Special Teams Look To Live Up to Their Name

There has been little to criticize in the Tim Murphy era of Harvard Football. Over his 10-year reign at the helm of the Crimson football program, the Harvard coach resurrected a struggling program, won two Ivy League titles—in 1997 and 2001—and made the Crimson into one of the top teams in the Ivy League year after year.

But what makes these accomplishments even more astounding is that the Murphy-led squads have routinely lacked a consistent and effective kicking game.

Over the past two seasons, Harvard kickers are a combined 6-18 on field goal attempts. This is particularly troubling considering that only one of these attempts came from farther than 40 yards.

The kicking woes got so bad last year in a 43-40 overtime victory over Princeton on Oct. 27 that Murphy admitted that he might have elected to go for it on a fourth down play in overtime rather than have either Adam Kingston ’04 or then-sophomore Jim Morocco attempt a game-tying field goal from the four-yard line.

“I was planning on not having to make that decision,” Murphy said at the time.

Fortunately for Murphy, then-junior Garrett Schires connected with classmate Rodney Byrnes for a four-yard touchdown pass on third down, making the fourth down play call only speculation.

But this year, Murphy hopes that freshman kicker Matt Schindel will make fourth down decisions much easier. Schindel, along with junior punter Mike King, will lead a largely retooled special teams unit for the Crimson that will be expected to improve markedly over its play in recent years.

“I think we’ve improved in everything [on special teams],” said Murphy of his 2004 squad. “I just feel like we’re more sound and have a little more depth at all of the special teams positions.”

Schindel will take on the largest responsibility for improving the historically weak Harvard kicking game. But the freshman says he is undaunted by the task despite hearing plenty about the kicking troubles of the past few years.

“I’ve seen the stats and saw some games last year, and pretty much everyone on the team has told me about it,” Schindel said. “I don’t really feel any added pressure being a freshman. I’ve got to go out there and do my job.”

Added Murphy: “He’s been poised. He’s done a good job, and we expect him to be an effective—a more effective kicker than we’ve had recently, even as a freshman.”

Complementing Schindel in the kicking game will be King, who will take over the primary punting duties from the departed Kingston. While Kingston struggled with his place-kicking, he averaged over 37 yards per punt last year. King will be charged with filling that void.

“I think the punt team is a strength for our team in general,” said King of the coverage squad. “I just try to make their job a little easier by keeping the ball in the air as long as possible and keep the other team’s offense in bad field position.”

Elsewhere in the special teams, the Crimson’s return teams should be strong. Senior Brian Edwards will handle the punt returning duties, and Edwards, along with sophomore Clifton Dawson and junior Corey Waller, will be the primary kick returners.

Sophomore Danny Brown, who was slated to help share the load on punt returns, tore his ACL and is out for the season. But even with Brown’s injury, Harvard looks to have a quick and potentially explosive return team to go along with what Murphy hopes will be a much-improved kicking squad.

“Our goal is to be in the upper tier of all the Ivy League teams in the context of special teams,” Murphy said. “Only time will tell, but I feel good about our special teams.”

—Staff writer David H. Stearns can be reached at stearns@fas.harvard.edu.