The Rahooligan: Let the New Streak Begin

BETHLEHEM, Pa.—As sophomore quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick’s lazy swing pass to senior tailback Nick Palazzo bounced off Palazzo’s shoulder pads and hit the turf, resulting in a lost fumble for the Harvard football team late in the fourth quarter on Saturday, the Crimson began to see the end of its record-setting 11-game win streak.

In a few minutes, the No. 12-ranked Lehigh Mountain Hawks would show why they were four-time defending Patriot League champions—as well as owners of a 26-game home winning streak—when they completed their fourth-quarter comeback to win, 36-35.

And yet it seems highly inappropriate, as well as foolish, to waste any tears on the end of Harvard’s streak. Sure, the last time the Crimson had lost a game (against Yale in 2000), the nation was wrapped up in the election debacle that seems so far removed. And yes, it is also true that half the undergraduates on campus have never picked up this paper to see the headline, “Harvard loses football game.”

But from my point of view, on a sunny afternoon hundreds of miles away in Bethlehem, Pa., more seemed right with this football team than wrong.

“What you’ve got to remember is that we beat a top-25 football team today,” Lehigh coach Pete Lembo implored reporters who doubted his team’s effort. “No one is giving Harvard enough credit.”

Lembo was right in trying to convince people that the fact Harvard was winning at any point in this game was impressive enough. The last time these two squads met, two years ago in Cambridge, the Mountain Hawks rolled over Harvard 45-13. And The Sports Network, which covers Division I-AA football and issues national rankings, predicted that “[Harvard coach] Tim Murphy’s charges are about to meet the wrong team at the wrong time. Lehigh by a dozen.”

Instead, Harvard and Lehigh met each other at the perfect time—though it seemed like at the end, it was more important to the Mountain Hawks, or at least their running back Jermaine Pugh, who ran for 131 yards and three touchdowns.

Sometimes, you just end up being the victim of someone else’s season-changing victory.

So, unlike, say, the long-term prognosis of Harvard quarterback Neil Rose, the long-term prognosis for this Harvard team is clear: it’s going to win at least a share of the Ivy League title. Here’s why:

· The fourth-quarter collapse is not at all reminiscent of the meltdowns characteristic of the 5-5 Harvard teams from 1999 and 2000. Those squads, which all juniors and seniors will remember, engaged in spectacular game-ending debacles marked by a comic inability to close out Ivy games against lesser teams.

Harvard’s 2002 edition has held strong against ranked teams like Holy Cross and Lehigh, and Saturday was clearly an aberration. The Mountain Hawks caught a few breaks with the officials, as well as the Fitzpatrick-Palazzo turnover.

· There is no quarterback controversy. Neil Rose, who dressed for the game and even went out for the coin toss, is clearly the starter whenever he gets healthy. Even if Fitzpatrick had been able to engineer the upset, he can’t yet make a case to supplant the ultra-efficient Rose.

The sophomore was effective enough, going 22-of-36 for 289 yards, as well as rushing for two touchdowns, but also threw some bad balls and made mental errors late in the game. If Rose plays an entire game against Lehigh, Harvard wins.

· The secondary has been porous at times, but there are enough young guys rotating in and out to stop other teams from here on out. Junior Mante Dzakuma, who took last year off, came back in a big way Saturday, snagging two interceptions. In this category, also see: sophomore Brian Niemczak and junior Juano Queen.

Of course, Murphy was inclined to focus on the negative Saturday.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been in this position and it’s very frustrating,” Murphy said after his first loss since the Clinton administration.

Hey, Coach, I feel your pain. But your team put up 420 total yards and 35 points on a Top-15 team that hasn’t lost at home in 27 games—all with your backup quarterback—and it ought to be the other Ivy teams that are frustrated. Because Harvard has put its 2001 winning streak aside, and it looks like it’s time to start the 2002 version.

—Staff writer Rahul Rohatgi can be reached at rohatgi@fas.harvard.edu