Harvard’s Trick Plays Lead To Reverse of Fortune

The Harvard football team, which emphasizes solid defense and few turnovers, has long been known to stick to the basics. But it is also aware of the advantages a big, creative play can have—Harvard coach Tim Murphy counts three of them.

“One, even if they don’t work, they keep the defense honest and makes them think twice about doing certain things,” Murphy says. “Two, it slows it down to less reaction football and more assignment football. And three, it’s fun—it’s fun for the players, it’s fun for the crowd. I wouldn’t do it just for fun, but if you factor all those things in, it can be a great equalizer.”

The Crimson used such trickery in last year’s matchup against the Elis to obliterate any chance Yale had to win the game.

Up 22-17 in the third quarter and facing a fourth-and-5 from midfield, Murphy sent the punt team onto the field. But instead of kicking away, Harvard snapped the ball to linebacker Dante Balestracci, who sprinted to his right before pitching the ball to punter Adam Kingston. The play got the Crimson to the 8-yard line, and set up another Harvard touchdown to extend the lead to 28-17.

“[A special play] changes the whole momentum of the game, so it’s always a possibility that a play like that will be brought in, especially in a game against Yale,” Kingston says.

The Crimson has shown some success this season with trick plays against its opponents. In the season opener against Holy Cross, the Crusaders appeared to be gaining signs of life after scoring a field goal in the beginning of the third quarter, making the score 21-10. But a Harvard special play killed much of the team’s momentum.

Sophomore wide receiver Rodney Byrnes took a pitch from quarterback Neil Rose and appeared to be headed upfield. But Byrnes stopped and heaved a wobbly pass to wide-open wideout Carl Morris, who ran into the end zone untouched.

The score improved the Crimson’s lead to 28-10, which was all it needed to finish off Holy Cross.

That play was reminiscent of the success the Crimson had with trick plays played during the 2001 campaign. In fact, the wide receiver pass against Holy Cross was very similar to the one Harvard ran against Dartmouth last season.

Instead of Morris catching the ball for the touchdown, however, he received the pitch and then threw the pigskin. Morris connected with wide receiver Sam Taylor ’02 across the other side of the field, and Taylor ran in the pass for a touchdown. Down only 21-7 and with the momentum on its side, the Crimson began to orchestrate its incredible second half comeback, eventually beating the Big Green, 31-21.

Morris, an All-American and the 2001 Ivy Player of the Year, has played a crucial role in the Crimson’s ability to run trick plays. He is a versatile athlete, which has allowed the coaching staff to line him up nearly anywhere on the field.

Morris has proven so instrumental, in fact, that he has even diagrammed a few plays himself.

“This is the funny thing about Carl is that he’s always coming up with these trick plays,” Rose says. “And why not? He’s run plenty of specials.”

Though Morris and Byrnes get the majority of special play assignments, the coaching staff notes that all the wideouts are great at running special plays.

“We look for opportunities for Rodney and Carl,” says offensive coordinator Jay Mills. “But, at the same time, we feel that we have a good number of talented individuals, so if we can use Carl or Rodney as a decoy, it can be just as effective.”

The Crimson used some other talented players on a fake punt last season against Northeastern. On a play similar to the one Harvard ran against Yale later that year, then-sophomore tight end Matt Fratto took a direct snap and easily picked up the first down.

But this year, Harvard has not always been able to capitalize on the trick plays it ran so effectively last season.

Down 17-14 against Northeastern in the fourth quarter on Oct. 19, Harvard attempted a throwback pass after sophomore quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick pitched the ball to Morris. The play was good for a first down, but was called back due to a holding penalty, and forced the Crimson to eventually punt.

“We had a bunch of momentum busters, the obvious one being the penalty on the reverse pass,” Murphy said after the game.

While running special plays has not always panned out this year, stopping other teams’ trickery has played a huge role in Harvard’s success this year.

“Stopping the fake [punt] against Columbia, which could have been a momentum changer, was a big play,” said Harvard special teams coach Tim Weaver.

Down just 14-7, the Lions tried to run a fake punt for a much- needed first down. But junior cornerback Chris Raftery read the play well and tackled Columbia punter Nick Rudd before he could get back to the line of scrimmage. The big defensive stop gave the momentum back to the Crimson, who took advantage of the great field position and scored again in just six plays.

Harvard coaches are well aware of the benefits trickery provides the potent Crimson attack, but they say they are not designing anything special for The Game just because Harvard happens to be facing its archrival.

“We really don’t try to do anything new or different. We just try to see if there is anything we can exploit,” Mills explains. “Every week we try to explore some option, not just for this week.”

Still, players feel that Harvard could very well end up pulling something out of the hat.

“We’re gonna have a big crowd who should be into it,” Byrnes says. “So I definitely think it [a trick play] will be that much more important.”