THE GAME by Yale Daily News

THEGAME // HARVARD VS. YALE 2010

PREVIEW PAGE 4 PREDICTIONS PAGE 5 PLAYERS REFLECT PAGE 7 HARVARD SUCKS PAGE 6 REPEATING HISTORY? PAGE 10 FAKE PUNT PAGE 13 UNDEFEATED PAGE 16 PLAYERS TO WATCH PAGE 18

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 PREDICTIONS S TA N L E Y M C C H RYS TA L

G E O R G E H . W. B U S H ’ 4 8

TONY BLAIR

Four-star general, U.S. Army

41st President of the United States

Former Prime Minister of the U.K.

Yale 41–10 — Harvard’s going down.

This is a no-brainer. Yale will win. I know there are some who have Yale as an underdog. Let them think that. The Yale Bulldogs will prevail. You can take it to the bank. Good luck to you.

Yale will win! Based on no knowledge whatever.

JORDAN SCHNEIDER/CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

CREATIVE COMMONS

R I C H A R D B L U M E N T H A L L AW ’ 7 3

CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY ’75

U.S. Senator-elect from Connecticut

Writer and satirist

Having attended both schools, I know their fierce fighting spirits. As a father with sons who will sit on opposite sides of the field while this game is played, I predict it will come down to one key play at the end of the game. May the best team win. CREATIVE COMMONS

Headline in the Yale Daily News: “29-29 Yale Wins. And About Time.” CREATIVE COMMONS

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 TABLE

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OF CONTENTS

4 THIS IS IT

9 CRIMEBRIDGE

BY MAX DE LA BRUYERE Harvard is trying to defeat Yale for the ninth time in 10 years.

6 NEWS’ VIEW BY THE YALE DAILY NEWS We all know Harvard sucks. Here’s why.

8 HARVARD’S GOING 4–0, BABY BY TIMOTHY J. WALSH A Harvard student’s take on why Yale will lose this year’s game.

YALE’S GOT TO WIN, RIGHT?

BY EVERETT ROSENFELD Contrary to perceptions of New Haven as the more dangerous city, Cambridge per capita crime rates are higher.

10 THE ELIS WHO BROKE THE 0-3 STREAK BY SARAH SCOTT The story of the teams who lost to Harvard three times and then finally won.

12 LAST MEETINGS

16 CLASS OF 1960 REUNITES, REMINISCES BY JORDAN SCHNEIDER An up close and personal look at the members of the last Yale football team to go undefeated and untied.

18 PLAYERS TO WATCH BY MAX DE LA BRUYERE AND TIMOTHY THREADCRAFT De la Bruyere and Threadcraft take a look at Harvard and Yale’s key offensive and defensive players.

BY JOHN RYAN The 2007, 2008 and 2009 Games revisited.

BY JOHN SONG Why this year is finally the year we will see the Bulldogs emerge victorious.

9 HARVARD BANS KEGS BY DANNY SERNA Crimson tailgate rules are strict this year, as usual. Harvard Stadium’s Boston jurisdiction forces strict compliance with city statutes.

13 RECONSIDERING THE FAKE PUNT BY TIMOTHY THREADCRAFT Why head coach Tom Williams should be praised as the “Mad Hatter” of the Ivies.

15 THE OTHER GAMES BY MARIA GUARDADO The battle for Yale domination extends to the intramural fields.

YDN

This year’s Game will be the 127th meeting of Harvard and Yale. Yale leads all-time, 65–53–8.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 PREVIEW

THIS IS IT A year after the Bulldogs almost pulled off an improbable upset, Yale — for the first time since 2006 — enters The Game with a better Ivy League record than the Crimson. Still, Harvard boasts a strong team that is hoping to defeat their rivals for the ninth time in 10 years. BY MAX DE LA BRUYERE CONTRIBUTING REPORTER When Yale and Harvard first clashed on the gridiron in 1875, Ulysses S. Grant was president, the NCAA did not exist, and the forward pass was illegal. The two schools have played The Game 126 times since then. Saturday will mark another chapter in the third-longest rivalry in college football as the Elis (7–2, 5–1 Ivy) try to break a three-year losing streak against the Crimson (6–3, 4–2). A win would not just break the streak, but also put a dent in nearly a decade of Harvard dominance. The Crimson has won eight of the schools’ past nine meetings. Yale’s only victory in that stretch was 2006, when the Bulldog win clinched the school’s first Ivy League Championship in seven years. There is a small chance that a blue and white victory this year could mean another title, but it would require an unusual alignment in the stars. Yale needs a

struggling Cornell team to pull off the upset of the season against first-place Penn. Penn (8–1, 6–0) clinched a share of the Ivy League title last week when they blew Harvard out, 34–14. But they still sit only one game ahead of Yale in the standings. If Yale wins and Cornell (2–7, 1–5) surprises the country Saturday, The Game will mean more than just everything. “When you’re playing in front of such a big crowd in a rivalry that dates back over a 100 years, it’s an indescribable feeling,” linebacker Jordan Haynes ’11 said. “These are the games that you will remember for the rest of your life.” On paper, despite its inferior record, Harvard has the upper hand. The Crimson’s offense is ranked first among the Ancient Eight, and its defense is ranked second. Yale is ranked fourth in both categories. But paper tends to be insufficient to predict the outcome of a game as emotionally charged as this one. Last year, second-place

CHARLIE CROOM/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Running back Alex Thomas ’12 had a breakout day in last year’s Game and has had three 100-yard games this year. Harvard was supposed to bulldoze the 2–7 Elis. But it took two late touchdowns, a failed Yale fake punt attempt, and a Harvard interception in the final minute to seal a come-from-behind 14–10 victory. Yale has experienced the power and distraction of emotion once already this season. Last week, Princeton came to the Yale Bowl with the worst record in the Ivy League, yet lost by just one point — 14–13 — to Yale. Head coach Tom Williams said the Tigers team that showed up was unlike any he saw on film. He said it came into the rivalry game inspired. Emotions inspired Yale too, but perhaps too much, according to captain and defensive lineman Tom McCarthy ’11. “Emotions were high, and we showed that on defense,” he said. “We were undisciplined. We were trying to make the big hit instead of going for disciplined tackles.” Quarterback Patrick Witt ’12 also spoke about the danger of intense feelings coming out of the tunnel.

