Sound Off: Murphy Takes Blame in Loss

In the modern era of sports, being a college coach carries with it the burden of constant media attention. Facing dozens of reporters at press conferences, head coaches have gotten more savvy—they say what they need to and leave the rest up for speculation. Here at The Back Page, we’re happy to decode some of these media sessions, showing the average fan what we think coaches’ answers “really” mean.

To say that Week 2 of Harvard’s football season didn’t go quite as smoothly as Week 1 is, well, a gross understatement. After his team was embarrassed in a 29-14 loss that was much more lopsided than the scoreboard indicated, Crimson coach Tim Murphy had to do his best to explain what happened. Murphy tips his hat to Brown and shoulders most of the blame himself in this week’s edition of Sound Off.

What Murphy said: “We’re a team that’s usually played pretty well with our backs to the wall. So we go bang-bang on those big plays at the end of the [first] half and the beginning of the second half—we were right in it. But we just never were consistently mounting anything on offense...and then [when] you throw interceptions, you’re putting your defense in a bind.”

What Murphy meant: When senior Marco Iannuzzi scored his second of two touchdowns on a 95-yard kickoff return to open the second half, the Crimson was nine points back with nearly 30 minutes to play and all the momentum on its side. Harvard has made tough comebacks before—most recently in its last Ivy contest, last November’s matchup with Yale, when it scored two touchdowns in the last seven minutes to take The Game. This time, the Crimson forced a three-and-out on Brown’s first possession, but senior quarterback Andrew Hatch quickly threw a pick in his first play from scrimmage. As Murphy points out, it’s hard to win football games when you’re making those kinds of rally-killing mistakes on offense.

What Murphy said: “We’ve got to be a more balanced offense, we’ve got to be able to run the football. If you’re not able to run the football, then teams are going to be able to tee off on you and make you play one dimension.”

What Murphy meant: Harvard hasn’t really been able to establish its run game at all this season, something that’s hard to attribute to the tandem of senior Gino Gordon and sophomore Treavor Scales, two of the most talented tailbacks in the league. What it comes down to is that the Crimson just hasn’t delivered the blocks Gordon and Scales need to bring the ball downfield. Harvard thrived last year because it was able to get both parts of its offense going, and that’s one of the biggest fixes that needs to be made before the Crimson faces its next conference opponent.

What Murphy said: “We didn’t play physical enough, we didn’t do a good enough coaching job, and bottom line, like I said, we got our butts kicked.”

What Murphy meant: Murphy’s been the head coach of Harvard football for 17 years, and he has some remarkable accomplishments in his tenure—including five Ivy titles, two perfect season, and 105 victories. Saturday night’s game was not one for his career scrapbook. The offense’s inability to get anything going is certainly partly attributable to both Brown’s aggressive defense and the Harvard players’ frustration, but Murphy rightly shouldered the blame in this one for a poorly-executed offensive scheme. Hatch had nobody to pass to because the Bears knew exactly where the receivers were going to be on nearly every play. Brown coach Phil Estes even admitted in his postgame comments that the coverage his team saw on Saturday was pretty much the same as what the Crimson showed in a win over the Bears last year.