NOTEBOOK: Hosch on Target for TDs in Opener

HOSCH STARTS HOT

KINGSTON, R.I.—Over the month-long course of the preseason, senior quarterback Scott Hosch withstood a trial of scrutiny and second-guessing.

Despite starting and winning six of Harvard’s 10 games last season, Hosch faced quarterback competition from junior Joe Viviano in what coach Tim Murphy publicly characterized as an “even” battle.

Last week, when Murphy announced that Viviano had suffered a season-ending foot injury, suspicion took on a new form, as questions arose about whether the less mobile Hosch could match Viviano’s athleticism.

Well one of the cleanest aspects of any season opener is how quickly pregame headlines disappear. In Hosch’s case, it took just a quarter of near-flawless football to ease up initial concerns.

“The bottom line is, Scotty made very good decisions,” Murphy said. “We got very good protection, and I think later on it gave us some very good opportunities to run the football.”

In the first 15 minutes, the senior led two touchdown drives, going 9-for-11 for 154 yards. He completed the first six passes that he threw and opened the game by taking the Crimson 78 yards down the field in less than four minutes.

Many of these yards came on short tosses. Harvard dialed up five throws on its first drive, and with the exception of a down-and-out touchdown to junior tight end Ryan Halvorson, all these completions went for less than 10 yards.

“I wanted to take what they gave us at the start,” Hosch said. “We had a couple of big plays, but [there were] tight windows the whole game… I had to find the fourth and fifth guy in the progression starting early.

Hosch’s success contrasted with the early performance of Rhode Island quarterback Paul Mroz, who started 0-for-5. That streak ended when Mroz found freshman wide receiver Khayri Denny on a 62-yard crossing route early in the second quarter.

As Mroz heated up—he finished the half 6-of-14—Hosch cooled off, throwing his first interception of the season into tight third-down coverage.

Still, Hosch rode his huge first quarter to a record-setting performance, notching a career-best 336 passing yards and three touchdowns through the air.

LESS THAN AN A FOR THE D-LINE

With close to 10 minutes remaining in the second quarter, Harvard’s defensive line faced its first major test of the season.

The score stood at 14-7, the ball stood on the Crimson’s 41-yard line, and the Rams stood in power formation, hoping to cram the ball two yards forward to complete a drive-deciding fourth down.

They never got a chance. Before the ball could be snapped, the referee blew his whistle as a Harvard player jumped the line. First down, Rhode Island.

Though the Crimson produced a stop on the next set of downs, that fourth-down play stood out on an afternoon when the Harvard defensive line struggled to control the ground game. Rams running back Harold Cooper earned 95 yards on 22 carries, and Rhode Island tallied 135 rushing yards, more than it had gained in its previous two games combined.

“I thought the running back was a great back,” said captain and linebacker Matt Koran. “He was very shifty—made us miss a lot—so we’re going to have to work on the fundamentals next week.”

At the start of the preseason, the Crimson faced questions about how it would fill the 520-pound hole left by graduates Zack Hodges and Obum Obukwelu, a pair of All-Ivy defensive linemen. On Saturday, Harvard addressed this concern by shuffling through various rotations of players.

Yet this defense-by-committee approach did not limit Cooper. In the Rams’ season opener against Syracuse, the sophomore back rushed eight times only to lose one yard, but he found redemption against the Crimson defense, averaging 4.3 yards per carry.

NEW FACES MAKE IMPACT

Heading into Saturday, senior quarterback Jimmy Meyer had never thrown a pass in a college game. Neither had freshman wide receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley caught one.

All this changed with 7:16 left in the game. With Harvard controlling a 35-10 lead, Meyer dropped back to pass, and Shelton-Mosley took off down the left sideline.

A few seconds later, the precedential moment dropped into place. Meyer lofted the ball towards the pylon, and Shelton-Mosley hauled in the 37-yard strike to complete the rare first-pass, first-catch combination.

Admittedly the two players arrived at the moment from different places. Meyer is a senior play-caller who had taken snaps in four different games, although he had never thrown a pass. Slated to be a third-stringer, Meyer rose to the backup position after Viviano’s injury.

“He’s worked really hard in his four years here, and he’s brought it every year in fall camp,” Hosch said. “Just to see him have a chance to get in there and make a play like that, I was fired up.”

Meanwhile Shelton-Mosley, a true freshman, was making his first trip with the team. A West Coast recruit who had entertained offers from California, Washington, and Duke before committing to the Crimson, Shelton-Mosley arrived on campus with hushed but insistent expectations, especially after College Sports Madness named him its preseason pick for National Freshman of the Year.

For at least one play on Saturday, he showed a flash of that potential—and, in a converse way, so did the veteran Meyer.

“Everywhere we are, we have weapons,” Hosch said. “Every single guy can make a play, even the backups. Those guys are making plays too.”

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sam.danello@thecrimson.com.