“Teams come out extremely amped up and ready to play one another,” he said. “The key is to avoid making those critical mistakes early. Kind of weather that storm, because when everything settles down, it’s just another football game.” Just like any other football game, Williams pointed out, this one will hinge on players completing their assignments. Too much energy can be as problematic as too little. “It’s a 60-minute boxing match, not a 40-yard dash,” Williams said. Yale has struggled in recent games to fight consistently for all 60 minutes. That problem was especially obvious in the Columbia game three weeks ago. The Elis blew the Lions away in the first half, and built a 31–7 lead behind three touchdown passes from Witt. After halftime, however, the offense was held scoreless, the defense faltered, and the Lions clawed back to within three points before the clock ran out and Yale escaped with a 31–28

win. The Bulldogs showed some of that same inconsistency against Princeton. The defense allowed 273 yards to the Tigers in the first half before buckling down and holding the visitors to 60 in the second. The offense shut down after some early success, lost three fumbles, and scored only seven points. “Nobody can stop us but ourselves,” running back Alex Thomas ’12 said. “We proved that this past weekend with some costly mistakes. We haven’t played our best game of football yet for four quarters.” Despite that inconsistency, the Bulldogs have a knack for winning. Their margins might be slim, but week after week, they have come up strong when it mattered. Williams pointed out that there are no style points in the win column. “All we want is one more point than the other team at the end of the game,” he said. But the Bulldogs are facing a

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“Risking game, season and career, Coach Williams will again fake a punt on 4th and 30 from his own 6. But this time it works, Yale wins, and by early spring a statue of Coach Williams is added to the Old Campus next to Nathan Hale.” ROLAND BETTS ’68 YALE CORPORATION SENIOR FELLOW

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

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THE GAME 2010 PREVIEW TIMOTHY THREADCRAFT’S PICKS Offensive

ADVANTAGE

Defensive

ADVANTAGE

ZEENAT MANSOOR/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Junior Harvard wide receiver Adam Chrissis leads the Crimson with 37 receptions this year and had five catches against the Elis last November. team that has both a knack for winning and a habit of doing so by more comfortable margins. Harvard’s six wins this season came by an average of 19.33 points. Yale’s seven wins are by an average of 4.29 points. Harvard’s success this season and consistently large margins of victory come in large part from takeaways and their running game. Harvard has lost the fewest fumbles in the Ivy League, and made the most interceptions. Those numbers mask the fact that Crimson quarterbacks have thrown the second most interceptions among the Ancient Eight — Yale is first — and give Harvard the highest ratio of takeaways to turnovers in the league. The Crimson’s lack of fumbles are a key aspect of their dangerous running game. Tailback Gino Gordon — a preseason first team All-Ivy selection — averages the second most yards per game in the Ivy League. Gordon’s 113.7 yards each week put him almost 34 ahead of Thomas, who is ranked

third. “On the field, [Gordon] has great vision, change of direction, power, and acceleration through the hole,” offensive lineman Wes Gavin ’14, a high school classmate of Gordon’s, said. “He is a real threat to take it to the house on any play, along with being a very consistent back.”

The key is to avoid making those critical mistakes early … when everything settles down, it’s just another football game. PATRICK WITT ’12 Quarterback That consistency shows in Gordon’s numbers. Neither he nor second-string back Trevor Scales has a fumble on the season. Quarterback Collier Winters can count

on Gordon to pound the ball up the gut to the tune of a spectacular 6.6 yards per carry — Scales averages 6.0 — and hold on. It is when Harvard loses the running or turnover battle that the team has had trouble this season. The Crimson lost a net of 16 yards rushing in their loss to Brown. When they were dismantled by Penn last week, four turnovers negated their 388 yards of offense. But Yale has faced strong rushing teams before. Led by McCarthy and Haynes, who leads the team in tackles, the Elis held Penn’s top-ranked ground game to 149 yards, almost 90 below its season average. The same Penn rushing attack shredded Harvard, the league’s second-rated run defense, for 206 yards. But if Gordon does manage to break though Yale’s defensive line, or if Winters — whose two second half touchdown passes carried the Crimson to victory last year — can beat safeties Adam Money ’11 and Geoff Dunham ’12 with his passes, the Eli offense

will have to rebound from their showing against Princeton. That rebound does not have to be pretty. Whether Witt finds receivers Jordan Forney ’11 and Gio Christodoulou ’11 through the air, Alex Thomas ’13 runs the ball, or Chris Smith ’13 can notch another huge game returning kicks, the Bulldogs only care that they get one more point than the home team. If they don’t, the class of 2011 will be the fifth Yale class ever to graduate without a victory over the Crimson. But they came five minutes away from a win last year, and, Williams thinks, have taken the lessons to heart. “Sometimes you lose close before you learn how to win,” he said. “I think we have demonstrated that we have learned some lessons from last year. Having said that, our goal is to win. We don’t want to lose close. We want to win games.” Contact MAX DE LA BRUYERE at max.delabruyere@yale.edu .

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“Yale 24–10: I think we’ll have our offense get a little more traction than we did this past weekend. The motivation of the Harvard game is pretty powerful, and we’re a better team than they are.” RICHARD LEVIN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT

Special Teams

ADVANTAGE

Overall

ADVANTAGE

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 OPINION

NEWS’

VIEW Harvard sucks

ark college years, with lameness rife / The longest, saddest years

of life / To be like Yale, they ever try / But fun at Harvard will ne’er draw nigh. Today, before celebrating the inevitable victory of the ferocious Bulldog over the anemic (and ambiguously creepy) Cantab, it is only fitting that we take a moment to mourn the less fortunate. Only a drunken bus-ride away, cowering in cold, spartan, adult-RA-patrolled halfwayhouses, the hollow men and women of Harvard while away their days. The soulless, humorless, admissionsvideo-less horde may look and dress like us, albeit with less argyle and more “f--k you flipflops” — but something is amiss. As we celebrate our naked parties, Nobel laureates, great leaders and Gothic castles, they suffer dry streets, dry tailgates and drier sex lives. Pray for these poor souls, who must clear all of their three parties a year with administrators and end them

