Sound Off: Murphy Talks Night Game

The start of the football season is just hours ahead of us, but before we delve into a whirlwind 10-game season, The Back Page took some time to check in with Harvard coach Tim Murphy to talk about the Crimson’s upcoming opponent—Holy Cross—the benefit of night games, and the looming concern about ongoing concussions. On Monday, look for Murphy’s sound off about Harvard’s opening effort on the gridiron.

What Murphy said: “Obviously having the benefit of playing their third game, [Holy Cross has] worked some kinks out. I think they know where they are [personnel-wise], they’re probably a little bit more disciplined than you are the first game in terms of penalties and things like that.”

What Murphy means: On paper, the Crimson should be a better team than Holy Cross. The Crusaders lost their NFL-caliber quarterback Dominic Randolph to graduation, and, following a 31-7 drubbing at the hands of Massachusetts, the team does not appear strong coming into tonight’s contest. Nonetheless, “discipline” goes a long way early in the season, and Murphy will have to make sure that his players are ready for a well-prepared opponent. It would be shocking if this game were a shootout with both squads breaking in new quarterbacks, so, as Murphy emphasized in the preseason, mistake-free football will prove key for a victory under the lights.

What Murphy said: “So many of these kids grew up with high school football on Friday nights, and with the atmosphere we’ve had the last couple of years for the Holy Cross and Brown games, yeah, our kids are really excited [for the night game]. We hope that the students and the alumni are just as excited, because we’d love to see a great turnout.”

What Murphy means: Basically, Murphy is politely side-stepping the fact that half of the Harvard football team enjoyed bigger crowds at their high school games than they do on an average Saturday in Cambridge. It is not surprising the athletes get pumped up for the night game, because who doesn’t enjoy the spotlight every once in awhile? Unfortunately, until the Crimson fans figure out a few cheers beyond “Let’s go Harvard!” the atmosphere will continue to be underwhelming by BCS standards, but the night game has indeed proven to be an exciting event for everyone involved the last three years.

What Murphy said: “There’s been, from my understanding, a standardization of the process or protocol you go through [with concussions]. So the bottom line is that a), it’s much different from when I played, and it’s much different even from 10 years ago. At the end, it’s whatever the doctors tell us, and it’s, if my trainer and my doctor say this kid’s not going to be ready to play, there’s no conversation. And that’s a good thing, it really is.”

What Murphy means: Everywhere you turn in organized football these days, it seems the concussion conversation is unavoidable. Important precautions have been taken at all levels to begin protecting players more effectively, and the Ivy League is no different. Already we’ve had the August announcement that wedge blocking on kickoffs (already banned in the NFL) will no longer be permitted in the NCAA to avoid monstrous hits on unsuspecting special teams players, and the recent revelation that Penn captain Owen Thomas suffered brain injuries stemming from repeated trauma prior to his April suicide has returned the issue to the forefront of the Ancient Eight. Hopefully, with the new rules and precautions in place, such tragedies will become a thing of the past.