FOOTBALL 06: Close Vote Means Easy Decision

Three votes.

That’s all that separated the two highest vote-getters at the Harvard football team’s annual awards dinner last November, following the Crimson’s unforgettable 30-24 triple-overtime triumph over Yale.

Just three votes, and maybe the team would have perhaps avoided part of the intense scrutiny that came with the most chaotic offseason in recent memory. But while those three votes didn’t seem to matter at first, they made the difference in selecting Ryan Tully as the new 133rd captain of Harvard football.

“It was real simple,” Crimson coach Tim Murphy says. “He was sort of the vice president.”

Tully originally served as vice president to the presidency of Matt Thomas. But the former captain was dismissed from the team in June following assault charges against his ex-girlfriend, charges that made national news somewhat unfamiliar for a team relegated to the only conference that’s not postseason eligible in all of college football.

Still, to Tully, that in no way puts a damper on what is arguably the most sacred title in all of Harvard football. When the Crimson opened up the 2006 season against Holy Cross, the Crusaders sent four guys running to the ‘H’ at midfield for the coin toss. There to greet them? Only one.

“It’s an honor, the fact that we only have one captain,” Tully says. “You’re kind of the face of the team…you kind of take things to the coach, you’re kind of in the middle between the team and the coaches. You represent both sides.”

Though he serves a middle ground between both sides of the proverbial Harvard coin, it’s the players who have done the most to shape Tully, and vice versa.

“I’ve had the best role models to learn from, starting with my freshman year,” Tully says. “Every guy’s had their own style, but you try to learn from them all. I just try to lead by example, by being a hard worker on and off the field, and I think guys respected that.”

“Ryan Tully has been huge stepping up,” says former starting quarterback Chris Pizzotti. “He’s a great captain, everything you want in a captain. He’s kind of the emotional leader of our team.”

Considering the amount of respect between Tully and his teammates, and Tully’s respect for his predecessors, the coaching staff took a very hands-off approach during the re-selection process.

“It was more or less the players’ decision,” Murphy says of Tully being named captain, “although it would have been an easy one for the coaches as well.”

The respect for Tully similarly mirrors that for Thomas, who, before his dismissal, was an emotional locker room presence in addition to the anchor of the Crimson’s linebacking core. Now it’s Tully’s turn to do the same.

“It was obviously bittersweet after losing a guy like Matt, who was great for this team,” Tully says. “I kind of saw myself taking a leadership role with the team, even if Matt was still here. It’s an honor to have the title now, but it really hasn’t changed a whole lot of what I planned on doing.”

What has changed for Harvard is its depth at linebacker. Tully now serves as one of only two seniors at the position, but through the Crimson’s opener against Holy Cross, they’ve filled in rather nicely. Sophomore inside linebacker Eric Schultz holds the team lead in tackles with eight, while Tully himself picked off an errant Crusader pass to go along with five tackles of his own.

“We’re kind of young other than me—we have two sophomores in the middle and then I’m on the outside,” Tully says. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think we had a little bit of a target on our chest after everybody else in the league saw that we lost Matt, [but] the two young guys who we have have really matured pretty quickly.”

Tully himself went through a maturation process when he arrived at Harvard. The Norfolk, Mass. native played all over the field in high school, focusing on running back. With the Crimson’s all-time leading rusher arriving at the same time as Tully, it made it pretty unlikely that he’d get any reps at tailback.

No matter his position, it’s undeniable that Tully’s presence has helped with Harvard’s tumultuous couple of months.

“When you get a kid like Ryan Tully, who’s universally respected by all the players and the coaches, then it’s a little bit easier,” Murphy says. “I think he’s made a potentially difficult situation as good as we can possibly ask for.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.