Football Looks for Third Straight Title

When the Harvard football team takes to the gridiron this Saturday, it will have been 301 days since the squad closed out its perfect 2014 season.

And yet, nearly a year later, the scene in the University of Rhode Island’s Meade Stadium will look remarkably familiar.

Harvard has taken three of the last four Ivy championships, including the 2013 and 2014 titles. With a plethora of returning starters, the Crimson is the preseason favorite to repeat again. Of the 22 starters that helped produce just the third undefeated season in a century, 14 are back—seven on offense, seven on defense.

“Obviously, we set the bar high,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “We have quite a few starters from an outstanding team a year ago…. We have the expectations at least to be a very solid football team that can compete for a championship.”

After junior quarterback Joseph Viviano was sidelined two weeks ago with a broken foot, senior playcaller Scott Hosch—who had been competing with Viviano throughout the preseason for the job—was named the starter, a position he is well-acquainted with.

Named the backup quarterback in preseason last year, Hosch was called under center when then-starter Conner Hempel ’15 was injured in the season opener. The then-junior went on to start six games, including the penultimate matchup at Penn, where the team clinched a share of the Ancient Eight title.

Hosch’s supporting cast knows a thing or two about playing under pressure. Senior wideout Andrew Fischer became a fixture in Yale nightmares last year when he scored the game-winning touchdown with under a minute left in The Game to complete Harvard’s 10-0 season. Fischer, who had a breakout season in 2014 with 1,298 all-purpose yards and 677 yards receiving, is joined in the receiving corps by classmate Seitu Smith, as well as rookie Justice Shelton-Mosely, tabbed the College Sports Madness Preseason National Freshman of the Year.

“Those guys can make plays,” Hosch said. “All I have to do is get them the ball in time and just put them in a position to make plays.”

Also returning is senior running back Paul Stanton, who with a full season ahead of him already sits at fourth and seventh in the Harvard record books for career rushing touchdowns and rushing yards, respectively. Behind a veteran offensive line that brings back three seniors in Anthony Fabiano, Cole Toner, and Adam Redmond, it will be unsurprising if Stanton continues to rise in the ranks.

If there had been a question mark for the team at this time last year, it was on the other side of the ball. By the culmination of the 2014 season, however, the answer was not only good enough to top the Ivy League, but yielded the top defense in the FCS in points allowed and sacks.

A year later, there are few questions. The young secondary group of last season has become the experienced backfield of the defense; all three starting linebackers return, including captain Matt Koran, who in November became the 11th consecutive defensive captain. Even the line, which has the least game-time experience of the defense, features juniors and seniors two deep at almost every position.

“I think us being a veteran group is going to make the game so much easier, make the play slow down, and we’re just going to be one unit out there, flying around, making plays, getting better,” Koran said.

Harvard struggled on special teams in 2014, finishing sixth and eighth in the league in field goal percentage and average punt distance, respectively. Kicker Kenny Smart and punter Zach Schmid, both sophomores, will be taking up kicking duties this season.

Between an undefeated record, ESPN’s GameDay kicking off a thrilling version of The Game, and another championship in the books, last season’s performance would be a Herculean task for any team to follow.

But the 2015 rendition of Harvard football, similar as it may be to the 2014 version, has its eyes looking forward.

“This is a new year, a new season,” Hosch said. “There are always high expectations here. We always expect to win every game, but we’re only focused on this game, this year. Whatever happened in the past, this is a new team.”