Murphy Breaks All-Time Wins Record as Harvard Tops Columbia, 35-21

They say records are meant to be broken, but someone might want to tell the Harvard football team that doesn’t necessarily mean every week.

While the 2011 Crimson offense has established itself as one of the best in Harvard history over the past few games, and though the Crimson defense has put together numerous dominant performances recently, it was their coach’s turn to take his place in the Harvard record books on Saturday.

With Harvard’s 35-21 victory over Columbia, Tim Murphy won his 118th game at the helm of the Crimson, breaking the all-time mark set by his predecessor, Joe Restic.

“To me, it’s not a personal achievement,” said a humbled Murphy, who also won his 150th career game today. “It really is a reflection of the hundreds of Harvard football players and the dozens of assistant coaches who won those games. If it wasn’t for the tremendous support of our alumni and our administration on both sides of the river, it wouldn’t have happened.”

To help him break the record, Murphy relied on his offense once again, and the unit continued to shine.

Though the Crimson failed to put together its fifth straight 40-plus point week—it would’ve been the first time since 1888 that feat had been achieved—Harvard’s 35 points were more than enough to top the lowly Lions (0-8, 0-5 Ivy), who remained winless while the Crimson (7-1, 5-0) won its seventh straight.

After an error-filled first half in which Harvard succumbed to numerous false starts, lost a fumble, and had an interception returned for a touchdown, the Crimson offense found its groove in the third quarter.

It was the defense that got things started early in the period, when senior cornerback Brian Owusu intercepted Columbia quarterback Sean Brackett at the Lions 35 and returned it to the 24. Freshman halfback Zach Boden went to work from there, running powerfully towards the goal line on back-to-back carries of 12 and 11 yards. Senior quarterback Collier Winters finished the drive with a one-yard QB sneak for the score, putting the Crimson up, 21-14.

After Columbia went three-and-out on its next drive, Harvard took over at its 48 and immediately ran a double-reverse to senior wideout Adam Chrissis, who picked up 11. On the next play, Winters went deep to classmate Chris Lorditch, and the receiver made a leaping catch over a Columbia defensive back on a slightly-underthrown ball, then cut back and darted by two would-be tacklers for an impressive 41-yard touchdown.

Harvard would score again on its next drive early in the fourth quarter, with Winters hitting junior Kyle Juszczyk on a short pass. The tight end did the rest, breaking a tackle, slipping by another defender, and darting down the right sideline and into the end zone for another 41-yard score to put Harvard up, 35-14.

“It was a five-yard speed out,” Juszczyk said. “I’m always thankful to get in the open field, because a lot of time the guys are smaller than me, and I’m able to take advantage of that.”

The Lions tried to get back in the game on their next possession, with Brackett, a dual-threat quarterback, rushing for 20 yards on second-and-12 and later a 19-yard touchdown scamper to cut the Crimson lead to two scores.

But Harvard would not let it get any closer than that, stopping Columbia on fourth down from the Crimson 22 on the Lions’ subsequent possession to all but end the game.

“[Columbia] made everything hard today,” Murphy said. “They’re a good football team, they made us very uncomfortable, they made us squirm ... [But] I’m proud of how we responded in the second half. We played with poise, we played really hard, and we executed pretty well.”

As has occurred numerous times this season, the game began with an opposing offense moving the ball with ease against the Harvard defense. On Saturday, the Lions went 67 yards in 12 plays in the contest’s opening drive, capping the series with a powerful 12-yard Griffin Lowry touchdown run to put Columbia up early.

Winters brought his team right back down the field, beginning the Crimson’s opening possession with three consecutive completions to sophomore Cameron Brate, classmate Matt Brown, and Lorditch to bring the ball into Columbia territory. But three straight Crimson false starts and two incompletions would set the Crimson back to a third-and-25 from the Harvard 39.

From there, Winters went back to his favorite target, connecting with Lorditch on a perfect pass off a flag route, and the senior kept his feet in bounds for a 29-yard completion and a first down. Then, Winters hit Juszczyk for 19 yards and Chrissis for five before going back to his junior tight end for a 15-yard touchdown to cap a drive on which he was 8-of-10 and Harvard did not attempt a run.

“Winters is phenomenal,” Columbia coach Norries Wilson said. “[Juszczyk] played great today, gave us fits all game.”

But early in the second quarter, Winters made a big mistake. After the quarterback brought the Crimson down to the Columbia 16 with passes of 19 yards to sophomore Andrew Berg and 43 yards to Lorditch, the senior tried to throw an out that Columbia cornerback Ross Morand read perfectly, jumped, and returned for an 87-yard score.

“We did a very poor job of taking care of the football,” Murphy said. “That was probably the sloppiest half of football we’ve had all year.”

But the resilient quarterback would lead his team back down the field on its next drive, completing two passes to Jusczcyk and a 21-yarder to Brown to set up a five-yard touchdown run by junior Treavor Scales that tied the game at 14 before the break.

Winters would finish 20-of-30 for 323 yards and three touchdowns, with Jusczcyk (seven catches for 118 yards) and Lorditch (four for 123) each eclipsing the century mark in receiving.

Those performances helped Murphy get his record-setting win, a feat he accomplished in his 18th season—five years faster than Restic.

“When you get into coaching, you don’t think about records,” Murphy said. “I’m more into the process, more into the journey, and the journey’s been great.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.