Scouting report: Harvard looking to bounce back

Lafayette will be a part of the 700th Harvard football game in iconic Harvard Stadium on Saturday.

The Harvard two-deep chart for this week has fifth-year senior Joe Viviano listed as the starting quarterback, but in his teleconference on Tuesday with Lafayette media, Crimson Coach Tim Murphy declared true freshman Jake Smith as the top guy.

“We have two very good quarterbacks (including) potentially a special one who is a freshman,” Murphy said. “It’s been a great competition that has made them both better and it beats the heck out of trying to find a quarterback. I’m not a great believer in a two-quarterback system, but it’s a bit of a luxury from our standpoint. Obviously, not so great for both kids.”

Asked if Smith is now the top gun, the 24th-year head coach said, “He’s the No. 1 guy, but he’s just a kid that is so natural, not unlike the (Sean) O’Malley kid from California who’s playing for Lafayette. He has great pocket skill, improbability, he throws guys open. He’s much more advanced than we thought when we recruited him.”

Smith didn’t play in the season opener against Rhode Island, but after Viviano was sacked five times in that narrow victory, it may have opened the door. Against Brown, Smith became the first freshman to start at quarterback since Ryan Fitzpatrick in 2001 and was 5-for-7 for 72 yards but was sacked three times. Viviano, who started nine games last year for Harvard, was 11-for-13 in the game.

Smith threw two interceptions while completing 16 of 30 against Georgetown; Viviano was 5-for-10 in the game and one of the completions was for a touchdown. And last week in the Crimson’s loss to Cornell, Smith was 8-for-14, completed his first TD pass but also was sacked five times and intercepted once.

Neither one has had the kind of stats that demands attention, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Murphy would split their time against Lafayette.

Here are a couple of Murphy’s other answers from the conference call.

Defensive problems: After holding Brown to 23 yards rushing and Georgetown to 46, Harvard gave 233 to Cornell, which had 59 running plays in the game. When it was suggested he must have been shocked by that, Murphy said: “Yeah no question. We pride ourselves on our run defense, no question about it. Like a lot of teams, at certain times we’re banged up. We were a little bit banged up last week and didn’t have the exact same run defense. Also, it was obviously a very different tack Cornell took, very different from what they showed their first couple of games. It was a combination of things, but Cornell did a very good job.”

Just 44 plays: Asked when Harvard was last limited to just 44 offensive plays in a game, Murphy said, “Before my tenure here, that’s for sure, I think that was amazing. Part of it was shooting ourselves in the foot and part of it was Cornell controlling the tempo of the game by deciding they were going to run the ball.”

Freshmen on two-deep: Smith and running back Aaron Shampkin are two of four freshmen on the depth chart, with Shampkin being the second leading rusher. The other two guys are offensive linemen. Murphy said, “I think we had 15 freshmen on the bus up to Cornell and that’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a terrific freshman class, but when you’re traveling that many when you’re used to being very successful, it means you probably have a few guys banged up as well.”

One player to watch for the Crimson is junior wide receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley. He has been a weapon as a kick returner, taking one punt 91 yards for a touchdown and nearly breaking a kickoff return as well. He is also the second leading receiver with 13 catches, but he hasn’t yet scored a touchdown. He is averaging 121.5 all-purpose yards per game. He led the team in receptions last year and he is a two-time all-Ivy League pick.

Dissa and Data:  Saturday’s game will be the 700^th in historic Harvard Stadium. The Crimson is 5-1 in previous “hundred” games … Thirty might be a magic number. Harvard has lost only six times and tied once when scoring 30 points or more in game. Ii has won 312 times …Some of the newer followers of Lafayette football might not know that Harvard’s Murphy was the defensive line coach for the Leopards in 1981 when they were 9-2 on Bill Russo’s first year as head coach … Harvard is 9-1 against Patriot League teams since the league started giving merit scholarships in 2013. Lafayette is 0-8 against Ivy League teams in that same stretch … And, lest we forget, Mickey Fein, the wide receivers coach for the Crimson, was the offensive coordinator at Lafayette for eight years – the first one was 2009, when Rob Curley and the “Four Horses of College Hill” turned the tables on the Crimson 35-18.