DAVID YU/CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR

by 2 a.m.; whose foam parties get shut down faster than the public option; whose socalled “final clubs” couldn’t even get close to stealing the skull of an Apache warlord. Our Whiffenpoofs just appeared on national television for the umpteenth time; their a cappella website is hosted on WordPress. Their graduates invent complex, self-destructing financial derivatives; ours star in “Sideways,” lead the free world and style Kanye West. Readers, if you can stomach it, take a moment to imagine yourself in such a puritanical, fun-drained crucible, and forgive your peers’ foibles: making fun of a recent murder (then trying to erase the evidence), printing T-shirts that make fun of Sept. 11, making Facemashing websites that compare women to farm

animals, inventing Microsoft Word, turning tailgates into Soviet-era breadlines, etc. They know not what they do. As Frank Lloyd Wright put it, “Harvard takes perfectly good plums as students and turns them into prunes.” Or, as The Harvard Crimson put it, “Harvard sucks.” (“Harvard sucks,” Nov. 16, 2007). So forgive these unhappy few — they are a product of circumstance. They’ll receive a tutelary drubbing soon, while sober and eagerly awaiting school on Monday. (Hopefully it’ll wake them up enough to realize they may be proclaiming their own suckage through stadium signage — unlike in 2004.) Forgive their factually-inaccurate insults to our fair city of New Haven. We know that our bustling cultural metropolis has far more to offer the young and boozy

than the glorified higher-ed babysitting consortium that is Cambridge. And let them cling to the idea that it’s a safer place to go to school, even though rape is almost three times as likely in Cambridge than in New Haven, and murder, almost 75 percent more prevalent. So today, before we add another notch to our glorious 65–53–8 record, let’s resolve to lend a hand to those huddled, hungry masses who plead for hot breakfast. We’ll bring the party; we’ll show them what life would have been like had they listened to our twee harmonies and chosen Yale — that is, if they had had enough personality to get in. Go easy on them; remember, their tolerances are probably low. At the end of the day, they have to go home to de-

crepit dorms and regret. These poor souls are such strangers to human connection that they had to found a website — HarvardLunch.com — to encourage people to hang out. In our book of coolness, which is pretty extensive, that’s about as low as it gets. Apart from Adam Wheeler, that is. Today, the cult of Yale will descend upon the unhappy, architecturally-monotonous streets of Harvard. Consider it a humanitarian mission. Bring the soul. Bring the social skills. Bring the sexy. The thrill of victory should never overshadow the responsibility to shed some lux on Harvard’s sad, rat-racing, degreechasing ilk. And if, by some miracle, the pigskin falls in their favor, don’t despair the battle — we’ve long won the war. After all, they’re all just a bunch of “s-ssies.”

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“Yale 24, Harvard 10. Harvard’s team will fight to the end, but YALE WILL WIN!” PETER SALOVEY PROVOST

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

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THE GAME 2010 OPINION

Our last chance ‘T

he only game that matters is the next one, and it is the biggest of your career.” When we strap up on Saturday we recognize we’re playing for more than just a win or loss. As athletes, we are expected to prepare for every team as though they are equal, and while the preparation for Penn, Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, etc. may remain the same, we would be lying if we did not recognize the magnitude of The Game. The Yale-Harvard rivalry is one of the most storied traditions in all of college football, but the rivalry extends further than the athletic field. Harvard and Yale compete in everything from prospective students to endowments. As football players, we have the honor of competing in one of the purest forms of direct competition on Saturday, the same form of competition that men have been competing in for more than 120 years. We compete not only for our record but for the honor of the school and those same men who came before us. Generations of Yale football players have experienced this same day in November and failing to recognize what came before us would not be doing justice to this tradition. While the tradition that accompanies the Yale–Harvard game is extensive and noteworthy, this year’s game holds a significant personal value for us seniors. Saturday marks the culmination of our football careers. For well more than half of our lives we devoted our bodies and minds to the sport that has helped shape us into the men we are today. More than 30 days of preparation goes into one football game. These 30 days are filled with meetings, off-season lifts, and early morning practices. It would be dishonest to say that we enjoyed every minute of the training. However, our coaches constantly instilled in us an attitude of “you get what you earn.” It is this attitude to persevere that has not only helped us succeed on the athletic field but will continue to push us to succeed in all aspects of life. Football also provides a unique opportunity to push oneself individually while continually working towards a common team goal. Having spent much of the past four years training and hanging with our teammates, Saturday marks

the last time we will suit up next to these great men. Building the camaraderie in the locker room and on the field is what makes playing on an athletic team so rewarding. The bond created during early morning off-season work outs and during game days is inexplicable. While Saturday will be the last time many of us get to experience organized athletics and the joys of playing with 100 of your best friends, winning is certainly at the forefront of everyone’s mind. As a senior, we have fallen short in our previous three opportunities to defend the honor of our school and program. This is the last year as a senior class that we will have the chance to declare victory over our Cambridge rivals. We do not know what it feels like to walk off the field at the end of a season with the sweet taste of victory. As football players, we instinctively revert back to our performance each Saturday as a way to measure ourselves as men and athletes. This Saturday will forever remain as the last opportunity we have to live up to our own expectations. A win on Saturday would erase any reservations about past individual performances or previous losses. It would allow our senior class to remember our senior campaign as the time we beat Harvard. It would certainly be the icing on top of a cake that includes tough lessons, irreplaceable memories and lifelong friendships. As we reflect on the previous four years, it is hard not to smile. The laughs we shared and pain we endured have defined our time here at Yale. Speaking for our senior class, I can say it has been an honor and a privilege to put on the Yale blue and white. We hope we have represented the school with honor and dignity in the way Yale men before us have done. The walk off the field on Saturday will be filled with many emotions, but I hope the joy of winning overrides them all. ADAM MONEY is a senior in Jonathan Edwards College. Contact him at adam.money@yale.edu . CHRIS STANLEY is a senior in Berkeley College. Contact him at christopher.stanley@yale.edu .

TOP: CHARLIE CROOM/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER, BOTTOM: AKIKAZU ONDA/THE DARTMOUTH

Top: Safety Adam Money ’11, bottom: Cornerback Chris Stanley ’11

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“My predictions: 1. Cantab fans will begin to leave in droves mid-way through the fourth quarter as they search for someplace warm where they can ease their sorrows. 2. Many points for Yale — many less for Harvard. What more is worth knowing or even worrying about?” JONATHAN HOLLOWAY CHAIR, COUNCIL OF MASTERS

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME ’10 COLUMNS T I M O T H Y J . WA L S H

J O H N “ I H AV E N O N O T A B L E I N I T I A L” S O N G

Harvard’s going 4–0, baby

Yale’s gotta win, right?

