Columbia Provides Last Test for Football Before Undefeated Penn

Ivy League football is a 10-week hike. The players trudge beneath hot sun and cold rain. They trek through fields of mud and shrapnel-like turf pellets. They wear sweaty jerseys and knee braces. They carry each other.

Harvard football has played seven weeks of football. Simple math shows that three remain: home against Columbia, away against Penn, and home against Yale. Win all three, and the Crimson will claim a fourth-straight championship.

Harvard has not lost in conference play. Nor have the Quakers. At the start of every season, the fight for the Ivy League title is a multi-team, free-for-all frenzy. Now it is a duel.

On Saturday, the Crimson will host Columbia, a historically bendable program that has stiffened into a tough out. Gone are the days when the Lions’ only claim to relevance was a record-breaking losing streak. Already in 2016, Columbia has matched its win total from the previous three seasons combined.

Granted, winning two games is a low bar, but the program has improved in all the intangibles that coach Al Bagnoli emphasizes. The defense hits hard and hangs tough. Players speak with renewed pride. The Lions aren’t the kings of the jungle, but at least they’ve escaped Petco.

Harvard should still beat Columbia, probably by a lot. Even in this season of attrition, the Crimson has stockpiled enough talent to survive. Senior halfback Anthony Firkser and sophomore wide receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley bully single coverage. Senior quarterback Joe Viviano torments defenses with his feet. And Harvard’s defense—though far from perfect—has yielded only seven first-half points in the last two contests combined.

But the Lions deserve serious preparation. In 2015, Columbia rebounded from a 24-3 deficit against the Crimson to get within one score; only a late false-start penalty prevented the Lions from potentially mounting a game-tying drive. If Harvard does record a blowout on Saturday, then that result will testify more to the team’s strength than Columbia’s weakness.

Let us suppose, however, that the Crimson wins on Saturday. At that point, all the Ivy League’s attention will turn to the matchup that has been building since the first day of preseason: Harvard versus Penn.

The Quakers are scary good. We knew as much back in August. In 2015 Penn handed Harvard its only loss and claimed a share of the Ancient Eight title.

Now in 2016, the program has returned starting quarterback Alek Torgersen and star receiver Justin Watson, arguably the only wideout better than Shelton-Mosley. Toss in a veteran defense, and the Quakers possess incredible potential.

Penn has largely fulfilled these expectations. The season began with two losses to tough non-conference foes, but since then the Quakers have won five straight, putting up 35 or more points in all but one league game. Down went Dartmouth, 37-24. Down went Yale, 42-7.

This weekend marks a major test for Penn, as the team visits third-place Princeton. If the Quakers emerge victorious, then they will roll into the Harvard game with a head full of steam. As Terrell Owens might say, get your popcorn ready.

Does the Crimson have enough to beat Penn? Last year, the answer was yes—except that Harvard lost, a victim of sluggish play, bad luck, and 24 mile-per-hour winds. That 35-25 defeat was the lone blemish for Harvard in 2015. It was a crushing loss.

This year, in my view, your expectations for the Crimson-Quakers contest depend on your opinion of the Harvard secondary. Statistically speaking, quarterbacks have scorched that unit. Last weekend Dartmouth’s Jack Heneghan saved his job by tossing for 301 yards—in essentially three quarters of play. In three of the last four games, opponents have out-passed the Crimson. Many of these throws have come to wide-open targets—receivers who somehow have streaked down the sideline without anyone noticing.

The Big Green managed to come back last Saturday because the secondary had more holes than a fishing net. It was not an inspiring performance with Justin Watson on the horizon.

At the same time, Harvard’s defensive backs are aggressive and opportunistic. Captain Sean Ahern is the best shutdown corner in the league. Safeties Tanner Lee, Kolbi Brown, and Tim Haehl can all play.

It’s hard to explain why a unit with so much talent has given up so many yards. The problem seems to lie more in miscommunication than one-on-one coverage. When locked onto an opponent, Crimson defensive backs can swat away passes and make tackles. But issues arise when they don’t lock on. Against a pair as skilled as Torgersen and Watson, such mistakes tend to be ruinous.

Harvard coaches have a week-and-a-half of practices to fix any weaknesses in the secondary. The team could use every minute of that preparation. Ivy League football is, after all, a 10-week hike. And the only guarantee is that there is no rest until the final summit.

—Staff writer Sam Danello can be reached at sam.danello@thecrimson.com.