SPORTS BRIEF: Murphy Taps Former QB Lamb to Return as Offensive Coordinator

On Friday, Harvard head football coach Tim Murphy named former quarterback Joel Lamb ’93 as the newest offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Crimson.

“I try to strive for consistency in all aspects,” Lamb told The Crimson as a player in 1991, the same year he led a 1-4 Harvard squad to late season victories against Princeton and Penn, finishing the season at 4-5-1. He will helm an offense that was the Ivy League’s second most prolific in 2005.

Lamb comes to the Crimson by way of Yale, where he had been the quarterbacks coach for the last nine years, and offensive coordinator for the last three. Lamb will fill both coaching slots on head coach Tim Murphy’s staff.

Lamb also spent four years as the quarterbacks coach at Amherst prior to his tenure at Yale, where he first worked with Bulldogs coach Jack Siedlecki.

Under Siedlecki, Lamb directed one of the better passing attacks in the Ivies while tutoring four of the Bulldogs’ most accomplished quarterbacks, but never defeated Harvard during his tenure as offensive coordinator. In 2003, his unit led the league in scoring, total offense, and passing offense.

Lamb replaces former offensive coordinator Dave Cecchini, who departed Cambridge in the winter for The Citadel to rejoin head coach Kevin Higgins. Cecchini worked with Higgins at Lehigh prior to joining the Crimson staff in 2004.

Defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator Eric Westerfield also departed for The Citadel. His position has not yet been filled by Murphy.

In the meantime, Lamb will shoulder some recruiting duties for the Crimson. The Natick, Mass. native will be responsible for recruiting in Massachusetts and the Midwest.

During his playing days at Harvard, Lamb was a backup quarterback on a deep team that at one point had as many as six candidates for the starting job. He won the team’s Henry N. Lamar award in 1992 for “dedication to the program, concern for his fellow man, and contributions to Harvard football.”

—Brad Hinshelwood