t’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Harvard will beat Yale yet again. I’ve known this inevitability since this time last year when an almost Biblical allegory unfolded on the streets of Connecticut. The night following The Game, after a little Toad’s and a lot of drifting between empty frat houses, my friends and I ended up at A One Pizza, looking to enjoy a slice of New Haven’s tastiest pies. Minding our own business as we stood in line, a disgruntled Yalie (British accent, crew team) accosted one of my friends, an innocent bystander in the HarvardYale rivalry, and the two of them shared some unpleasant words. When it came time to pay for his pizza, my friend used his credit card, but, after he put the receipt down on the counter, the sneaky Eli wrote in a $20 tip. Now I respect that guy’s hustle. That move is the stuff great rivalries are made of. But my friend, once he was alerted to Eli’s generosity, did not take kindly to the scheme. As their ensuing argument spilled out into the street, a figure emerged from the darkness, his duster billowing freely like a cape. His name was Joe Comfort. Or perhaps I should say “Joe Comfort, Street Legend,” which is the name he told us to search for on Wikipedia. I don’t know if Joe Comfort already has this reputation in New Haven, but he is an urban angel who serves and protects street justice. With his supernatural sense of fairness, Joe Comfort obviously sided with the good guys and approached the now-whimpering Bulldog. Punching a brick wall to showcase his Bowser-like strength, Joe Comfort indicated that if restitution were not made, he would pop the Yalie’s kidneys like a zit. Of course, Eli sheepishly repaid my friend the $20, of which he gave Joe Comfort a fitting portion. I share this story because it perfectly parallels The Game from last year. Holding a 10–0 lead late in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs, perhaps surprised at their temporary competence, foolishly began to believe they could beat Harvard; similarly, the Yale undergrad was up $0 to -$20 and thought he was in the clear. But

the Crimson clawed its way back with a 41-yard touchdown pass from Collier Winters to Matt Luft, just like my friend rallied by taking the fight outside on Broadway. Both conflicts were up for grabs at this point. And then a wild card intervened. Tom Williams called for a fake punt on fourth-and-22 that failed and gave Harvard great field position; Joe Comfort swooped into action to fight for truth, justice, and the Crimson way. Ultimately, due to cosmic forces — Tom Williams’ bone-headedness and Joe Comfort’s heroism — each event reached its appropriate outcome. Harvard won, 14–10, on a 32-yard touchdown catch by Chris Lorditch, and the sneaky Eli forked over an Andrew Jackson. Now I admit, I wasn’t there to see the Crimson’s comeback last year. In the middle of the fourth quarter, I walked the 5k back to Saybrook College to take a nap in my friend’s room. But that’s only because I already knew we’d win (and I like naps). I have supreme faith in these mystical forces of good that ensure Harvard prospers and Yale suffers. For that reason, I have no doubt the Crimson will win once again. I don’t even need to examine the rosters or break down the matchups. So what if Harvard is looking up at the Bulldogs in the Ivy League standings right now. Want to know what that reminds me of? 2007, when the Crimson ruined Yale’s perfect season and stole the league title with a 37–6 curb-stomping at the Yale Bowl. Yes, I fully expect to win and to complete The Grand Slam — a 4–0 record in The Game as an undergrad. It’s so inevitable at this point that I can’t muster much vitriol for the Bulldogs. In fact, I feel sorry for them. Between the impending loss and Harvard’s draconian tailgate restrictions, Yalies are bound to have a lousy time this weekend. But, at least for a day, when they look across the stadium at the shining faces of “10,000 Men [and Women] of Harvard,” they get a sense of what life would be like if they hadn’t gone to a safety school. TIMOTHY J. WALSH is a senior at Harvard College. Contact him at twalsh@fas.harvard.edu .

t’s that time of the year again ladies and gentlemen: The Game. And not just any Game, kids, it’s my final Game. That’s right, four years at Yale have finally brought me to this point. A lot’s happened in four years: I no longer want to save the world (hello, Wall Street!), I’ve actually successfully managed to get into those fabled places called seminars (1400 pages of reading/ week FTW!), and I have continued to have zero luck with the ladies (ughhh). However, the most important thing I’ve picked up from my 21 years (besides blissful alcoholic legality) is to know to stay the heck away from that freezing hellhole some call Cambridge. Yale has been 0–3 at in my tenure as resident drunk fan in the stands and I don’t know if I want to suffer another nutmeg-crunching loss at the hands of the Cantabs while contracting hypothermia and frostbite. A couple weekends ago, my mom called to find out when I should book tickets to fly home for our glorious, week-long Thanksgiving break (suck it, Harvard). “Are you going to The Game?” she asked. I took a deep breath and exhaled. “In this fall — and this is very tough … I’m going to take my talents to Cambridge and watch the HarvardYale game.” Why? For one, I’m doing the game-day radio color commentary on wybcx.com (your home for Yale sports), so I kinda sorta have to be there. But even if I weren’t, I would make the trip because, for the first time in my four years, Yale is going to WIN. That’s right, Mr. Walsh of the Harvard Crimson, Yale is going to WIN. Now, I know you’ve got the same “huh?” expression on your face as the time you watched Snooki hook up with Vinny on Jersey Shore, but trust me, I’ve got my reasons for that bold prediction. 1) The Luck of the Lin is gone. Over the course of my lengthy research for The Game, one statistical anomaly in Harvard’s wins kept popping up: the presence of Jeremy Lin on the Cantab campus. For those of you who don’t go to Harvard (a.k.a. you have lives), Jeremy Lin was the starting guard for the Cantab basketball team. After four years of destroying opponents, he became the first Asian-American shorter than a skyscraper to make it to the NBA. In other words, he was a resolute middle finger to every stereotype out there. Besides being an inspiration to all vertically challenged Asian basketballers (like yours truly), Jeremy provided the mythical “Luck of the Lin” for the last three years (he hadn’t yet acquired it as a freshman).

However, with the Warriors playing the Lakers the next day, Lin will not be in attendance for this year’s biannual Boston crackdown on collegiate drinking. With no Luck of the Lin to stop an otherwise successful fourth-and-22 conversion from their own 28 yard line, the Bulldogs will clearly rumble to victory. 2) We have celebrity on our side. Have you heard of Spiderman? Or Spiderman 2? Spiderman 3? If you try real hard, you’ll find the one commonality between those three movie titles: James Franco. Now, I don’t know about you Cantabs, but my homepage happens to be Perez Hilton — and a while back, he and the screaming hoard of girls outside my window told me that James “OMGZ he’s SOOOO HOT” Franco was going to be a Yale grad student. Armed with one of GQ’s 2010 Men of the Year and resident Yale graduate-school hottie, the Bulldogs offer more than enough star power to take it to the house over and over again. Plus, if you squint real hard, legendary Bulldog receiver Chris Smith ’13 could easily pass as Channing Tatum of Step Up, Step Up 2: The Streets, and Dear John fame (yeah, I watch chick flicks — so what?). Smith recently set an alltime Ivy League record by returning two kickoffs back for touchdowns (in a row) — clearly, he was channeling his inner Channing. 3) 2010 has been a change-inducing year. Think about it. The Republicans defenestrated the Democrats in the House. LeBron James went from the most beloved basketball player to the most hated one faster than you can yell “don’t tase me bro” at Club Elevate. Brett Favre is still playing football (OK, bad example). The point is, something is in the water and it’s changing the status quo. With Harvard winning eight of the last nine Games, it’s time for a change we can believe in. This is Year II of the Tom Williams Regime, and already, we’re starting to see changes. The Bulldogs rebounded from 2–5 in the Ivies last year to 5–1 so far. Safety Adam Money ’11, besides having an awesome name, is on track to set a Yale record with eight career interceptions (and counting). There is a changing atmosphere of success around the team and they’re ready to turn it around. In conclusion, Harvard sucks and Mr. Walsh, if you manage to stay until the end of this Game, I’ll buy you a pizza from the mean streets of CT. Besides, it’s not like we’re gonna go for it on fourth-and-22 again, right? RIGHT?!?! JOHN SONG is a senior in Berkeley College. Contact him at john.song@yale.edu .

