OUT OF LEFT FELD: Changing of the Guard in Ivy League Football

The final notes were the same, but the songs were completely different.

Just like last year’s rendition, the 106th edition of the Harvard-Princeton game ended with Roman Wilson catching a touchdown pass from Quinn Epperly.

But the teams playing in this year’s 51-48 shootout in Harvard Stadium shared few similarities with the squads that battled in Princeton Stadium in 2012. This year’s final-play loss was more impressive—and concerning—than last year’s collapse.

Last year’s Crimson team was led by the league’s Offensive Player of the Year at quarterback, an All-Ivy running back, and a tight end that is currently playing for the Baltimore Ravens—all seniors. Compare that to the group Harvard relied on down the stretch on Saturday.

Junior quarterback Conner Hempel returned from injury to lead Harvard with just three games under his belt. Senior tight end Cam Brate was often blanketed by double coverage, leaving Hempel to work with a limited set of weapons headlined by a backup running back.

Then senior center David Leopard went down with a leg injury, leaving senior Nick Easton to play the crucial position. Easton had never played center in a game before, and bad timing between him and Hempel led to multiple pivotal false start penalties. Hempel also lost slot receiver Andrew Fischer to a hamstring injury.

When the Harvard offense stalled on its final drive, it put the game’s fate on the leg of walk-on junior kicker Andrew Flesher, forced into action in senior David Mothander’s absence.

Flesher’s 51-yard attempt in the final seconds had the distance, but strayed wide.

That kick summed up the Crimson offense’s play better than I ever could. The effort was there, the talent was not.

The team’s first five games set expectations too high—this year’s squad is not last year’s. There was a reason Harvard was not picked to win the Ivy League in the preseason like it was before last year. The Crimson offense was far from a juggernaut coming into this season, and injuries along the line and elsewhere have only depleted Harvard further.

As the fourth hour of Saturday’s game slogged on, that became clear. It felt like Tim Murphy was trying to complete a puzzle without many of the pieces. Instead, he used the lint and spare button he found in the bottom of his pocket, and even tried to cram a CharlieCard into the puzzle.

For a long time, the replacements somehow hung with Princeton. The credit goes to guys like Hempel and running back Paul Stanton for keeping it close as long as they did. In the end though, Harvard didn’t have the requisite firepower.

That’s because the Tigers were also a completely different team this year.

Princeton’s offense last year was a Microsoft Zune—gimmicky and crude. Now it’s an iPod Touch.

Yes, the gimmicks were still there. The Tigers lined up with offensive linemen near the sideline and called more shovel passes than Stanley Yelnats in Holes. But, for the most part, the Princeton offense felt mature. Every play felt like it had a purpose; every player had a mission.

In the win, eight Tigers caught passes. Seven recorded rushing attempts. The absence of quarterback Conner Michelsen certainly forced more in-the-box thinking by Princeton, but you don’t record 520 yards of offense without a great offensive game-plan.

All that said, the real reason the Tigers have emerged from dormancy, at least according to Murphy, is the team’s defense. In a complete reversal from a year ago, it was the Harvard offense that needed a break to score for much of the game.

The Crimson got on the board when a pass bounced off a Princeton defender. It only tied the game in the fourth quarter after taking over 19 yards from paydirt. NFL prospect Caraun Reid hurried Hempel on back-to-back plays to prevent Harvard from making Flesher’s attempt at the end of regulation any easier.

For most of the game it was the Crimson, not the Tigers, that needed a short field, a controversial call, or a fluky play to get into the end zone.

In the third overtime, the Crimson got none of the above. On third and four, Hempel escaped a sack and scrambled for a first down. But faced with the same situation two plays later, the junior couldn’t recreate the necessary magic. Princeton held Harvard to a field goal, giving Epperly and Wilson the opportunity to drive the stake home once again.

Their touchdown connection likely earned the duo a two-headed bust in the Crimson Killer wing of the Princeton Hall of Fame, right alongside Doug Davis. It also shook up the Ivy landscape in a big way.

Last year, the Tigers’ upset of Harvard was a sign of things to come, but Princeton lost three games down the stretch to cough up a potential Ancient Eight title. Saturday’s win told the league that there is a new sheriff in town.

Sure, Penn is also 3-0 in league play, but take away the team names and one resume sticks out. The Quakers needed four overtimes to beat Dartmouth and topped Columbia by just 21 (the Lions have lost their other two conference games by an average of 51).

Meanwhile, the Tigers just defeated an Ivy heavyweight and have won their other two league games by a combined 68 points. Of course, Princeton will have to prove it is better than the other Killer P two weeks from now in Philadelphia.

For now though, the Tigers are kings of the jungle once again.

Saturday, Harvard didn’t collapse. It just was not the better team. For the Crimson, that has to be way more concerning.

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacob.feldman@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @jacobfeldman4.