Preview: Harvard Football Heads to Washington D.C.'s Audi Field for Truth and Service Classic Against Howard

For Harvard players hoping to play professionally, Saturday afternoon’s matchup against Howard (1-4, 0-0) will mark an opportunity to play in a professional environment. The Crimson (3-1, 2-0) will face the Bison at 4 p.m. at Audi Field in Washington D.C., which hosts Major League Soccer (MLS) side D.C. United and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL)’s Washington Spirit. It will be the second of Harvard’s three consecutive nationally televised games, as the contest will be aired live on ESPN3. The game is the marquee event of the second annual Truth and Service Classic, a collaboration between Howard and Audi Field and a two-day celebration of community service and sports at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The first edition of the series took place on Sept. 18, 2021, as the Bison lost, 48-32, to Hampton.

“HBCU football is definitely important to everybody. It’s important to the communities that they represent,” said senior defensive back Khalil Dawsey. “It’s definitely something we’ve been looking forward to for a while now, so just being in that atmosphere, being around them and trying to contribute and supplement some of the good things they do.”

In addition to celebrating the long and decorated history of Howard football, which dates back to 1893, Saturday’s matchup will be just the second time the two teams have met on the gridiron. In 2019, the Crimson hosted the Bison at Harvard Stadium and walked out victorious, 62-17. That year, Howard went just 2-10 with an average point differential of -28.3. But head coach Larry Scott’s team has made significant strides since then, as although the Bison sit at just 1-4 this season, their point differential is much better: -2.4. Howard’s improvement continues a nationwide trend of increased quality in HBCU football.

The Bison’s most recent opponent will be a familiar one to Harvard fans: Yale. The Bulldogs are currently tied with the Crimson at 3-1 overall, including 2-0 in the Ivy League. However, Yale struggled mightily against Howard, eking out a 34-26 victory. The Bison defense held quarterback Nolan Grooms – who looked unstoppable at times in last year’s edition of The Game – to just 111 yards passing at a 41.7% completion percentage, one touchdown, and an interception. With a much-improved passing defense, the onus will be on senior quarterback Charlie Dean to get off to a strong start.

“Just getting it going early,” said junior tight end Tyler Neville on the key to dissecting Howard’s secondary. “Just simple stuff early, and then we can take the top off when need be. But hitting everything short early.”

First-year linebacker Jack Kirkwood, sophomore defensive back Riley Jenne, and senior linebacker Jack McGowan combine for a tackle in a 28-21 (OT) victory over Merrimack on Sept. 16. By Josie W. Chen

The Harvard offense will have to get off to a better start than it did last Friday against Cornell, when the unit didn’t get into the end zone until the second half. Dean will have to demonstrate a strong connection with his top targets early on, including Neville, who scored his first career touchdown in the 35-28 win over the Big Red, and the Ivy League’s second-leading receiver, senior wideout Kym Wimberly. After pacing the Crimson with 453 receiving yards last year, Wimberly opted to return to Cambridge for his senior season, and has been on a complete tear to start the season, amassing 29 catches, 374 yards, and three scores already. His average of 93.5 yards per game, through four contests, would be the third-best rate in program history, and his 7.25 receptions per game would rank second all-time, behind the legendary Carl Morris ’03’s 9.0 in 2002.

But for the contributions of Wimberly, Neville, and sophomore wide receiver Ledger Hatch (11 catches for 223 yards so far in 2022), the star of the Harvard offense on Saturday will likely be senior running back Aidan Borguet. Phil Steele’s preseason choice for Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year has built on his brilliant 2021 campaign with an even better senior year; through four games, he has amassed 501 yards and six scores on 82 carries. Cornell was unable to stop him on his 28 carries last Friday, bringing him down in the backfield just once, and Howard has a much more porous rushing defense, ranking just 97th in the nation and allowing 197.6 yards per game. On Oct. 1, it allowed Yale to amass 366 yards on the ground on just 40 total carries. The 9.15 yards per carry was the most efficient performance in Bulldogs program history by nearly two yards.

“We’re going to destroy the C-gap,” explained Neville, referring to the gaps outside the offensive tackles. “They have these [defensive ends] who like to slant down. We’re going to take advantage of that. We’re going to run the rock.”

