Crimson, White Battle in Spring Game

With spring ball over, the Harvard football team enters the summer with many questions left unanswered.

In Harvard Stadium on Saturday night, the Crimson showcased some of its offseason work in its annual spring game. With a 15-minute running clock in all quarters and changing lineups on both the “Crimson” and “White” teams throughout, both sides struggled to string together cohesive drives.

The first half was dominated largely by passing plays as both sides moved in a fast-paced offense, but the quarterbacks struggled to find a rhythm. On multiple occasions, there appeared to be miscommunication between quarterback and receiver.

Rising junior Connor Hempel, whom Harvard coach Tim Murphy currently lists at the top of the quarterback depth chart with rising senior Michael Pruneau still held out of full practice while recovering from a knee injury, led the Crimson team and finished 13-of-22 for 113 yards. While rising sophomore Tanner Wrisley called plays for the White team for much of the game, the fourth quarter saw a few snaps for rising sophomores Jimmy Meyer and Scott Hosch.

After missing much of the 2012 season with a hand injury, rising junior Seitu Smith became Hempel’s favorite target in the second half, hanging on to a 23-yard pass to start the second half. Smith, along with rising senior Cameron Brate and rising junior Tyler Hamblin, dubbed by Murphy as recently-drafted Kyle Juszcyzk’s replacement, led the receiving corps for the first-team offense. Along with rising sophomore Andrew Fischer, Murphy notes that the group brings speed to the wideout position and stability to the tight end spots, keys to the two-tight-end offense that Harvard ran with historical success last year with Juszczyk and Brate at tight end.

“We had the unusual luxury of having not one, but two great tight ends, two All-American tight ends, two NFL-caliber tight ends [last year],” Murphy said. “We thought we’d be going back to 11-personnel this year with guys like [rising senior] Andrew Berg, [rising senior] Ricky Zorn, Seitu Smith, but Tyler Hamblin has been so efficient in spring football…. He seems to pick up things so easily, he’s so conscientious, so I don’t know if we’re going to have the full effect that we had with Kyle, but right now, we haven’t changed anything because [Hamblin] has given us the luxury of just picking up where we left off.”

Both touchdowns scored in the game, which represented the only points tallied by either team, happened in the span of less than a minute during the second quarter on running plays. The White team, led by Wrisley, got on the scoreboard first. The rookie corralled a high snap from rising junior Anthony Fabiano and scrambled seven yards into the end zone.

Two plays later, rising sophomore tailback Paul Stanton Jr. showed off his speed in the open field, exploding on a 74-yard touchdown run to knot the score at seven apiece.

Rising junior Andrew Casten also displayed sparks of speed and power, running over rising sophomore Scott Peters on one scamper and breaking multiple tackles on other runs.

Zach Boden, who will likely be relied upon in the absence of outgoing running back Treavor Scales, did not play in the spring game.

“Do we have a Treavor Scales, a Gino Gordon, a Clifton Dawson?” Murphy said. “I don’t know, but we’re really bullish on guys like Zach Boden and Paul Stanton…so again, we feel very comfortable that we’re going to have a very solid running back corps.”

With Jack Holuba graduating, another question seems to come at the center position, where Fabiano and rising senior David Leopard looked to fill the role Saturday but struggled to consistently deliver snaps to quarterbacks in the shotgun formation.

On the other side of the ball, rising senior Luke Zelon excelled, recording 1.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles, pressuring quarterbacks on both sides into throwing the ball away and forcing throws into coverage. Coming off a successful sophomore campaign, rising junior defensive end Zach Hodges recorded four tackles Saturday.

“We’re not going to have the luxury of having the type of depth [at defensive end] we had a year ago,” Murphy said. “I think [rising senior] Danny Frate’s got the edge now, but guys like [rising senior]Austin Taylor, rising sophomore Dan Moody and others—Luke Zelon—are all going to be competing, but it clearly won’t have the type of quality depth that we had a year ago.”

Along the defensive line and throughout the roster, Murphy acknowledged that disjointedness is not rare in spring football as players begin filling new roles.

“You come out that first week, and 20-plus seniors are gone, the core of your leadership is gone, so it doesn’t just seamlessly translate early on,” Murphy said. “It seems like, ‘Wow, we’re really average,’ and then, slowly but surely, some of the question marks get answered.”

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samanthalin@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @linsamnity.