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“In an ankle-biter, the Bulldog hangs on for a 9-7 win.” JEFF BRENZEL DEAN OF ADMISSIONS

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

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THE GAME 2010 NEWS

Harvard bans kegs and alcohol BY DANNY SERNA STAFF REPORTER Students planning on getting their last Four Loko buzz at tomorrow’s tailgate, be warned — Harvard Security will be watching. Harvard administrators banned kegs and hard alcohol at tailgates again this year, which must start after 10 a.m. and end before noon. Harvard’s House Committees may serve beer and wine at the tailgates, but drinking games involving rapid consumption of alcohol are strictly prohibited, the administrators wrote in their October report called the “Rules of the Game,” which made very few alterations from the rules for Harvard-Yale 2008.

New to this year’s regulations: all those wishing to drink at the tailgate must wear a wristband indicating they are of legal drinking age. In their report, the administrators wrote that tailgating rules will be “strictly enforced.” When asked about the regulations, Cambridge Police spokesman Dan Riviello said in an e-mail that officers may consider following through on the enforcement. “We would like to remind students to always use their best judgment and not engage in activities that are illegal,” Riviello said. “If caught drinking underage or drinking in public, these are violations of the law and could result on law enforcement action.”

Soldier Field sits in Boston, not Cambridge, and therefore the actual enforcement will be conducted by Harvard and Boston Police. Because Harvard Stadium falls under Boston jurisdiction, Harvard’s tailgates must comply with the city’s statutes, which are much stricter than those in New Haven, Marichal Gentry, dean of student affairs, said last October. Harvard Security did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Regardless of the regulations, 10 of 14 student interviewed by the News in October said they planned to drink despite the rules, and that the Harvard-Yale game is more about the drinking than the actual game itself. Kegs have been banned on and

off at Harvard-Yale tailgates in Cambridge for the past decade; citing several incidents in which students nearly drank themselves to death at the tailgate, the dean of Harvard College announced in 2000 that kegs would be banned in 2002. But the ban failed to prevent several intoxicated students from being sent to the hospital, so in 2004 the administration took control of alcohol distribution and began checking IDs. Students were prohibited from bringing alcohol into the tailgate altogether in 2006, but in 2008, the beer and wine began flowing once again. Contact DANNY SERNA at daniel.serna@yale.edu .

BLAIR SEIDEMAN/ CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Authorities have said that students who plan on drinking at The Game must indicate that they are of legal drinking age by wearing wristbands.

Cambridge, New Haven comparable in crime BY EVERETT ROSENFELD STAFF REPORTER Rape and murder rates are higher per capita in Cambridge than in New Haven. Despite Cantab perceptions of New Haven, rape is almost three times more likely per person (20 in a population of 105,594 versus the Elm City’s 58 in a population of 846,101) and murder is almost 75 percent more prevalent per capita, although the actual murder count was two in Cambridge versus 12 in New Haven, based on 2008 census information and 2009 crime reports. This year though, New Haven’s murder rate has risen to 21 as of Tuesday. Despite the higher per capita crime rates in Harvard’s hometown, Cambridge police spokesman Dan Riviello said that crime in Cambridge is at a 40-year low. He attributed the drop to “police

presence, citizen awareness, and the relationships that we have between other local departments and universities that allow for information sharing and cooperation that serves to mitigate crime and bring perpetrators to justice.” In addition to violent crime, property theft is also prevalent in Cambridge. On Nov. 13, the sixth armed robbery in two weeks on or close to the Harvard campus occurred, the Harvard Crimson reported Sunday. A Cambridge man shot at a police officer and attempted to rob three Harvard freshmen in the incident. The man — later identified as Kai Robert Kruger, 21 — was arrested and charged with armed robbery and assault with attempt to murder early Saturday morning, the article added. Following the armed robbery of a non-Harvard affiliate last

Thursday, the Harvard Police Deparment augmented patrol and “increased visibility” around the campus, the Crimson reported. HPD spokesman Steven Catalano could not be reached for comment. Despite the recent spate of robberies, Cambridge saw a 23 percent decrease in total robbery in 2010 as of October 23. Bike thefts, however, have risen 51 percent this year, to a total of 346 reported incidents. As for the influx of Yale students heading to Cambridge for a good time over the weekend, Riviello said that there have not been many incidents surrounding the football game in the past, but added that CPD officers assigned to the Harvard Square area will be visible and vigilant. Riviello recommended that visiting Yale students “use their best judgment and be aware of

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“I predict Yale will win in a close, hard-fought game. Yale 24 — Harvard 21. Go Bulldogs!” MARICHAL GENTRY DEAN OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

their surroundings,” and call 911 if they see anything suspicious. Harvard’s security and safety organization is similar to Yale’s: a full-service university police department that works closely with the local police department to safeguard the university and local communities. There

is not, however, a separate Harvard department of security like Yale’s. Instead, Harvard contracts guards from a separate company, according to a 2009 Crimson article. Contact EVERETT ROSENFELD at everett.rosenfeld@yale.edu .

BY THE NUMBERS CAMBRIDGE CRIME 20 2 23% 51% Reported incidents of rape in 2009. Reported murders in 2009.

Decrease in robbery in 2010 as of Oct. 23.

Increase in bicycle theft in 2010 as of Oct. 23.

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 FEATURE

The Elis who broke the 0–3 streak

YDN/THE YALE HARVARD FOOTBALL GALLERY

After losing to Harvard in the three previous years, the 1998 Yale football team snuck in a late fourth-quarter comeback to finally defeat Harvard 9–7 at Harvard Stadium. on this list.

