Brown Serves First Test for Football in Bid for Third Straight Title

The last time that Harvard football competed on its home field, the date was November 22, 2014. The opponent was Yale. The result was historic.

Those memories may still linger—but not for much longer.

This Saturday in Cambridge, the Crimson (1-0) will finally fill Harvard Stadium with a new set of sights and sounds when it faces off against Brown (0-1) in both teams’ league opener.

At the 7 p.m. kickoff Harvard will consign the last remnants of 2014 to the past, but what will remain are lofty expectations and loftier goals—in particular the goal of winning a third consecutive Ancient Eight title. No Crimson squad has ever achieved that feat.

“We won the last two, se we have a target on our backs,” said junior wide receiver Joseph Foster. “People know that. We have to come out motivated and hungry, ready to get after it again.”

The first obstacle to three-peat excellence is a deep Bears squad that returns a slew of crucial starters from last year’s 5-5 finish.

Perhaps the most crucial is quarterback Marcus Fuller. A fifth-year senior, Fuller successfully petitioned to earn an extra year of eligibility after a junior-year injury condemned him to watching from the bench.

After that year of inactivity, Fuller exploded onto the scene during the 2014 campaign. He racked up 2,618 yards and 15 touchdowns, good for third in the Ivy League in both categories.

“A year later, he’s a much more polished quarterback,” Crimson coach Tim Murphy said. “The ball’s going to be in the air a lot on Saturday night.”

To complement Fuller, Brown returns running backs Andrew Coke and Seth Rosenbauer, a pair of juniors who saw significant game action last year.

Still the Bears show signs of being a pass-first offense. In the first game of the 2015 season, Fuller threw 403 yards on a whopping 52 attempts.

That effort wasn’t enough to prevent a slouching effort from Brown, which lost to Bryant, 20-16, at home.

Last Saturday, the Bears committed four turnovers in the red zone, including a backbreaking interception in the end zone in the final minute. Fuller threw another interception in the first quarter, and Brown lost three fumbles, two of which came in the red zone.

“They tend to be the team that, at times, looks dysfunctional in their opener,” Murphy said. “But when they show up for their game against Harvard, they look like the Patriots.”

Indeed, in last year’s matchup, the Crimson went down 14-6 midway through the third quarter before rallying for three straight scores and a 22-14 win. That was the closest margin of victory for Harvard all season, aside from a 31-24 triumph in The Game.

In 2014 the Brown contest marked the first start in Scott Hosch’s career; in 2015 he enters the matchup one weekend after putting up career bests with 336 passing yards and three touchdowns. Propelled by that performance, the Crimson beat Rhode Island, 41-10.

If Hosch wants a repeat performance, then he will have to overcome Brown’s defensive line, a group that returns over 100 tackles of talent. Defensive captain Zach Sparber, a second super-senior, will lead that unit.

The Bears’ defensive line is experienced but also aggressive, and the Crimson has spent much of the week preparing for the inevitable waves of blitzes.

“Last week they blitzed the majority of the time,” said junior running back Paul Stanton. “I know I’m going to have to step up my blocking game a lot this week.”

That said, Stanton will also be doing a fair bit of running. In 2014 he turned in 990 rushing yards, second most among Ancient Eight running backs.

The Crimson could use a continuation of this productivity today against the team that Murphy says has declared the returning champions its “biggest rival.”

“When a team says you’re the biggest rival, you know that it’s going to be a tremendously tough, competitive game,” Murphy said. “Our biggest rival is our next game, whoever it is.”

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sdanello@college.harvard.edu