No. 12 Harvard Faces Toughest Matchup Yet on Saturday Against Dartmouth

After a roaring victory over the Tigers last week, the No. 12 Harvard Crimson (6-0, 3-0 Ivy) looks to reign supreme against the Dartmouth Big Green (5-1, 2-1) in Saturday’s clash of the colors for League control.

The Crimson currently sits alone at the top of the rankings with four teams tied for second — including Dartmouth. A win would keep Harvard out of a messy scramble for the top spot and keep its hopes of a sole Ivy League title alive.

“The only way you control your own fate is by continuing to go 1-0 every week,” said Head Coach Andrew Aurich. “We just have to treat every one of these games like it’s the Super Bowl and go about our business that way, because we know that’s the only way we can ensure the result at the end of the season is what we’re looking for.”

In just 25 days, the FCS Championship Committee will release its field for the 2025 FCS Playoffs, and for the first time, the Ivy League will receive an automatic-bid in the bracket.

With Ivies having a shorter 10-game season and relatively easy nonconference schedules, the chances of a second place Ivy team receiving an at-large bid to the playoffs are slim — meaning that Harvard must continue to ace its games if it wants to ensure postseason play.

Even if Harvard manages to secure a place in the playoffs, dominant performances could continue to boost its FCS rankings. The Crimson is currently ranked at No. 12 in the media poll and No. 15 in the coaches’ poll, and a top eight seed at the end of the season would ensure a much needed first-round bye in the playoffs. Even being ranked between nine and 16 would guarantee a home game in the first round, keeping the team near Cambridge the week after Harvard-Yale.

Analytics seem to point to Harvard being better than its rank, thanks to the Crimson’s impressive efficiency and turnover margin. The team sits at 11th in total offense and second in total defense, with its turnover margin sitting at fifth in the nation. ESPN’s SP+ metric — which is a composite score of various performance measures — pins the Crimson as the fourth best team in all of the FCS.

The offensive unit is managed by senior quarterback Jaden Craig, who not only leads the league in total passing yards and TD-INT ratio, but is also considered one of the strongest signal-callers in all of the FCS due to his accuracy, decision-making, and ability to move in the pocket.

Even without last season’s primary receiver Cooper Barkate — who transferred to Duke and currently has the ninth most receiving yards of any power conference player — Craig has continued to shine.

Craig has found support from a deep Crimson receiver room — with seven or more players having caught a pass in the majority of the team’s games and nine notching a touchdown.

Opposite its league-leading offense, the Crimson’s staunch defense has limited its opponents to 10 second-half points in its last three matchups. Headlined by captain Ty Bartrum and senior defensive end Alex DeGrieck, Harvard has allowed the fewest defensive yards of the Ivies, at just 255 per game.

Despite Harvard’s arsenal of talent, Dartmouth will by no means be an easy home matchup.

Though not currently ranked in either FCS poll, the Big Green is top three in the league in offensive and defensive efficiency, and just last week pummeled conference opponent Columbia by 46 points.

Dartmouth is led on offense by senior running back D.J. Crowther, who averages 95 rushing yards per game and has totaled seven scores on the season. Defensively, it boasts a strong front eight that is anchored by senior linebacker Zyion Freer-Brown, who has 50 tackles to go along with 3.5 tackles-for-loss.

Last season, Harvard escaped Hanover with a nail-biter win over a then-undefeated Big Green, setting the Crimson up to win its second straight League title just three weeks later.

Now, Harvard faces four straight Ivy matchups to end the year, including the strongest other teams in the League. With Harvard being the league favorite and two-year reigning champions, each team will come into its matchup against the Crimson with a vengeance.

For his part, Aurich is ready to “embrace being the villain.”

“Every time we play an Ivy League school, the players at that school wanted to be at Harvard, and they didn’t get the opportunity,” said Aurich. “They’re gonna throw their best punch, and if they land it, they’re gonna keep throwing punches.”

– Staff writer Connor Castañeda can be reached at connor.castaneda@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @castanedasports.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.