Football's Offense Looks to Deep Lineup of Skill Players

UPDATED: September 25, 2015, at 3:11 p.m.

From returning key players to maintaining game strategies to repeating season goals, the dominant theme for the 2015 Harvard football team is continuity.

Perhaps no group illustrates this trend more clearly than the collection of skill players who will catch passes, find holes, and throw blocks this season.

The continuity is staggering: Seven of the eight leading receivers from last year have returned, and the Crimson brings back the players responsible for 79 percent of its rushing yards.

Back is senior Paul Stanton, the All-Ivy rusher who averaged 110 yards per game and led Harvard with 11 touchdowns.

Back is senior wide receiver Andrew Fischer, the man who won the Harvard-Yale game by hauling in a last-minute touchdown.

Back is junior starting tight end Anthony Firkser, fifth-year wideout Seitu Smith II, and a slew of other experienced offensive weapons.

In fact, maybe the only thing that is new is a preseason conviction that the 2015 offensive unit can reach historic heights.

“With our depth this year, we have the potential to be one of the best offenses that this program has ever seen,” Smith said. “We have all our skill guys returning…. We’ve won three titles since I’ve been here, so I stick to the claim.”

Much of this hype depends on the play of Smith and Fischer, the pair of off-field friends who have competed both with and against each other since Fischer arrived on campus in 2012. Even back then, Smith said that he saw potential in Fischer, but it would have taken a true yogi to envision this level of success three years later.

“I’ve known Fisch since before he even got in and that he was going to come in and have a major role,” Smith said. “From there, it’s just me and him, and we’ve been rolling since.”

For the second-consecutive season, Smith and Fischer will crouch down at the line as the team’s starting wideouts. In 2014, they combined for 75 catches and they show no signs of slowing.

Fischer is the more talkative one, bouncing up and down the sideline during end-of-practice scrimmages and chirping at any unlucky cornerbacks. Last Saturday, when the Crimson squared off against Rhode Island in Kingston, R.I., he was one of the first players out of the halftime locker room, and he sprinted out the full 100 yards before pulling into the team’s bench.

By contrast, Smith seems to have adopted the demeanor of the team’s elder statesman. In a group interview with other receivers, he spoke first and immediately placed attention on “the young guys.”

“As a unit, we haven’t lost too much at the skill positions,” he said. “Justice, Adam Scott, and a couple others have been really explosive for us, and we have a promising future.”

A promising future, yes, but also a promising present. Against the Rams, senior quarterback Scott Hosch targeted the duo early on, as both Smith and Fischer topped 50 yards.

Wide receivers Andrew Fischer (left) and Seitu Smith II (right) combined for 75 catches in 2014. By Y. Kit Wu

Off-field closeness complements on-field success. As blockmates, Smith and Fischer spend much of their time together in what they described as an atmosphere of “friendly competition” in just about all spheres of life—even when playing EA Sports's FIFA.

“It’s just the competitive drive regardless of the activity,” Fischer said. “That’s the mentality that we both have, and that’s what allows us to be so successful.”

Yet the unique aspect of this year’s team is that the expectations extend beyond this pairing. Take the senior Stanton, who has now scored 30 touchdowns in his Crimson career, second-best in school history.

Stanton has seen heavy usage since his freshman year, when he had just 28 carries for 171 yards and a touchdown. He is a tough-nosed running back that hits holes hard and opponents harder.

Last season, Stanton finished with 990 yards on the ground, behind only Tyler Varga, the former Yale standout who signed with the Indianapolis Colts after graduation.

Stanton is also a receiving threat out of the backfield, topping 100 yards in each of the last two years. This ability has special value in an offensive scheme that values short routes early in the game to establish an offensive rhythm.

“Overall we have a lot of dynamic athletes,” Fischer said. “The depth allows us to do more with our offense, get away from the bread-and-butter plays, and expand our playbook.”

And Harvard returns yet another more skill-position starter from last year’s Harvard-Yale game. In 2014, Firkser tied Fischer with four touchdown catches; in the season opener against Rhode Island, the 220-pound tight end racked up 78 yards.

Fellow tight end Ben Braunecker was not far behind. On Saturday, he scored a late touchdown—a lofted pass from the 19-yard line—to build on a strong 2014 campaign in which he totaled 227 yards.

Experience lies up and down the rest of the roster, as tight ends Ryan Halvorson and Jack Stansell—a junior and sophomore respectively—and junior wide receiver Joseph Foster have also returned.

The positional depth is so great that as a reporter, it is difficult to know who to talk to. Any of eight or nine players could answer questions about personal development, team psyche, and season expectations.

However, it makes life easier when multiple players give the same answer. Such was the case last week when Fischer, Smith, and Foster were asked about individual goals for the season.

Foster stepped forward on that one: “Get a ring,” he said. “Same thing every year.” Fischer nodded, Smith nodded, and the interview ended like that.

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