KING JAMES BIBLE: In Ivy Football, Nothing is Certain

It’s the paradox that has come to embody the Ivy League.

If one thing’s for certain, it’s that nothing’s for certain.

With nearly one-third of the football season under our belt, this seems like the time to issue the heady reminder that, when it comes to Ancient Eight games, the impossible is not only achievable but sometimes it’s even likely.

Colgate fans get the message. The No. 11 Raiders took a 28-14 lead over Yale with just over nine minutes remaining in the contest, as defending Payton Award winner Jamaal Branch notched his second touchdown of the game.

The fact that Yale ultimately rallied for 17 points and the win in the final 4:47 isn’t all that surprising, noting that the Bulldogs boast a Payton Award candidate of their own—quarterback Alvin Cowan.

But that’s not how the Bulldogs did it. Cowan went just 5-10 on Yale’s three scoring drives compiling a relatively miniscule 39 yards.

Rather, trailing by 14 with the clock ticking down, Bulldog coach Jack Siedlecki decided to give the ball to running back Robert Carr 10 times. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t try this strategy at home on your favorite video game, because you will most likely lose. Unless, of course, your running back rips off 87 yards on those 10 carries like Carr did, keeping Yale from falling below .500 for the first time since 2001.

Yet that same Bulldog team that upset that nationally-ranked Colgate squad this weekend fell the week before to lowly Cornell. How can you go from losing to a school that hadn’t beaten anyone in a calendar year to defeating a team that played in last year’s I-AA national title game? Welcome to Ivy League Football.

Brown understands the point as well. The Bears held a 31-10 lead at halftime over Harvard and seemed certain to start 1-0 in the Ivies for the first time since 1999. Then, Corey Mazza hauled in a touchdown and Clifton Dawson rushed for two as the Crimson stormed back for the 35-34 win.

This, of course, would have been a shocker if Brown hadn’t believed it was going to start 1-0 in 2000 or 2001 when it held 17-7 halftime leads only to lose 42-37 and 27-20, respectively, or in 2002, when it jumped out to an 18-0 lead only to lose 26-24.

And if you’re postulating that the only certainty is a Harvard comeback, think again. Prior to the 2000 season, Brown had won the last three matchups decided by two touchdowns or less.

The change in philosophy of Ivy offenses speaks to this uncertainty factor as well. The Ancient Eight has usually been stereotyped as a pass-oriented league, one which facilitates shootouts and playstation-like stat lines. This season, however, three Ivy running backs—Dawson, Brown’s Nick Hartigan and Yale’s Robert Carr—rank among the top seven in the nation in terms of rushing yards per game and Dawson leads the country in scoring with 18 points per contest.

But this shift in offensive focus wasn’t even planned. Harvard coach Tim Murphy will admit that, while he saw Carl Morris gamebreaker-type talent in Dawson, he was prepared to platoon the transfer running back with Ryan Tyler, hoping to squeeze enough yards out of the duo to keep the pressure off his potent passing attack.

Brown was all set to give the starting running back job to speedy Tristan Murray a year ago. Murray scored the first touchdown of the 2003 season for the Bears against Albany, but by the end of the game, Hartigan had stolen the starting gig from him after compiling for 126 yards and a touchdown. By season’s end, Hartigan had gone from backup bruiser to the Ivy League’s leading rusher.

Carr’s rise to national prominence was an even more intriguing story than that of the other two backs. As a freshman in 2001, Carr exploded onto the scene, setting the single-game rookie rushing record with 185 yards against Dartmouth. He rode the momentum into his sophomore season, during which he broke the 200-yard rushing barrier twice and compiled 1,085 yards on the season, good enough to earn himself First-Team All-Ivy status.

But last year, Carr was an afterthought. He gained just 800 yards on the ground and fell from the top rusher in the Ivy League in 2002 to fifth on the list last season.

With Cowan spending the summer meshing with his wide receivers and receiving All-America and Payton Award nominations, it appeared that Yale was ready to take to the air again and that Carr’s role would be diminished even further.

Three games into the season, he’s the seventh most productive rusher in the nation.

It’s not a surprise. It’s not a shock. It’s just another chapter in the “never say never” world that is Ivy League football.

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu. His column appears every Tuesday.