Volume LXVVIII, No.10
November 18, 2017
YALE FOOTBALL NEWS Published by the Yale Football Association by Chip Malafronte
Bulldogs Capture Ivy Title Outright - First in 37 Years Yale hadn’t owned the sole claim to the Ivy League title since 1980. Yale hadn’t defeated Harvard in the Yale Bowl since 1999. Yale hadn’t hoisted a championship trophy of any kind since 2006. On a crisp, cloudy afternoon last Saturday, the Bulldogs put an end to all three of those droughts by writing a new chapter in the 145year history book that is Yale football. Behind a suffocating defensive effort and a 17-point outburst late in the first half, Yale defeated Harvard 24-3 before a crowd of 51,426 at the Bowl to claim the outright Ivy League title for the first time since the final days of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Yale (9-1, 6-1) had clinched at least a share of its 15th league title the previous Saturday at Princeton. This win was the icing on the cake, cementing Team 145 as one of the best to ever don Yale blue. Only a one-point loss at Dartmouth on Oct. 7 stood in the way of the first perfect season since 1960. “This is more than just a win for Yale,” said Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football Tony Reno. “It was a complete culture change and people showed how football should be played. It’s much more than football and for that I’m really proud of these guys. It completed a furious one-year turnaround from a 3-7 season in 2016; a frustrating campaign in which the Bulldogs were ravaged by injury. On Saturday, a comeback that began with a shocking win at Harvard the previous November came full circle. At some point over the summer, this restoration to glory even earned its own name. The Ivy League Takeover, or, ITO for short. “ Coach had this vision and we all bought into
the Ivy League Takeover,”Senior captain Spencer Rymiszewski said. “We knew it wouldn’t come easy and we put in the work all offseason and this was the ultimate goal. Every day we knew that we had the pieces in place to take this league over.” Rymiszewski and the defense, as they’ve done most of the season, dominated Saturday. Harvard managed only 164 yards of offense, was sacked six times, intercepted twice, forced and recovered two fumbles, with one returned for a touchdown. A first-quarter field goal on the opening drive is all the Crimson could hang its hat upon. Yale’s defense simply wouldn’t budge. Among the heroes of the day was Malcolm Dixon, who returned one of two second-quarter fumbles for a 19-yard touchdown. Matt Oplinger had two sacks, finishing the season with 11.5, second-most in Yale history. Foye Oluokun had nine tackles, a third of which went for losses. Hayden Carlson had an interception and two pass breakups. Deonte Henson intercepted a pass; J. Hunter Roman recovered a fumble. Kyle Mullen two tackles for losses. Rymiszewski a pass breakup. It was a complete defensive effort in every sense. On the other side of the ball, Yale didn’t necessarily have its way with an inspired Crimson defense, but managed two touchdown drives and a field goal to salt away whatever was left of Harvard’s spirit. “Bottom line is Yale has a tremendous team,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “They are by far the best team in the league — they have no weaknesses — and they deserved to win the Ivy League title.” Yale didn’t get on the scoreboard until there was fewer than 7 minutes remaining in the half. Quarterback Kurt Rawlings connected
with J.P. Shohfi for a 9-yard touchdown to give the Bulldogs a 7-3 lead. On Harvard’s next possession, a bad pitch rolled directly to Dixon, Yale’s sophomore cornerback, who scooped up the ball and sprinted down the right sideline to make the score 14-3. “I saw the quarterback. I saw the pitch. Saw him slip. Saw the end zone. Saw the ball,” Dixon said. “That was it.” Alex Galland’s 25-yard field goal came as time expired in the first half, giving Yale a 17-3 advantage. Zane Dudek, Yale’s phenomenal freshman running back, had the lone scoring play of the second half, a 2-yard touchdown run that secured him a program record for freshman with 15 rushing touchdowns and 16 overall. A massive celebration of fans and players punctuated the postgame scene on the field. “This was truly a Yale win,” Rymiszewski said. “This was for everyone, not just for this team. We all made sacrifices to get to this point.”
