Preview: No. 21/RV Football Looks to Bounce Back in Showdown against Dartmouth

On the day before Halloween, a hungry Dartmouth team will emerge from the big green forests that line the 120 miles of the I-89 and I-93 between Cambridge and Hanover, N.H. Traveling to Massachusetts under the cover of rainfall and thunder, the Big Green will battle with the Crimson in stormy weather, gritting out every play in what promises to be a ground-bound, defensive affair. At the end of sixty minutes, if No. 21/RV Harvard (5-1, 2-1 Ivy) can outlast RV/RV Dartmouth (5-1, 2-1 Ivy), the victory would be its first over the Big Green in three seasons and mark the next crucial step in its quest for its 18th Ivy League championship.

Both teams will enter Harvard Stadium on Saturday at 12 p.m. coming off a loss. The Crimson will hope to bounce back from a heartbreaking, controversial loss to Princeton on Oct. 23. Meanwhile, Dartmouth failed to score any points under the Friday night lights in Hanover, falling to Columbia, 19-0, on Oct. 22. However, at 5-1, both of these teams are still in the thick of the conference title race, and Harvard players are confident that the result in their previous game will not affect them as they seek to take down the Big Green.

“It was a really great game,” said senior linebacker Jack McGowan, who led the Crimson with 11 tackles in the Princeton game. “We’re obviously disappointed in the way it ended, but we’ve turned the chapter on to this week, and we’re getting ready to play Dartmouth.”

Harvard has plenty of positives to take away from its loss to the Tigers, including the stellar performance of its defense, which intercepted four passes to increase its season total to 11, tied for the seventh-most in the country. In the process, defensive coordinator Scott Larkee ’99’s unit became the national leader in team passing efficiency defense (93.88). The Crimson held Princeton’s offense to just 257 total yards, well below its season average of 422 yards. Of those 257 yards, just 50 came on the ground, which actually increased its season average to 46.3 yards per game, the lowest rate in the country. Additionally, Harvard allowed the Tigers to score just six points in three trips inside the 20-yard line, becoming the most efficient red-zone defense in the FCS, allowing opponents to score on just half of their drives deep into Crimson territory.

“We have some really great defenses for when we get down with our backs against the wall,” McGowan explained. “And it is a mentality thing. We definitely play harder when we know that we can’t afford to give up any yards.”

For his performance against Princeton, McGowan was awarded the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week award, the first Harvard player to do so this year. Despite McGowan being the only player to garner that particular honor, the Crimson’s stingy defense has been a full-team effort. Harvard has gotten through for an FCS-leading 4.83 sacks per game, led by sophomore defensive lineman Nate Leskovec and junior defensive lineman Jacob Sykes, who each have brought down the quarterback 5.5 times this season. Their performances are buoyed by that of first-year defensive tackle Thor Griffith (3.0 sacks), who was named to the 2021 Stats Perform FCS Jerry Rice Award Watch List for the best freshman in Division I on Wednesday. In addition, junior safety James Herring and senior linebacker Jordan Hill, the 147th Captain of Harvard football, lead the team in tackles with 42 apiece.

On Saturday, Harvard will face a unique opponent. Dartmouth boasts a unique scheme, often lining up with four tight ends, forcing the Crimson to spend much of this week implementing new packages into its defensive game plan. The Big Green’s unorthodox look has paid dividends in the past, for it has won each of its last two matchups against Harvard. In 2018, it claimed a 24-17 victory in sloppy conditions in Hanover, and the next year, the New Hampshire squad eked past the Crimson, 9-6, at Harvard Stadium.

Dartmouth returns much of the foundation from those two victories, including quarterback Derek Kyler, a fifth-year senior who owns the best career passing percentage in school history and who has tossed nine touchdown passes against one interception this season. Kyler’s most frequent targets are his trio of speedy wide receivers: Paxton Scott, Jamal Cooney, and Isaac Boston. Cooney is the team’s leading receiver with 192 yards this season.

In addition to Kyler, Dartmouth relies on quarterback Nick Howard, who often takes direct snaps and poses a threat in both the running and passing games. This season, he has already earned College Sports Madness’s Ivy League Player of the Week award for his performance in an Oct. 1 victory over Penn, in which he took 19 carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns in addition to completing a pass for 13 yards.

“We have two separate schemes for those guys, and each of those guys comes with a different set of challenges,” McGowan said. “[A key is] just being able to identify the personnel that are coming in the game and basing our game plan on that.”

