Football Spring Game Reveals Key Headlines for Next Season

Last Saturday, on a breezy and sun-dappled evening, football returned to Harvard Stadium.

Field lights glared, turf pellets sprayed, assistant coaches barked, and on the field, next year’s Crimson roster split into two teams to compete in the annual spring game.

The scrimmage marked the end of offseason practices, a months-long regimen that forces players to wake up early for weightlifting and football drills. With this stage over, Harvard will not reconvene until August, when the program opens training camp.

Saturday’s contest was technically a competition among friends, but it bore many of the markings of a serious game. Full-contact hits echoed around the stadium, and a crowd of local spectators, soon-to-graduate players, and high school junior recruits and their parents filled the stands.

However, various clues indicated the informality of the affair. Quarterbacks donned green non-contact jerseys, and half the special teamers wore orange helmet covers.

Scoreboard duties fell to a pair of injured team members, who played loose with the timing and points. (Since the spring game truly pits offense against defense, the operators decided to score the game that way. As one watcher wryly noted, this arrangement made it rather difficult for defense to win.)

In any case, Harvard football claimed victory after three quarters, with a final score of Crimson 13, White 7.

More important than the result, however, were the storylines that the game revealed.

Starting at quarterback: a mystery

Junior Joe Viviano, the presumed starting quarterback next year, remains an enigma.

Last fall, Viviano battled senior Scott Hosch for the starting role. The competition appeared fierce until Viviano broke his left foot, which not only ended his season but also kyboshed any spectator hopes of getting a glimpse of Harvard’s future.

Next season, Viviano likely has a grip on the starter’s job, but the spring game gave no indication of that. Sidelined by an undisclosed injury, the junior watched the game in sneakers, shorts, and a jersey.

The two quarterbacks on the field were a pair of freshmen: 6’6” Cam Tripp and 6’2” Tom Stewart. Both put up impressive statistics, with Tripp going 8-for-11 for 89 yards and Stewart going 9-of-16 for 136 yards.

Despite similar output, Tripp and Stewart displayed different styles of play. Stewart, a Texas native, showed bursts of speed and led all rushers with 77 yards on eight carries. The lankier Tripp seemed less comfortable on the run but had good zip on his throws.

While Stewart played with the first-team offense, the backup job will likely remain up for grabs until preseason camp, if not later.

New linebacker trio anchors the defense

Last year the undisputed heart of the team lay in the linebacker core, where seniors Matt Koran, Jacob Lindsey, and Eric Medes played virtually every meaningful snap. Against Dartmouth, it was this unit that forced a game-changing fumble late in the fourth quarter, and all three players earned first- or second-team honors in the Ivy League.

Next year Koran, Lindsey, and Medes will all be gone. In their place will step roughly 600 pounds of new muscle: junior Eric Ryan, sophomore Luke Hutton, and sophomore Chase Guillory.

Last Saturday, Ryan filled the middle linebacker role, and the sophomores flanked on either side. Similarly to last year, the plan appeared to be to keep the trio together as much as possible to facilitate the kind of mutual instincts that distinguished Koran, Lindsey, and Medes.

Ryan, Guillory, and Hutton all saw some action last year, with Guillory and Ryan playing in every game. But many of these snaps came in less pressurized situations, when coach Tim Murphy elected to give the seniors a breather.

Shakeup in the offensive line

Throughout their time at Harvard, offensive linemen Anthony Fabiano, Cole Toner, and Adam Redmond specialized in creating big holes. A month from now, when they leave campus after graduation, they’ll create the biggest hole yet.

Just as linebackers anchored last year’s defense, offensive linemen anchored last year’s offense. Two starters—sophomore Larry Allen, Jr. and junior Max Rich—return after making the Ancient Eight second team last year. But the departure of Fabiano, Redmond, and Toner, who is an NFL prospect, hurts in a major way.

Consequently one of the most pressing questions facing next year’s team is whether it can reload such a depleted unit.

Last Saturday’s game provided little clarity. Barring remarkable dominance or ineptitude, it’s generally difficult to judge an offensive line on three quarters of play.

In other words, stay in your seat: Questions surrounding the offensive line won’t find an answer until next fall, when a fresh set of large men lines up for week one.

Buy your Firkser jerseys now

It’s relatively easy to go overlooked in a unit that contains a breakout freshman star, a fourth-round NFL prospect, and a senior duo nicknamed Thing One and Thing Two.

But last year, facing this level of competition from freshman receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley, senior tight end Ben Braunecker, and senior wide receivers Seitu Smith and Andrew Fischer, Anthony Firkser still got his touches. In six of his nine games, he reached 40 yards, including a two-touchdown performance against Penn.

Many of his teammates may be graduating, but last Saturday, Firkser made clear that he is here to stay. He led all receivers with 87 yards on three grabs and caught the first score of the night on a 17-yard slant.

Certainly, next year’s receiving corps extends beyond Firkser. Shelton-Mosley, who racked up 589 receiving yards and six touchdowns, is back again, as is junior Joseph Foster and sophomore Jack Stansell.

But Murphy has consistently found a way to utilize wide-outs like Firkser with good hands and big frames. If Saturday is any indication, the junior is primed for a big season.

An exclamation point and a question mark for special teams

The good news is that the Crimson still knows how to block a kick.

The spring game ended this way, with the defense pushing through the line to smother an extra point. Murphy whirled his hands in the sky, and both teams raced to the locker room.

Earlier in the game, Harvard had also burst through for a would-be blocked punt—except, given the informal nature of the game, punter Zach Schmid held onto the ball and booted a second later.

That special-teams stinginess recalled last season, when Harvard finished third in the nation in blocked punts (five) and fifth in in blocked kicks (seven).

The bad news is the other side of the equation: Punter Zach Schmid and kicker Kenny Smart still inspire uncertainty in the hearts of Crimson fans.

There were no slip-ups last Saturday, as Schmid uncorked a few line-drive punts and Smart nailed extra points and two short field goals. Nor were there acts of brilliance.

All too often last year, shaky kicking hurt Harvard. It remains to be seen whether an additional year of experience and practice will make a difference for Smart and Schmid.

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