TEAM OF THE YEAR: Football

Even before the season started, the team knew that this was the year.

The rest of the league didn’t know it yet. The Ivy League media preseason poll picked Harvard to finish second—just a hair behind reigning champion Penn, but barely ahead of historic rival Yale. The rest of campus certainly had little clue that across the Charles, perfection was brewing.

Within the sheltering ivy-kissed walls of Harvard Stadium, however, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind. They could see how the next three months would unfurl, as clearly and simply as the plays drawn up on the blackboard in Dillon Fieldhouse. Only the details had yet to be filled in. There would be a comeback or two and a couple of blowout wins. There would be a sunny September day where Ryan Fitzpatrick’s receivers made catch after balletic catch. There would be a frigid October afternoon where Bobby Everett’s defense would bring new meaning to the word impassable.

And the Saturday before Thanksgiving, there would be a triumphant victory to cap off Harvard’s first 10-0 undefeated season in over a century. In front of a sold-out crowd, the 2004 Crimson football team would claim its spot in history.

The team knew that perfection was the only acceptable outcome. And once you remove losing as an option, it makes your approach to the next 10 games extremely straightforward. Particularly for a senior class that had tasted perfection once before—as members of the 2001 team that went 9-0—and spent the next three years working to claim an undefeated season of its own.

“They set a goal of making this happen nine months ago and were unwavering in their commitment to see it through,” said Harvard coach Tim Murphy in the joyous moments after a 35-3 victory over Yale in The Game put an exclamation point on the year.

“We knew that as a senior class we had to do something our senior year,” Fitzpatrick added. “It’s great to have rings on our finger and go 9-0 and have that experience our freshman year, but it was what we were going to do our senior year that would decide how we were going to be remembered.”

Led by Fitzpatrick, Everett, and 13 other eventual All-Ivy picks, the Crimson set out from the start to make official the inevitable. Once the season kicked into high gear, all the uncertainties about the ability of this team to launch a sustained assault on the Ivy title were addressed. The factors that combined to made the Harvard squad a winning concoction turned out to be as clear-cut as the route to the championship.

Sophomore running back Clifton Dawson provided the Crimson with a matchless ground game, ultimately racking up multiple school records in the process. Kicker Matt Schindel stabilized a notoriously shoddy Crimson kicking game in just his first year on the team. Senior wide receiver Brian Edwards, on the heels of a breakout season the year before, made the Harvard special teams into his own private highlight reel—including four returns for touchdowns. Future NFL draftee and Ivy Player of the Year Fitzpatrick, with pro scouts watching his every move, kept his focus and provided the team with unquantifiable leadership.

And the defense, the biggest question mark heading into the season, proved to be the biggest reason that the Crimson was able to come home every Saturday with another W scrawled on the calendar.

“In the beginning of the season, I think everybody knew that we were going to be a pretty explosive team offensively,” Fitzpatrick said. “I don’t think anybody expected us to be as good as we were defensively, but that was really it—if you could put your finger on one thing that won us a championship, I think it was the strong play of our defense.”

Only once did Harvard yield more than 24 points, holding opponents below 15 seven times. In the Sept. 25 game against Brown, which saw the Crimson rally from a 21-point deficit to keep its title hopes on track, the defense gave up a season-high 34 points—but only a lone field goal in the second half—as Harvard pulled off a stunning 35-34 win. When the Crimson offense stalled against Dartmouth on Oct. 30, letting the Big Green come within seconds of an upset, it was the defense that clamped down when it counted to preserve both a 13-12 victory and Harvard’s perfect campaign.

And in the Ivy League title showdown against Penn in Philadelphia on Nov. 13, all those components came together to trounce the once-mighty Quakers 31-10 and bring the championship home to Cambridge once again. The offense racked up 447 yards while the defense held Penn to 3-of-13 on third down, forcing three turnovers. Five different players scored points for the Crimson, including linebacker Everett off a fake field goal.

With the title secured, all Harvard had to do was come home for one last hurrah—the team’s fourth consecutive win over Yale and a victory lap with the Ivy championship trophy. With the 10 wins, the 2004 Crimson took its place as the seventh undefeated and untied squad in Harvard history—and also finished the year as the only undefeated team in Division I-AA.

“It’s not about statistics—it’s just a great team effort,” Murphy said after The Game. “This is a perfect ending to the most perfect season.”

Of course, the team knew from the start that it was going to end this way. It’s a tried and true strategy to visualize your actions before you do them. See the ball, catch the ball. Picture the route, run the route. Close your eyes and watch the ball fly through the uprights. Take a breath and know exactly how the crushing hit will land.

Look at a schedule, and see nothing but perfection waiting to happen.

—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.