Howard is a key part of the Big Green’s strong running game. So far, Dartmouth has averaged 177.2 yards per game on the ground, which is good for 30th in the FCS and just behind the Crimson’s 26th ranked rushing attack (185.3 yards per game). In addition to Howard, running back Zack Bair has accumulated 346 yards and two rushing touchdowns this season, and running back Noah Roper rushed for 108 yards in the Oct. 16 victory over New Hampshire.

But if the Big Green’s game is built on speed, so is Harvard’s, which boasts a three-pronged rushing attack and a trio of fast receivers to match Dartmouth’s. The Crimson has presented a perfectly balanced offense so far this season, rushing for 1,112 yards and passing for 1,112 more. Its star is junior running back Aaron Shampklin, who ranks ninth in the nation with 101.6 rushing yards per game. He has also found the end zone seven times. Furthermore, sophomore running back Aidan Borguet plays a huge role in Harvard’s rushing attack, adding 425 yards and five touchdowns of his own. Sophomore running back Sone Ntoh completes the trio, having scored against Lafayette on Oct. 16 for his third touchdown of the season.

In the game against Princeton, senior quarterback Jake Smith came on in relief of sophomore quarterback Charlie Dean, who left the game at the end of the first quarter. Smith completed 21 of his 37 passes for 184 yards and led the Crimson on a touchdown drive at the start of the fourth quarter that culminated in Shampklin’s two-yard run. Although offensive coordinator Mickey Fein typically does not ask his quarterbacks to throw too much, Smith will have a speedy trio of receivers to target.

Junior wide receiver Kym Wimberly has been a consistent offensive presence this season and leads the team with 198 receiving yards. Opposite Wimberly, senior wide receiver B.J. Watson has contributed 140 yards of his own this season, including a 75-yard touchdown against Cornell. Junior wide receiver Demarkes Stradford is known for his speed and caught four passes for 37 yards against Lafayette. First-year tight end Tyler Neville led the team with four catches for 58 yards against the Tigers.

“We’re a very fast team, and I don’t think there’s any team in the league that can keep up with us, speed-wise,” Watson said. “So we just have to make sure when we have those opportunities, we capitalize on them with big plays and execute when we have those opportunities.”

Dartmouth, a veteran squad led by senior linebacker Jalen Mackie, will hope to use its second-ranked passing defense to bother Harvard’s receivers. The Big Green has allowed just 146.2 yards per game through the air this season, which ranks 8.4 yards per game better than third-placed Montana State. Mackie is enjoying a breakout season with 54 total tackles, good enough to lead the team. In addition, its rush defense ranks 24th in the country, allowing an average of just 116.5 yards per game on the ground.

“They play a very base defense, so they don’t do too much, but what they do, they do it well,” Watson said. “They all know their assignments and know what they’re doing. They don’t do too much crazy stuff. We saw Princeton, they’re bringing the house every play. And Dartmouth, they’re sitting in their base coverages playing Cover 4, Cover 3, but everyone just knows exactly where to be.”

Each team’s running game will likely be highlighted during Saturday’s matchup, given the forecast. The temperature is supposed to sit in the high 50s and rain is expected throughout the entire game. In such conditions, throwing the ball can become more difficult; in the 2018 game in Hanover, Dartmouth attempted just 11 passes all game, completing only four. In the wet and windy conditions forecast for Saturday, the Crimson and the Big Green, who already run the ball a lot, are likely to keep their offensive schemes relatively unchanged.

“We’re not a team trying to throw the ball sixty times anyway. [Shampklin]’s going to get his carries, [Borguet]’s going to get his carries,” Watson explained. “We might be a little more run-centric, but I think we probably would have been like that anyway.”

If Harvard can come away with a win on Saturday, it would improve its all-time record in the series against Dartmouth to 72-41-5 going into a crucial matchup against Columbia on Nov. 6 in New York City. The Lions are also 5-1 after defeating Dartmouth on Oct. 22 and, along with Princeton, represent one of the Crimson’s biggest challengers for the Ivy League title. However, despite the opponents’ records, Watson insisted that he placed no special emphasis on these three opponents, instead choosing to approach his season one game at a time.

“Every team we play, they’ll definitely be formidable opponents,” he said. “So that’s how we’ve gotta come in, locked in, one week at a time, one practice at a time, one snap at a time. That’s our motto.”

The game will be televised on NESN, the second of three times this season that the Crimson will be broadcast locally. Its Nov. 23 matchup against Yale will be shown by ESPN Networks. Fans will also be able to catch Saturday’s game over the radio with WRCA (1330 AM, 106.1 FM) and WHRB (95.3 FM).

— Staff writer Griffin Wong can be reached at griffin.wong@thecrimson.com.