When the Harvard football team kicked off its 150th season at the Stadium on September 21, there was an unfamiliar face on the sideline. For the first time in 30 years the Crimson had a new Stephenson Family head coach for Harvard football: Andrew Aurich, who had succeeded Tim Murphy in February. Murphy, Harvard’s (and arguably the Ivy League’s) greatest football coach, announced his retirement at the end of the 2023 season, which had brought an 8-2 overall record and a 5-2 mark in conference play, good for an Ivy co-championship with Dartmouth and Yale. It was the tenth shared or outright title in Murphy’s storied tenure.
In the small sample size of two early-season games, Aurich, a rookie as a head coach, discovered how difficult an act Murphy would be to follow. In the opener the talent-laden Crimson squashed outmanned Stetson 35-0. But the following week, on the road against Ivy rival Brown, Harvard suffered a shocking 31-28 loss. The manner of the defeat—the Bears twice came back from 18-point deficits and took advantage of a botched snap on a field goal to score a last-minute winning touchdown—was profoundly unsettling.
When he was introduced in February, the 41-year-old Aurich came with an Ivy background: he is a former offensive lineman for Princeton. That Tiger pedigree, along with his lack of head-coaching experience, was problematical for some Crimson supporters. During Aurich’s apprenticeship he spent two stints as an assistant coach at his alma mater, and others with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and at Rutgers (his immediate previous stop). Aurich promised that his Harvard teams would “strike first, swarm, and finish”—and that he would put a premium on “ball security.”
Murphy had left the larder well-stocked. On offense Harvard boasted two quarterbacks, junior Jaden Craig (the primary passer) and senior Charles DePrima (the runner); a deep receiving corps; and senior captain Shane McLaughlin, last year’s Ivy rushing leader (830 yards). The defense featured ’23’s top tackler, junior defensive back Ty Bartrum; two other stellar defensive backs, senior Gavin Shipman and sophomore Damien Henderson; and a linebacking crew headed by senior Mitchell Gonser.
The opener seemed to presage a smooth coaching transition. In a steady rain against the hapless Hatters, the Crimson scored three touchdowns in the first seven minutes and cruised the rest of the way. Each tally displayed a different dimension. Craig had taken over the offense’s reins last year in midseason and proved a deft and heady passer. He displayed those traits on this year’s opening drive, which began at the Crimson 15. Short tosses to junior wideout Cooper Barkate and junior tight end Ryan Osborne, mixed with runs, brought the ball to the Stetson 43. From the shotgun Craig took the snap and fired down the middle to senior wideout Scott Woods II. The five-foot-eight Woods gathered in the ball and scampered past his pursuers into the end zone.
In a trice Woods set up the next score. After a three-and-out by Stetson, he gathered a punt at the Hatters’ 47 and wended his way down to the 20. On the first play from scrimmage, he bolted 15 yards to the five. Two plays later McLaughlin busted over the goal line.
After the ensuing kickoff, Stetson faced a third-and-12 from its 23. Quarterback Trip Maxwell threw over the middle. The ball was deflected by Crimson senior defensive back Myles Wiley and landed in the hands of Gonser. The senior linebacker headed left and wove his way to the end zone. Gonser finished with seven tackles and was named Ivy Defensive Player of the Week.
The next week Harvard traveled to Providence for the Ivy opener for both teams. The Crimson had beaten the Bears 12 times in a row, and in the first quarter the thirteenth seemed a mere formality. On Harvard’s second series, which started at the Brown 47, Craig connected with Barkate for 27 yards. The play reached the Bears’ 15. From there Craig handed the ball four times in a row to McLaughlin. On the final rush, from the two, he barreled untouched into the end zone.
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At the end of the quarter the lead was doubled. Craig took the Crimson 67 yards in eight plays. From the Brown 20, on third and five, Craig lobbed a pass to Barkate, who was running in the right corner of the end zone and grabbed the ball.
The Bears riposted with a field goal but the Crimson extended the lead to 18 when Craig hit Barkate for a 16-yard score. It seemed that Harvard was ready to blow the game open, but before the half a Craig pass was tipped into the arms of Brown’s Elias Archie, who brought the ball back to the Crimson one, setting up a touchdown. (There’s that pesky ball-security issue that Aurich talked about.) In the third quarter Harvard again pushed the lead to 18 when Craig (after completing a 52-yard bomb to DePrima) scored on a two-yard run.
But that was all the Crimson would get. The battling Bears kept on coming, making the score 28-23 with just under six minutes to play. Harvard tried to run out the remaining time but failed, partly because of an incomplete pass that stopped the clock and allowed Brown to preserve a timeout. Still, the Crimson defense hemmed the Bears deep in their own territory, and Harvard took the ball at the Brown 12 with less than two minutes left. Eventually the Crimson lined up for what likely would have been a clinching field goal. The ball was snapped high and evaded the kicker, freshman Keiran Corr. Brown snagged it and advanced it all the way to the Harvard 27. On the next play, Bears quarterback Jake Willcox tossed a touchdown pass to Mark Mahoney, then added a two-point conversion pass. Brown 31, Harvard 28. A stunning denouement.
“As I told the guys in the locker room, I failed them,” Aurich said. “There shouldn’t have been any time left on that clock for [Brown] to go down and score. That’s on me.”
For a rookie coach, it was a learning experience. But there was still plenty of time for redemption before Yale invaded the Stadium for The Game on November 23.
tidbits: Harvard’s all-time record in season openers is now 123-25-2….The state-by-state breakdown of the 2024 Crimson roster reveals New Jersey leading with 12 players, followed by Texas (10), then California, Georgia, and Massachusetts (nine each).