For the Bison to limit Borguet on Saturday, they will need a strong performance from defensive tackle Marcus Brown, whose three forced fumbles in four games rank second in the FCS. The six-foot-five Houston native has broken out this year after seeing minimal playing time in his first two Howard seasons. The Crimson will also have to avoid defensive back Kenny Gallop Jr., who leads the team with 34 tackles overall and forced a fumble against Yale. Meanwhile, sophomore linebacker Terrance Hollon’s two interceptions pace the Bison. Brown, Gallop, and Hollon have been key contributors to a Howard defense that allows just 182.2 yards per game through the air, the 16th stingiest rate in the country.

Just like they take away the pass, the Bison also have a relatively pass-heavy offensive scheme, led by veteran quarterback Quinton Williams. The senior had done a relatively strong job protecting the ball this season before throwing two interceptions against the Bulldogs two weeks ago, recording three games in which he completed at least two-thirds of his passes. He had arguably his best game in the win over Hampton on Sept. 3, completing 21 of his 31 passes for 339 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception. Williams also has his fair share of strong targets to throw to: grad student wideout Antoine Murray has 371 yards and three scores in five games, including two in which he hit the century mark. Additionally, junior wide receiver Kasey Hawthorne had his first 100-yard game in the loss to Yale. The aggressive Howard offense is capable of producing big plays, and Harvard fans can expect Williams to take his fair share of deep shots against a Crimson defense that has conceded 269 yards per game through the air – 99th in the country – and produced just one turnover.

“They like to throw downfield, try to hit teams vertical,” Dawsey explained. “We’ve kind of struggled with that, honestly.”

Running back Jarett Hunter will probably not feature much in the Bison’s game plan against Harvard, which boasts the sixth-strongest rushing defense in the country. The Crimson’s defense is led by its talented defensive line, including junior defensive tackle Thor Griffith, who leads the time in tackles with 26 a season after being a finalist for the Jerry Rice Award, given to the top freshman in the country. The six-foot-three, run-stuffing specialist has also added two sacks this season, aiding a Harvard defense that has taken down the quarterback behind the line 15 times in four games – tied with Yale for the ninth-most prolific rate in the country. After a 4.5-sack performance in the season-opening win over Merrimack that garnered him FCS Defensive Player of the Week honors, senior defensive lineman Nate Leskovec ranks seventh nationally. Lining up across from Leskovec, senior defensive lineman and captain Truman Jones notched the second two-sack game of his career in the Oct. 1 loss to Holy Cross. His first came against Howard in 2019, when he recorded 3.5 sacks.

Senior defensive lineman Truman Jones, then a sophomore, racks up one of his 3.5 sacks in the 62-17 win over Howard on Oct. 5, 2019. Jones is the captain and veteran leader of this Crimson squad. By Timothy R. O'Meara

Despite its proficiency against the run, the Harvard defense has struggled mightily through the air, particularly with penalties. Senior cornerback Alex Washington, senior linebacker Jack McGowan, and Dawsey were all flagged for pass interference penalties in the Holy Cross contest, and the defense was hit with a few key whistles in the win over Cornell as well. The Crimson gifted the Big Red a fresh pair of downs on four occasions, including twice on third down, and were flagged 12 times for 125 yards in total. After being one of the most disciplined teams in college football last year, Harvard has been flagged 9.75 times per game this season, which is the third-worst rate in the country. Dawsey, Washington, McGowan, and senior safeties James Herring and Victor Tademy will have to be careful to avoid pass interference penalties against the aggressive Bison, as all five whistles blown against Harvard’s secondary this season have occurred in one-on-one deep shots against physical receivers where the cornerback failed to get his head turned around.

“We just got to stay disciplined there,” Dawsey said. “We’re just a couple of guys trying to make some plays at the end, and at least it wasn’t an effort thing, so it’s something we’ve been focusing in on [in] practice, making sure we’re staying disciplined and not doing too much after the whistle.”

Despite the Crimson’s 3-1 record, this season has been marked by tight games, with four contests that were each winnable by either squad. But the gauntlet will only get tougher, and if Harvard wants to claim its ninth Ivy League title since 2000, it cannot afford such a slim margin for error. When asked what he wants to see from his team in the final non-conference tuneup, Neville was clear:

“I want to put up a lot of points. A lot of points. And we haven’t had a dominating performance yet this season, and that’s what we want to do. We want to come out and dominate.”

–Staff writer Griffin Wong can be reached at griffin.wong@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @Wong_THC.