BY SARAH SCOTT STAFF REPORTER Trust in your teammates, trust in yourself, and play with all your heart — those, say alumni of the Yale teams of 1967, 1998 and 2006, are the keys to breaking long losing streaks against Harvard. And they have the results to back it up, for these teams did just that. If the Yale football class of 2011 is to graduate with a win over Harvard under its belt, those are what Yale must possess to win on Saturday. According to four seniors on the team, the Bulldogs do have what it takes to win; it’s just a matter of putting together the pieces for the right game at the right time. In the 127-year history of The Game, Yale has lost to Harvard four years in a row twice, 1912’15 and 1919-’22, and five years in a row once, 2001-’05. This year’s Bulldogs do not want to be a figure

NOVEMBER 25, 1967

The Bulldogs were already Ivy League Champions, and for any other team, an extra victory would just be the icing on the cake. Yet in the Harvard-Yale rivalry, The Game is everything. With just under three minutes left, Harvard took the lead, 17–20. Only 20 minutes earlier, the Elis had had a 17–0 lead. But Yale was not about to bow out with a loss. Among other reasons, the packed Yale Bowl of 68,000 fans had its hopes placed on one man who always delivered — quarterback Brian Dowling ’69. “Dowling was a demi-god,” teammate and end Del Marting ’69 said. “He really had an aura about him on campus. In those days he really was a hero.” Dowling said he hadn’t played particularly well that game. A Dec. 4, 1967 Sports Illustrated article,

“Blue Power Wins a Bowl Game” chronicled how in five tries Dowling threw no completions and two interceptions. In the second quarter, he was trapped on Yale’s 47-yard line. But the Elis said they knew Dowling would come through; he always did. “We had a lot of confidence in Brian to make a play when he had to,” Marting said. Dowling did deliver. “I think two guys went with Calvin [Hill] and Del was wide open,” Dowling said. “I just threw it up, it was like a punt. It all happened quickly so the stress of running a two-minute offense wasn’t really there.” Marting’s touchdown clinched what he described as one of the biggest moments of his football career. And while Dowling clearly energized the crowd, Marting said the key to victory was a sense of

team unity and everyone doing his piece of the play. Marting said each of his teammates knew the other Elis were not going to let him down. “If you do that, it’s greater than 11 guys playing on the field. It’s a multiple of 11.” Despite a career in the NFL, Dowling said The Game of 1967 remains among the most important he has ever played. He added that the Harvard-Yale rivalry is the “ultimate competition.”

NOVEMBER 21, 1998

Thirty-one editions of The Game had passed before a class of Bulldog seniors again risked a winless career against Harvard. Just like their 1967 counterparts, the Bulldogs of ’98 had a late fourth quarter rally to beat the Crimson by a narrow margin, two points, at Harvard Stadium, 9–7. And while the senior Bulldogs did not face a crowd of 68,000 in the

Yale Bowl, captain and defensive lineman Corwynne Carruthers ’99 said that the thought of becoming the first class in recent Yale history to lose four games in a row to Harvard weighed heavily on the team’s mind. “It’s obviously a big deal for the seniors. You don’t want to go down in the history books at Yale as a senior class that didn’t defeat Harvard,” quarterback Joe Walland ’00 said. Walland described The Game of 1998 as a “defensive battle.” Although Yale scored first in the game, the Bulldogs missed the extra point on the touchdown. Luckily for Yale, Walland said, the defense caused a turnover late in the game with Harvard ahead 7–6. Yale’s Mike Murawczyk ’01, an All New-England kicker, kicked a 30-yard field goal with just three minutes left for Yale to take home a victory. “It was a pretty suspenseful

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“By all objective measures, Yale, like Connecticut, is bluer, smarter and happier than Harvard and Massachusetts. Saturday: blue, smart and happy wins 17–14.” MIKE MORAND ’87 DIV ’93 ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR NEW HAVEN AND STATE AFFAIRS

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

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THE GAME 2010 FEATURE afternoon, especially for the fans,” Walland said. Leading up to The Game, Carruthers said the ’98 season had already shown a marked improvement over his prior three years on the team, and Yale held the second place position in the Ivy League heading into The Game. With a 2–8 record for the 1997 season, the Elis used 1998 as a year to bounce back. Like the 2010 team, the 1998 team was led by a coach in his second year, Jack Siedlecki. Walland said not only had the team gotten used to Siedlecki’s coaching style, but the team’s attitude was improved markedly by Corruthers’ leadership. “Winning the Harvard game in 1998 was kind of like the momentum builder going into the ’99 season, when we ended up winning the Ivy championship,” Walland said.

had suffered a string of losses against Harvard, the younger players on the team helped the Elis move beyond the mediocrity of years past and just focus on winning. Tom Mante ’10 was one of those “younger players.” “It’s kind of funny,” Mante said. “We had been losing to [Harvard] for the past couple of years … but I never got the sense we were the underdogs. We were 7–2 heading into The Game.”

I knew at some point my career would end. I couldn’t imagine a better case than the Harvard-Yale game. CHRIS STANLEY ’11 Cornerback

NOVEMBER 18, 2006

Most recently, the Bulldogs of 2006 broke the longest Yale losing streak in the history of The Game — five years. After losing to Harvard, 24–30, in triple overtime on home turf, the Bulldogs were more than a little hungry for victory against the Crimson in 2006. Quarterback Matt Polhemus ’08 said the difference between the previous years’ teams and the roster of ’06 was the camaraderie. “Every guy on that field is not thinking about himself, his glory, his success: he’s thinking about the ten guys next to him, and the pride of the entire institution and 125 years of history on the line,” cornerback Casey Gerald ’09 said. “That’s something you’ll see on the field in a Harvard-Yale game when Yale is coming off a loss against Harvard. That game is about so much that losing puts a taste in your mouth that you can’t get rid of until you win, and you can’t get rid of it by yourself.” Captain and wide receiver Chandler Henley ’07 said a loss to Princeton the week before and the chance to share the Ivy League title meant the Harvard game had a lot riding on it. He added that while the team

Even though Mante said that no one thought the team had a legitimate chance, the Elis dominated the Crimson, winning 34–13. Gerald said one play in particular, a blocked punt, was symbolic of the entire game. He said the performance of special teams comes down to hunger, and you can always tell one team is hungrier than the other team when there’s a huge special teams play. Gerald added if the Bulldogs play like that on Saturday, it will be clear that they really want a win on a day which Gerald said “has the magnitude of the birth of your child or your wedding.”

