Murphy Raw

When Tim Murphy speaks, people listen--at least the people who care about Harvard football do. Here are second-year coach Tim Murphy's sound bites about Harvard's 122nd football team.

On the team:

"I think we're going to be quite probably the youngest [football] team in Harvard history."

"I'm confident that these kids can compete, but there will some growing pains at some positions."

"There are positions where there is so little depth that we would have a tough time replacing players."

On the captain:

"Justin Franz is one of the best natural leaders I have ever been around. He's just one of those kids that both by example and certainly from a vocal standpoint is very inspirational."

On the offense:

"If this group stays healthy, and Vin Ferrara is the key, we will move the ball against any team in the league."

On the quarterbacks:

"We're going to play both Vin Ferrara and Jay Snowden against Columbia. Vin will be the starter, but I'd like to get Jay in there early....We just didn't have a guy [in the Yale game] who could get it done because of lack experience."

"Not having Vin Ferrara in spring practice has really led to the development of Jay Snowden."

On the running game:

"If we were as good at every position as we are at tailback, I'd get a lot more sleep at night."

"In all honesty, I hope we don't have to give the ball to Eion Hu as much."

"Eion Hu is one of the mentally and physically toughest kids I've ever been around."

"How much we diversify really comes down to how healthy Kweli Thompson is. If Kweli is healthy all season, we're going to have a chance to really spread things around."

On the offensive line:

"The key to our offense is going to be the offensive line. The line is very inexperienced, but I'll tell you flat out: we have a better offensive line this minute than we did a year ago."

"The offensive line may be the most improved part of our football team."

On the defense:

"I think our defense is our biggest concern from a tactical standpoint."

On the defensive line:

"In the heart of our football team, we are very, very young and very, very inexperienced and that's certainly a cause for concern."

"Jason Hughes, Brendan Bioro, Chris Schaefer--those three sophomores are kids that not only are we going to have to count on--they are the heart of our defense."