With another Yale loss in the past, Harvard football turns its attention to long-lacking postseason shot
But unlike the aftermath of Harvard’s previous losses against its hated rival, this past weekend had a silver lining. The Ivy League’s decision to finally allow its teams to compete in the FCS playoffs led the Crimson to be awarded an at-large bid.
“That all just made Sunday feel super unnatural. Just a really weird morning,” Craig said. “But once that decision came out, that switch flipped pretty quick. … We got back to our regular game-week operation and all that weirdness went away.”
With the disappointment in New Haven in the rearview mirror, Harvard is preparing for its first postseason since the Rose Bowl at the end of the 1919 season, the last campaign in which the Crimson claimed a national championship.
Harvard (9-1) will play at 12th-seeded Villanova (9-2) at noon Saturday, the same time Yale (8-2) is playing at Youngstown State (8-4).
“It was definitely a different feel,” said Crimson coach Andrew Aurich. “I think everyone kind of knew that we were going to have an opportunity to continue to play, [compared with] the previous year when, for a lot of guys, it was done, [Yale] was the last game. So they bounced right back, came and met on Sunday, we watched the tape, we flushed it, and we started getting ready for Villanova.
“I think the guys are ready and they’ve moved on; it’s not like one of those ones where the loss beats you twice. These guys are focused.”
Villanova, runner-up in the CAA to Rhode Island, enters on an eight-game winning streak. The Wildcats fell in their conference opener to Monmouth and haven’t lost since behind a conference-best run game that averaged 178.6 yards per game.
Villanova’s three-headed rushing attack of sophomores David Avit (683 yards this season), Ja’briel Mace (600), and Isaiah Ragland (500) helped power an offense that put up 30.6 points per game to Harvard’s 39.4.
“[Villanova’s] players … if they were in the Ivy League, they’re high-level players at all positions,” Aurich said. “They’re scholarship football, CAA, they recruit maybe guys that we can’t touch. Really, really talented running backs, they’re three deep at running back and they look like FBS running backs. Some really twitchy defensive linemen that we haven’t really seen, but, a super talented team.”
It’ll be a tough test for a Harvard defense trying to bounce back from back-to-back disappointments. After allowing just 11.6 points per game through eight contests, the Crimson allowed 43 points to Penn in a narrow victory Nov. 15 before Yale hung 45 on them.
The Crimson also are a little banged up on that side of the ball. Safety Ty Bartrum, the defensive captain and finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award (given to the FCS defensive player of the year), didn’t practice Tuesday but is expected to suit up Saturday.
“We just have to manage the workload,” Aurich said. “[Bartrum]’s one of those guys who has probably the most cumulative reps of anybody on his team, playing the Harvard defense, so it’s like a veteran day for him to get his body feeling right. It takes him a little bit longer to get ready, to feel like he’s ready to play a game. So he’s earned that.”
In trying to rebound from a fourth straight defeat in the “The Game,” the Crimson are looking up a level for inspiration.
Ohio State suffered a similar disappointment in its own rivalry last season, stunned by unranked Michigan — the Buckeyes’ fourth consecutive loss in that iteration of “The Game” — before a romp through the postseason to win an unlikely national championship.
“That’s immediately what I told them,” Aurich said. “An alum reminded me, like, ‘Hey, don’t forget what happened last year.’ And I was like, ‘I already have it written down.’ … [Ohio State] did a great job of not letting that loss beat them twice. They used that, it fueled them, and they went out and dominated.”
Any run to a championship starts Saturday, where the Crimson will find out (for the first time in more than a century) where they stack up in the national picture.
“We’re representing not only ourselves, but all the Harvard football alumni who didn’t get this opportunity,” Aurich said. “And then it expands from there, because now you’re representing all the Ivy football players who don’t get the chance to be in the playoffs this year, and then all their alumni who didn’t get the chance.
“So, representing a lot of people, we take that very seriously. I know there’s a lot of eyes to see how we can compete with these teams in the playoffs. I’ve been confident that we would do well if we ever got the opportunity, so we’re just excited to have it.”
Is Aurich expecting any support from his Ivy rivals? At least those outside of New Haven?
“I would hope so,” Aurich said with a laugh. “To me, this is a league thing where we want our teams that are playing to have success, because it’s going to give our league more clout in the future.”
Amin Touri can be reached at [email protected].