“ It’s much more than football and for that I’m really proud of these guys.” Tony Reno, Joel E. Smilow ‘54 Head Coach of Football
BULLDOG BITES
Yale 24, Harvard 3
SCORING BY QUARTERS Harvard 3-0-0-0-3 Yale 0-17-0-7-24 1st QUARTER H – FG McIntyre 29, 7:23 2nd QUARTER Y – Shohfi 9 pass from Rawlings (Galland kick), 6:26 Y – Dixon 19 fumble recovery (Galland kick), 5:31 Y – FG Galland 25, 0:00
Yale President Peter Salovey, Head Coach Tony Reno and Captain Spencer Rymiszewski.
Kyle Mullen (98) was elected captain for the 2018 season.
No one can quantify how important beating Harvard to salvage an otherwise difficult 2016 campaign was for Yale football. Big things were in store for Team 145, regardless, given the amount of talent, both young and old, returning to the lineup.
1,133: Rushing yards for Zane Dudek, the first freshman to win the Ivy League rushing crown.
Still, that a two-win Yale team went into Harvard Stadium and denied their archrivals a share of the Ivy League championship served as the perfect springboard to the offseason. The Bulldogs fully grasped what could be accomplished, even with a young, injury-depleted team, and were driven to maximize their potential for 2017.
3rd QUARTER 4th QUARTER Y – Dudek 2 run (Galland kick), 12:04
“The seniors didn’t want to go out the same way the season went last year,” Yale captain Spencer Rymiszewski said. “I’m a firm believer that with hard work and dedication to your craft, and a goal you want to achieve, if you put in the work every single day, you’re going to achieve that goal. This team has embraced that mentality.” Leadership and locker room chemistry is nearly as important as on-field talent when it comes to team success. At his weekly media sessions each Tuesday, Yale coach Tony Reno never failed to mention how much he enjoyed this particular group, saying it was the most fun team he’s ever been around. There was also a strong desire to leave a lasting legacy on the program.
GAME STATS YALE
12
14
Rushes-Yards
31-26
40-118
Passing Yards
138
177
12-24-2
18-27-1
Total Offense
164
295
“You have a group of guys who love playing football and want to be a part of something bigger than themselves,” Reno said. “These guys, they’re just different. It took us a while to build it and get it here. But while it’s the thought of the coaches, the team belongs to the players. All the credit of everything that’s been done positively is on these guys. They’re the ones who’ve driven the bus.”
Fumbles/Lost
2-2
0-0
BY THE NUMBERS
Penalties/Yards
2-6
11-89
Punts (Avg.)
8-39.9
8-37.8
Time of Possession
24:58
35:02
First Downs
Passes
2
It’s the culmination of a long recruiting effort by a coaching staff that’s now been in place since 2012.
HARVARD
TEAM STATISTICS
With a successful season now in the books, here’s a look at some of the most important final Yale football numbers: 15: Current number of Ivy League titles. 15.6: Average number of points allowed by the defense, tops in the Ivy League and eighth-best in the country.
11.5: Sacks by senior linebacker Matt Oplinger, second highest single-season total in Yale history 38: Team sacks, the 3.8 average is fourth-best in the country 272: Career tackles for safety Hayden Carlson, 12th all-time at Yale 51,426: Attendance at the Yale Bowl on Saturday. CAPTAIN KYLE Kyle Mullen was elected captain for the 2018 season, it was announced on Sunday. The junior defensive end, an all-Ivy League selection, was one of the leaders of the Bulldog defense and finished the season with 11.5 tackles-for-losses and 4.5 sacks. “It’s a tremendous honor knowing that my teammates voted for me,” Mullen said. “I love every one of them and I’m very excited for what we have to come. We have a great team right now, obviously we’re headed in the right direction and hopefully we will continue that.” Mullen, a resident of Manalapan, New Jersey, becomes the 10th Yale football captain from the Garden State and the first since Tom McCarthy in 2010. He’s also the 14th defensive end to serve as
EXTRA BITES Yale painted the initials ‘TB’ on the field for the Harvard game in honor of retiring athletic director Tom Beckett. • Yale’s last win over Harvard at the Yale Bowl was in 1999, a game that also clinched an Ivy League championship. • Yale was ranked 24th in the nation in 2 Football Championship Subdivision polls released earlier this week. • Matt Oplinger earned the Ted Blair Award as Yale’s team MVP. • Zane Dudek won the Charley Loftus Award as Yale’s first-year MVP and was Ivy Rookie of the Year.
