Schires Returns to the Helm Against Columbia

The perfect season is no longer a possiblilty, but the Ivy title—or at least a piece of it—is still there for the taking.

And that is what the Harvard football team kept telling itself over and over again in practice this week.

“Our guys clearly understand what our goals were at the beginning of the season,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said, “and they haven’t changed. We’ve just made it a little bit tougher on ourselves, but the good news obviously is that we control our own destiny.”

A week after an inexplicable 30-16 loss to Ivy weakling Dartmouth halted the Crimson’s season-long winning streak, No. 23 Harvard (6-1, 3-1 Ivy) travels to take on another perennial patsy—Columbia (2-5, 1-3)—at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.

But one thing is for certain. After last week, no team will be overlooked.

“There was definitely a lot more intensity in practice this week,” junior quarterback Garrett Schires said. “We don’t plan on having another let down.”

With defending Ivy champion No. 9 Penn (7-0, 4-0 Ivy) still undefeated, Harvard has no room for error. Assuming the Quakers can handle Princeton and Cornell—who have a combined 2-6 league record—the Crimson must win each of its final three games, including next Saturday’s match-up against Penn, to ensure a tie atop the final league standings.

With junior quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick sidelined once again—he reaggravated his broken throwing hand while trying to lead a second-half comeback attempt against the Big Green—Schires will see his fourth straight start under center.

The lefty has played solidly, completing 44-of-78 passes for 596 yards, with four TDs and only two interceptions, while showing a knack for making smart decisions.

Though he struggled at times last week—when he completed 14-of-25 passes for 135 yards before being replaced by Fitzptarick—Schires returns to familiar surroundings tomorrow.

As a freshman seeing his first significant playing time two seasons ago, Schires completed 9-of-11 passes for 76 yards, along with throwing his first career TD—a 16-yarder to then-freshman Rodney Byrnes—in the Crimson’s 45-33 win.

“I was actually thinking about that a little earlier this week, talking to Rod about his old stomping grounds,” Schires said. “But there’s not really any advantage [to playing at Columbia]. I’m approaching it like any other game.”

Murphy has expressed complete confidence in his back-up signal caller.

“If you look at what he’s done based on very little experience, except for maybe a couple of examples in the Dartmouth game, he’s performed very well,” Murphy said. “We averaged in the first two games prior to Dartmouth 40 points a game and 500 yards a game with him, which obviously would compare favorably with Ryan Fitzpatrick, so we’re very pleased with Garrett.”

Schires and the rest of the Crimson should have a good chance to put up similar numbers when they face the Lions, who are currently ranked last in the league in scoring defense (29.6 points per game), total defense (484.3 yards per game) and passing defense (291.4 yards per game).

Though Harvard still leads Divison I-AA in total offense (502.9 ypg), it is coming off an anemic 16-point output against the Big Green. The Crimson ammassed 545 total yards, but did not score a single touchdown in three redzone chances.

That should change against Columbia, which has allowed teams to score on nine of 12 red zone opportunities in its last three games.

“We’re not really planning on altering our game plan [to take advantage of the secondary],” Schires said. “Our offense is pretty balanced. We’re not going to do anything but go out and execute our offense.”

Equally good news for the Crimson, whose quarterbacks combined to toss three interceptions in last week’s loss, is that the Lions defense is dead last in the league with only two interceptions all season.

Still after last week, the Crimson is not taking anything for granted.

“The only way we control our own destiny is by beating Columbia,” Murphy said.

Leading the Lions will be junior quarterback Jeff Otis, who has emerged as a one-man offense for Columbia. The 6’1” signal caller leads the league in pass attempts (39.3 per game) and with 279.2 passing yards per game, he trails only Payton Award candidate Alvin Cowan of Yale in that category.

On film, he has impressed the Harvard defense with his athleticism.

Otis also has a very big favorite target in 6’7” tight end Wade Fletcher. Fletcher is averaging 94.0 yards per game and could prove to be a problem for a Harvard secondary that has struggled against tall pass catchers.

Last week, Casey Cramer (6’2”), Jay Barnard (6’2”) and Andrew Hall (6’3”) combined to torch the Crimson for 291 receiving yards.

But the Crimson doesn’t plan on letting history repeat itself.

“There’s no question that last week was a setback, a game that we really should have won and could have won,” Murphy said. “But I was happy with the focus [of the team this week] and the intensity, so things are good.”

—Staff writer Lande A. Spottswood can be reached at spottsw@fas.harvard.edu.