Irvin To Start Season Opener for Football

The quarterback starting for Saturday’s season opener against Holy Cross won’t be anyone Harvard fans have seen before—not even in the spring game or running out the clock at the end of a 2004 blowout win.

Harvard coach Tim Murphy said yesterday that sophomore Richard Irvin, a transfer from Tulane, will start for the Crimson against the Crusaders, but added that sophomore Liam O’Hagan would certainly see playing time.

“Both quarterbacks will play,” Murphy said. “It’s a slight nod. I must admit it’s a fluid situation until one guy demonstrates that he can run the offense with consistency.”

The decision is something of a turnaround from earlier in the preseason, when O’Hagan was thought to have an advantage. Though O’Hagan—the No. 3 signal caller last year behind graduated seniors Ryan Fitzpatrick and Garrett Schires—has never thrown a collegiate pass, he has experience with the complex Harvard offense, performing well in the Crimson’s spring game.

He has also practiced with the No. 1 offense more than Irvin during the preseason.

Irvin has had to learn the Crimson’s offensive schemes quickly, but has the benefit of game experience at the Division I-A level.

As a redshirt freshman for the Green Wave, Irvin saw action in every game and made two starts. In his first collegiate start against Texas Christian, he was 22-of-37 for 282 yards and five touchdowns, leading Tulane to a 35-31 win and earning Conference USA offensive player of the week recognition.

Murphy said the numbers from the Crimson’s two preseason scrimmages—against Columbia on Sept. 3 and an intra-squad match on Saturday—gave Irvin “a slight edge.” In those games, Irvin was 41-of-67 for 593 yards, with four touchdowns and one interception.

O’Hagan was 25-of-51 for 268 yards, with three touchdowns and two interceptions.

The coaching staff has not yet determined how Saturday’s game will be split up between the two quarterbacks.

“The guy that does the best job moving the team downfield will see more playing time,” Murphy said.

INTRA-SQUAD SCRIMMAGE

With several of Murphy’s top “playmakers” sitting out with minor injuries, the squad was less than crisp at Saturday’s intra-squad scrimmage.

Most of last year’s All-Ivy stars were gone by the second quarter, with junior wide receiver Corey Mazza and junior tailback Clifton Dawson yielding their positions to backups.

The result was an inconsistent game that left Murphy grateful that a week remained before the season opener.

“A lot of our better playmakers on both sides of the ball did not play, and that I think contributed to the sloppy play at times,” Murphy said. “We’ve seen some flashes of good things from both units but I’m certainly glad we have another week to prepare for Holy Cross because today was not good enough for us to be the type of team we’ve been in the past or we expect to be in the future.”

“I feel like we weren’t as focused as we should have been,” Mazza said.

Senior wideout Rodney Byrnes made an even earlier exit during the game’s third series after a crushing collision with junior cornerback Keith Howell left him stunned on the field. Byrnes was shaken up and sat with ice bags wrapped around his neck, but received only a bandage on his chin.

Captain Erik Grimm was in his usual position at defensive end, but several of his fellow defensive starters—senior middle linebacker Matt Thomas, junior defensive tackle Mike Berg and senior cornerback Gary Sonkur—did not dress for the game.

Thomas had damaged ligaments in his left thumb, and wore a cast on his forearm. Berg had “a couple injuries” but both were to be cleared yesterday. Sonkur’s injured hamstring is expected to be cleared tomorrow.

“Unless we have any further injuries I expect all those guys to play who sat out the scrimmage,” Murphy said. “And quite frankly, if this had been a game, our opener, most of those guys would have played.”

One who won’t be back by Saturday is punter Mike King. The senior suffered a pulled groin in practice last Tuesday and could be out as long as four weeks.

Junior Clem McDavid will take over punting duties, and sophomore placekicker Matt Schindel will handle kickoffs.

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