THE IVY LEAGUE REPORT
STANDINGS (Ivy/Overall) YALE COLUMBIA DARTMOUTH PENN
6-1 | 9-1 5-2 | 8-2 5-2 | 8-2 4-3 | 6-4
CORNELL HARVARD PRINCETON BROWN
THIS WEEKEND 3-4 | 3-7 3-4 | 5-5 2-5 | 5-5 0-7 | 2-8
No games. See you in September 2018!
*clinched share of championship
LAST WEEKEND...
Dartmouth 54, Princeton 44:
Dartmouth, once again, scored the go-ahead touchdown in the final seconds to cap a remarkable 34-point fourth quarter in Hanover. Jared Gerbino’s 2-yard run with 1 second on the clock gave the Big Green a 48-44 advantage. Dartmouth then recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and returned it for a touchdown. Gerbino rushed for 202 yards and four touchdowns to lead Dartmouth. Princeton’s Chad Kanoff threw for 444 yards and three touchdowns.
Columbia 24, Brown 6:
Josh Wainwright caught 13 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown to set the Columbia record for receiving yards in a single season with 1,001. The Lions won eight games in a season for the first time since 1996 and finished 5-2 in the Ivy League, their best league record since 1961. T.J. Linta threw for 263 yards to lead Brown. Penn 29, Cornell 22: Tre Solomon scored the winning touchdown on a 3-yard run with 2:06 remaining in the game for the Quakers. Karekin Brooks rushed for 146 yards and two touchdowns while Justin Watson made 13 catches for 192 yards and a touchdown to lead Penn. Harold Coles rushed for 122 yards to lead Cornell.
RENO’S RUNDOWN Joel E. Smilow ’54 Head Coach of Football Loram ispum dolor sit amet, condecteur adipiscing edit. Aenean eros ut cursus cursus. “This is more than lacus just aid win forgravida, Yale. It was a complete culture change and people In rhoncus, rutrum nibh showed how football played. accumsan lectus, should in rutrumbe massa urna valIt’s much more than football and for that Mauris in eros nec risus fermentum. I’m reallytellus. proud of these guys.” in rutrum massa urna
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UP NEXT...
The 2018 season. Here’s the schedule. Sept. 15: at Holy Cross Sept. 22: at Cornell Sept. 29: Maine Oct. 6: Dartmouth Oct. 13: Mercer
Oct. 20: at Penn Oct. 27: at Columbia Nov. 3: Brown* Nov. 10: Princeton Nov. 17: at Harvard
* Brown comes to the Bowl for a 2nd straight year as part of the league’s schedule balancing.
BULLDOGS OF THE WEEK
Spencer Rymiszewski, Sr., Defensive back, 6-0, 200, West Chester, Pa.
Bezney, an anchor of the right side on Yale’s offensive line, battled injuries the past couple of weeks, but was back to his familiar starting role against Harvard. Yale finished the season as the league’s top rushing team, and the offensive line is considered the best in the Ivy League by a wide margin thanks to veteran leaders like Bezney.
Rymiszewski, the Yale captain, is one of several seniors who missed last season and returned to play a prominent role in the reemergence of the program. Against Harvard, he made four tackles and broke up a pass. He’ll be remembered for his role as the leader of one of Yale’s greatest Ivy League championship teams.
2017 RESULTS
Jon Bezney, Sr., Right tackle, 6-5, 302, Cincinnati, Ohio
SEPT. 16 SEPT. 23 SEPT. 30 OCT. 7 OCT. 14 OCT. 21 OCT. 28 NOV. 3 NOV. 11 NOV. 18
LEHIGH CORNELL* FORDHAM DARTMOUTH* HOLY CROSS PENN* COLUMBIA* BROWN* PRINCETON* HARVARD*
W 56-28 W 49-24 W 41-10 L 28-27 W 32-0 W 24-19 W 23-6 W 34-7 W 35-31 W 24-3
JUNIOR VARSITY SCHEDULE SEPT. 24 OCT. 15 NOV. 17
EDITOR:
MILFORD ACADEMY BROWN HARVARD
L 35-24 CANCELED CANCELED
Steve Conn, Associate AD/ Sports Publicity
PHOTO CREDITS:
Jack Warhola, Stephen Fritzer, Ron Waite’s Photosportacular
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* Ivy League Game
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