AROUND THE IVIES: Football Faces First True Ivy Test

Walking around campus Friday, it’s easy to tell that winter is here. Yes, temperatures are dropping into the low 30s and those seersucker shorts are finally on sale, but it’s not Mother Nature or J Press that determine when fall ends. It is Harvard’s Office of Career Services.

Thursday, Oct. 24, marked the end of the fall recruiting season for on-campus interviews. The hordes of suited seniors strutting through the square have gone south for the winter. The dining halls will no longer reverberate with the sweet sounds of ridicule lobbed at students who swore they’d never go into consulting a few short months ago and now find themselves preparing for their fourth interview in four days.

But don’t fret. I have good news. A new application season starts Saturday. When the Princeton football team (4-1, 2-0 Ivy) gets off the bus at Harvard Stadium, the Ivy League will officially begin taking applications for its next gridiron champion.

Stick with me here. Some like to compare each football season to a movie script. For Harvard (5-0, 2-0 Ivy), it’s more like an application (how fitting). Over the course of 10 games, the Crimson puts together a portfolio, sometimes including brutal displays of efficiency, other times throwing in a beautifully flawed production.

While the collection is important, every experienced applicant knows his or her fate is determined by the cover letter, resume, and interview—the job hunt holy trinity. The same holds for Harvard football.

Each November, the Crimson engages in a heavyweight battle with Penn in what is often a de facto Ivy League Championship game. Harvard shows how it stacks up against its best competition in a battle of experience. Both teams demonstrate all of the skills they have learned to that point in the season. The fight with the Quakers is clearly the resume game of the Harvard schedule.

The Crimson finishes its year with its most important game. It’s called The Game for a reason. When Harvard enters the game coming off a win over Penn, it attempts to seal a successful season with a bang after establishing itself as a top applicant. When the Crimson loses to Penn, the Yale contest represents an opportunity to redeem the season and at least end on a high note. The Game is Harvard’s chance to leave a good impression, and it’s often the only time many of the people judging the team will see them in person. If you still haven’t figured out The Game’s application counterpart, you’ve clearly never had an interview.

That leaves the cover letter—often the hardest element to identify in Harvard’s schedule. But this year it’s clear.

In contrast to the interview, cover letters create first impressions. Often, they can separate contenders from pretenders in an applicant pool while offering the first chance to judge an applicant’s personality.

Facing the Tigers Saturday, Harvard will write its cover letter.

Crimson coach Tim Murphy described this week’s game as his team’s first real test of this season. Though Harvard is 2-0 in the Ivy League, both of its win have come against teams that are 0-2 in league play. Meanwhile, Princeton enters the contest as one of the three Ancient Eight teams that remain unbeaten in conference.

But this game means more than its standings implications. Last year, the Tigers scored 29 unanswered points in just over 10 minutes to pull off a stunning, 39-34 upset of the then-unbeaten Crimson. The loss would ultimately cost Harvard a share of the Ivy title.

Treavor Scales ’13 said that fourth quarter was surreal. Murphy said he didn’t eat for two days after the game.

“It was just one of those ones that you’ll just never forget,” Murphy said in the offseason.

Murphy and players are adamant that this is a different team and a different year, but it would just be flat-out wrong to categorize Saturday’s showdown as anything but a revenge game.

Given that, I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say we are going to see into the football team’s soul this weekend. OK, maybe that’s a bit much, but still. How the Crimson responds to last year’s collapse will tell us a lot about what type of team we are actually dealing with this year.

So how will Harvard’s cover letter turn out? I’m glad you asked….

PRINCETON AT HARVARD

For the first time in a long time, the Tigers are contenders again. But Harvard’s not going anywhere. My biggest concern is that Princeton’s defensive advantage over a banged-up offensive line will be too large for the Crimson to overcome, but I think junior quarterback Conner Hempel will give the Crimson just enough in his return from injury.

PICK: HARVARD 41, PRINCETON 37

BROWN AT CORNELL

In a battle of the Crimson’s leftovers, the Bears and Big Red are both fighting for their first league win. In the end, Cornell quarterback Jeff Mathews won’t get enough support in his final chance to beat Brown as his squad continues to struggle in the red zone.

PICK: BROWN 35, CORNELL 27

YALE AT PENNSYLVANIA

Are the Bulldogs finally back? They beat Cornell in September and led Dartmouth two weeks ago before losing a fourth-quarter lead. A second straight victory over Penn would be quite a statement for a team that was 1-6 in the league last year. It’s a nice thought, but the Quakers won’t let it happen.

PICK: PENN 30, YALE 16

COLUMBIA AT DARTMOUTH

If the Ivy League had a player draft each offseason with the worst team picking first, this game might have some meaning. Unfortunately for the Lions, such a system isn’t in place. Columbia gave up three times as many points as it scored last week in a 21-7 loss to Penn. It was still the closest game the Lions have played as they’ve been outscored 187-45 through five weeks.

PICK: DARTMOUTH 31, COLUMBIA 10

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com.