphy’s decision to replace Garrett Shires with Ryan Fitzpatrick now. Dartmouth won. Fitzpatrick re-injured his hand. Nothing went right.

But was it the correct decision at the time? Yes.

Harvard was struggling. Down 16-9 at the half, Murphy decided to give Schires one more shot to right the ship. In the first half, Shires had done a good job of moving Harvard down the field but threw a costly interception at the goal line and was not connecting on his passes efficiently. He finished the game 14-of-25 for only 134 yards, his worst outing of the season.

When Schires failed to put Harvard in the end zone to start the third, Murphy decided the time was right to bring in his best player, Fitzpatrick.

The junior stalwart played one series at the beginning of the second quarter as well but was only on the field for a couple of minutes.

Fitzpatrick is not only Harvard’s most dynamic offensive weapon but was also arguably the best offensive player in all of Division 1-AA through the first four games of the season. He was first in the nation in total offense and passing efficiency and was a strong candidate to win the Payton Award, given to the country’s best offensive player.

Though he had not played since breaking his hand in the third quarter against Cornell on October 11, Fitzpatrick practiced with the team prior to Dartmouth and was ready to go if needed, claiming his hand was “100 percent.”

So with Harvard trailing, Murphy thought it was time to reintroduce the league’s premiere player.

Even if Fitzpatrick wasn’t 100 percent ready, Murphy likely thought his presence alone would change the momentum of the game. Though Schires had played well in his limited action this season, he does not possess the dynamic running threat of Fitzpatrick.

In his four games to begin the season, Fitzpatrick was averaging over 80 yards a game on the ground. So, even if his passing game was rusty, Murphy likely believed that Fitzpatrick could change the game on his feet. This would make Dartmouth alter its defense, which was beginning to get the upper hand on the Crimson.

Dartmouth coach John Lyons, of course, was also aware that Fitzpatrick had not played in nearly three weeks. But unlike any other coach this season, he was able to make defensive adjustments to stop Fitzpatrick on the ground.

Did Murphy know Fitzpatrick would only pick up 39 yards on 16 carries, his worst effort of the year by far? Of course not.

Did he know Fitzpatrick would throw two interceptions, more than he had ever thrown in a game before? If he did, Schires would have stayed in.

Now, the critics will say that Murphy should have seen it coming. “Fitzy was injured. He was rusty,” they’ll cry. “Just pick one QB and go with it!”

But if Fitzpatrick comes on to the field and dominates, like he had been doing all season long, Brenda and I are writing about LeBron and Carmelo this week because this isn’t even an issue.

This isn’t the same as Grady not pulling Pedro, who had a track record of struggling late in games. Fitzpatrick was an unknown. Murphy took a chance. It backfired.

If Schires had remained in the game, would Harvard have won? The way the defense gave up the big pass repeatedly, probably not.

Obviously, Murphy would never have played Fitzpatrick if he thought he was in great jeopardy of hurting his hand again.

The two biggest games of the season are still to come—Penn and Yale. Murphy was fully aware of that. But given that Fitzpatrick had practiced and been fine, he felt it was worth the risk. As New York Jets coach Herm Edwards once said, “you play to win the games.” And playing Fitzpatrick was Harvard’s best shot at winning.

When Fitzpatrick entered the game, did you really expect him to commit three turnovers? Admit it, you were surprised.

Instead, you thought he’d lead Harvard to victory, just as he did time and time again last season in relief of Neil Rose.

So why blame Murphy for playing the most dominant offensive player in the Ivy League—the one guy, on any team, that can completely take over a game.

If Fitzpatrick can’t play against Penn, it will be a shame. But I still won’t blame the coach for trying to win.

—Staff writer Alex M. Sherman can be reached at sherman@fas.harvard.edu.