NOVEMBER 2010

The teams of 1967, 1998 and 2006 all have striking similarities to the Bulldogs of 2010. The team has a newfound sense of unity, a talented crop of younger players, a strong, 7–2 record, and the ability to come out ahead in close games. Cornerback Chris Stanley ’11, said the new coaching staff has a lot to do with this new team dynamic. “They’re a younger bunch, and they have a history together,”

captain Tom McCarthy ’11 said. “They’re good coaches and best friends.” Wide receiver Gio Christodoulou ’11 said the strong dynamic among the coaches has transferred to the team. Defensive end Sean Williams ’11 said the older guys on the team made fast friends with its newest members this year, enabling the Bulldogs to monopolize on fresh talent. Williams cited offensive lineman Wes Gavin ’14 as an example of a freshman who has made an immediate impact for the Elis. “Wes was able to play right away,” Williams said. “You need all 11 guys able to work together as a unit. Having the older guys able to trust the younger guys really helps.” Looking ahead to Saturday, Stanley said the difference between wining and losing will be mental. The senior cornerback said that some of the team’s wins this season have been too close for comfort because of self-induced mistakes. Yet McCarthy, Williams, Stanley and Christodoulou are confident Yale has what it takes to take on Harvard. “No matter what they throw at us or what problems arise, we will be able to react and turn situations to our advantage,” Williams said. McCarthy and Williams said the team’s desire for a win comes more from within the team than external pressure from the student body. Williams said each player has to fight for his starting position every day, which raises the expectations for each player of himself. He said after “getting our tails kicked the last few years,” the team is eager to come out on top. “[A victory] would be a great cap to me and all the rest of the seniors on the team,” McCarthy said. “The four years here are pretty demanding when you’re on the football team. We’ve put so much time, energy and effort into this.” From the alumni perspective, Walland added that a victory or a loss in The Game is something that stays with you for the rest of your life.

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“Yale will trail for the first 55 minutes and they will bring it home in the last five minutes in a low-scoring game.” JOHN DESTEFANO JR. MAYOR OF NEW HAVEN

YDN

In 2006, Yale defeated Harvard 34–13, finally breaking a five-game losing streak to The Crimson — the longest in the history of The Game. Defensive lineman Brandt Hollander ’08 advised that the Elis have to keep in mind that while circumstances were different in The Game with more alumni and family members present than usual, the team should focus on doing what it had done all season. The Bulldogs have already heeded Hollander’s advice. McCarthy said every week the Bulldogs train for a win on Saturday, and they don’t approach the final few games any differently. What will be different, how-

ever, is the feeling of walking off the field representing Yale for the final time. “It’s like a coming of age thing,” Stanley said. “I’ve done football every fall season for the last ten years of my life. I knew at some point my career would end. I couldn’t imagine better case than the Harvard-Yale game on Saturday afternoon.” Contact SARAH SCOTT at sarah.scott@yale.edu .

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YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 RECAPS

Last meetings Yale has lost eight of its last nine meetings against the Crimson, including the last three. JOHN RYAN recaps the 2007, 2008 and 2009 editions of The Game.

BY JOHN RYAN CONTRIBUTING REPORTER

2009

For Yale fans, 2009 was The Game that got away. Despite the Bulldogs entering with a 4-5 overall record in head coach Tom Williams’ first season, it took a late Crimson comeback to give Harvard a 14-10 victory. On their first possession, the Bulldogs used seven carries for 35 yards from Alex Thomas ’12 to drive the ball down the field to set up Alex Barnes ’11 for a 26-yard field goal attempt. Thomas went on to have a breakout game and finish with 124 yards on 26 carries. Barnes made the kick and gave the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead. On the ensuing Crimson possession, Eli linebacker Tim Handlon ’10 hit Harvard quarterback Collier Winters, forcing a fumble that was recovered by cornerback Adam Money ’11 at the Yale 41. The Bulldogs took advantage by taking the ball down to the Harvard three-yard line from where running back Rodney Reynolds ’10 ran in his first career touchdown to give the Elis a 10-point advantage. The score would remain 10-0 until midway through the fourth quarter when Winters fired a 41 yard touchdown pass to receiver Matt Luft. Yale took possession on the kickoff, but the drive stalled, and they faced a 4th and 22 at their own 25. Instead of punting, captain and linebacker Paul Rice ’10 took the snap and pitched the ball to safety John Powers ’13. However, Powers was stopped five yards short of the first down. Harvard retaliated three plays later when Winters hit receiver Chris Lorditch for a 32-yard touchdown strike. Yale was left with 1:30 to score, but Witt, who finished with 170 yards passing, threw his first interception of the day to linebacker Jon Takamura, ending the Bulldogs’ hope for victory.

YDN

Yale has scored a combined 16 points in the past three Games.

2007

2008

In a matchup with Ivy League title implications, Yale failed to get anything going offensively in bitterly cold and windy conditions, as the Bulldogs fell 10-0 to Harvard. Yale kicked off to start the game and were able to force the Crimson to punt from the Harvard 29. Harvard punter Thomas Hull boomed the ball down to the Yale 13 where Eli returner Gio Christodoulou ’11 allowed the ball to bounce in front of him and be covered by a Crimson player. As the Yale offense began to take the field, the field judge ruled that Christodoulou had touched the ball, and Harvard should retain possession. Despite numerous Bulldog arguments to the contrary, the ruling was upheld. The Crimson took control and ran the ball three times, capped by a four-yard Gino Gordon touchdown rush. The score remained 7-0 Harvard throughout the first half. On Harvard’s first possession of the second half, Crimson quarterback Chris Pizzotti lost the football, and it was recovered by cornerback Adam Money ’11. However, the Bulldogs could not advance the ball, and were forced to punt. After two more punts, Harvard took control at midfield and drove the ball for a Patrick Long field goal. Harvard would take a 10-0 lead and the game would end that way as the Bulldogs could only create 90 yards of total offense.

2007 had all the pre-game genre anyone could ask for, with both the Elis and Crimson undefeated in the Ivy League. Heading into The Game with a 9-0 record, Yale was searching for an Ivy League championship and its first perfect season since 1960, but Harvard overpowered the Bulldogs 37-6. Barely a minute into The Game as quarterback Chris Pizzotti rifled a 40 yard touchdown pass to receiver Matt Luft. From that point on, the Crimson never looked back. Pizzotti and Luft hooked up for another touchdown to finish a 58-yard drive at the end of the first quarter. Yale running back Mike McLeod ’09 could not convert a 4th-and-2, and Harvard once given the ball once again. McLeod, the Payton Award finalist, finished with 20 carries for just 50 yards. Harvard would dominate the remainder of the game, adding three more touchdowns and a field goal to extend their lead to 37-0. The lone bright spot for the Elis was Christodoulou’s 87-yard punt return for a touchdown with 4:15 remaining. The Bulldogs missed the extra point, and Harvard ran out the clock to take The Game and the Ivy League Championship. Contact JOHN RYAN at john.ryan@yale.edu .

