THE COMMISH: Winning Attitude Simply Absent

ITHACA, N.Y.—There’s an attitude that comes with being a winner.

A swagger, a cockiness—even an arrogance. There’s a feeling that no matter what the circumstances or adversity, the team—collectively—will figure out a way to break through and win.

Somewhere between last weekend’s loss at Harvard Stadium to Lehigh and this weekend’s disappointment in Ithaca, the Harvard football team lost that attitude.

Think back to last year. Remember the Ivy opener against Brown. The Crimson was down 21 at the half and yet stormed out of the locker room after the break as though it was a different game. Remember after the game—which Harvard came back to win 35-34—how one player after another talked about how there was no way the team was going to lose that game. No one was going to let it happen.

Better yet, recall the start of this season. First at Holy Cross, when the Crimson was down 20-14 at the half only to beat the Crusaders convincingly 31-21, and then just two weeks ago when Harvard once again overcame an early deficit against the Bears and won a thrilling 38-35 double-overtime marathon.

Those teams had the swagger. The team that took the field on Saturday in Ithaca did not.

This isn’t the responsibility of any individual. You certainly can’t pin it on sophomore quarterback Liam O’Hagan. After all, he was the architect of the Crimson’s two dramatic comebacks earlier this year and has since lost his top three receivers.

You can’t point at junior tailback Clifton Dawson either. Sure the All-American hasn’t been as dominating as last year. But he’s routinely facing defenses crowding the line and neither he nor Tim Murphy will ever talk about how banged up he is.

And how about Murphy? What, did he just forget how to coach? Unlikely.

An attitude isn’t the responsibility of a single individual. It’s just got to be there naturally for the entire team.

Right now, for Harvard it’s not.

Murphy admitted as much last week when he said that practice was “not great from what I call attitude standards in terms of level of enthusiasm and confidence.”

Somehow, in a single loss to a very quality opponent in Lehigh, the Crimson seemed to transform from a confident team that knew it was going to win to a team that hopes it will win.

Maybe I’m wrong. I’m not in the locker room. I don’t know what’s truly said or what’s truly felt. Maybe it’s all a matter of simple execution.

As Murphy said after the game: “I’m more concerned with what’s going on on the field than on the sideline. And we’re not getting it done on the field in the last five quarters of football.”

Maybe, but from someone who has a pretty good view of the sideline every week, it sure looks like something’s changed.

Senior linebacker Matt Thomas, usually the ring leader in celebration and cheering, appeared alone in his enthusiasm. The Crimson sideline looked pensive—even downtrodden.

Harvard has the talent to turn this season back around and still make a serious charge at the Ivy title.

Dawson is still the best back in the league and probably the country, and O’Hagan is still one of the most talented and exciting quarterbacks in the league.

But for the Crimson to get back on track, the team—as a group—must find that attitude that it lost on the field against Lehigh.

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