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“Harvard 30, Yale 26. That is one point for every thousand applicants to this year’s freshman class.” N. GREGORY MANKIW HARVARD ECONOMICS PROFESSOR

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

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THE GAME 2010 OPINION

Reconsidering the fake punt TIMOTHY THREADCRAFT

here are a select few championship-caliber head coaches who have seen their successfully executed gadget plays vault them to the upper echelon of the college football landscape. Big name coaches such asChris Peterson of Boise State and Les Miles have established reputations due to their timely trick plays. Peterson’s Broncos, for example, became media darlings after they toppled the mighty Oklahoma Sooners in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl thanks to hook-andladder plays, reverse passes, and, finally, a two-point conversion on a Statue of Liberty play that gave Boise the lead once and for all. A YouTube compilation videos of those three plays has more than 750,000 views. Just last year, Peterson called a fake punt in the Fiesta Bowl against TCU on 4thand-19, picked up 30 yards, and eventually took the lead for good. Miles, the head coach of LSU, earned his nickname, “The Mad Hatter,” from the fake field goal and fake punt calls he made en route to the 2008 BCS National Championship. Trick plays are perhaps the most polarizing calls in football, because most of the time, they either turn out really well or completely fail. In these situations, so much is at stake, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to believe that these coaches would be in danger of losing their jobs if these calls were to have failed. Unfortunately for Yale head coach Tom Williams, these situations are all too real. In his second year as the Bulldogs’ coach, Williams has shown that he doesn’t shy away from taking risks. Earlier this season against Albany

with time expiring in the first half, Williams called a fake field goal, resulting in a 40-yard Jordan Forney ’11 touchdown, putting the Elis in position to take control of the game. It was a bold move by Williams, who saw himself facing the fury of Yale fans and the wrath of the national media. Clinging to a 10–7 lead with just over two minutes left to play in the Yale Bowl, Williams inexplicably called for John Powers ’13 to run a fake punt on 4th-and-22 and came up five yards short. With one single decision, he transformed thousands of drunk Ivy League students — many of whom had not been to a football game since the last edition of The Game — into football experts. But before the infamous fake punt, the Elis owed much to Williams’ tricky playbook. Last year, a fake punt went for a 40-yard touchdown and proved to be enough to get the Bulldogs a shutout victory against Lehigh. After the game, Mountain Hawk coach Andy Coen remarked that they even “expected” the call. Unfortunately, even though Williams’ gambles have consistently gone well, he’s most widely known for the one time the gamble backfired. It’s humorous, really. While becoming a successful football coach takes years of experience, thousands of hours of meticulous planning and preparation, one play can define a season. Much of the disgust at the decision is warranted; who in their right mind calls a fake punt from their own half of the field with that many yards to go? And when they’re winning? Nobody would expect a call like this. When you look closely, the idea was nearly just crazy enough to work. Half of the Harvard defense was fooled by the misdirection, and Powers had sufficient downfield blocking to pick up the first. In the end, it all came down to execution. After watching a replay of “the Call,” I noticed that a Har-

vard defender, Collin Zych, initially bit on the fake, stumbled and almost fell while changing directions. Somehow, though, he regained his composure, sprinted past three Yale blockers and made just enough effort to stop Powers short of the first down. The fact that Zych made an extremely athletic and disciplined play on what would’ve been a close play has been buried under the calls for coach Williams’ head. To paraphrase Al Pacino in “Any Given Sunday,” football is a game of inches. If Powers had picked up those last five yards, then Coach Williams would be lauded as a genius, the “Mad Hatter” of the Ivy League.

HALF OF THE HARVARD DEFENSE WAS FOOLED Rightfully so, Williams hasn’t shown regret about the call, he even stated on Tuesday at a press conference that he’d “call the play tomorrow if it’d help us win the football game. We play to win, we don’t play to lose close.” It’s a good sign that the Bulldogs coach feels this way. Many conservative coaches before him have been crucified because they coach to not lose games instead of coaching in order to win. Who’s to say Harvard wouldn’t have returned that punt for a touchdown? The easiest thing to do is to let blame fall on the coach, but some responsibility has to lie with the players, right? These players have some control over their own actions, right? I’m sure that most modern coaches would agree to a certain extent that it’s not always about the Xs and the Os, it’s about the Jimmys and the Joes. Players involved with the play tend to agree. Sean Williams ’11 was play-

CHARLIE CROOM/SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER

Yale head coach Tom Williams was widely criticized for last year’s fake punt. ing left guard on the punt team on the fateful play. “My job was to seal the man lined up in front of me, and keep him from being able to reach the ball carrier,” he said. Williams did his job on the play and allowed Powers to receive the lateral without being touched. Unfortunately, his downfield blockers couldn’t hold the Harvard defenders for long enough to get the first down. While everyone from SportsCenter analysts to local media outlets took turns taking their shots at Coach Williams, the players never questioned the call, and their trust in their coach is unshaken. “Leading up to the play, all I was thinking about was execut-

ing my block for the fake,” Sean Williams said. “Not much else is going through your mind at critical points in games such as that play. All that matters is getting your job done. To be honest, I don’t really think about the coaches are thinking in terms of play calls. Everyone on our team has complete and full trust in the coaches. I just listen to what they have to say and do as I am coached.” If they are to win on Saturday, they’ll have to do just that. TIMOTHY THREADCRAFT is a junior in Davenport College. Contact him at timothy.threadcraft@yale.edu .

THE GAME PREDICTIONS “To surprise the opposition, if not win the game: try a fake punt on 4th and 22 in your own half, punt the ball in the wrong direction or rough your own passer. Prediction: Both teams play it safe, and Yale wins … by a safety.” BEN POLAK YALE PROFESSOR, “GAME THEORY”

PAGE 14

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 PLAYER

STATS

Breakdown: The teams YALE BULLDOGS

HARVARD CRIMSON 2010 STAT LEADERS

2010 STAT LEADERS

PASSING

CMP

ATT

YDS

INT

PASSING

CMP

ATT

YDS

INT

Collier Winters

125

768

Patrick Witt

195

324

2018

Andrew Hatch

502

Team

210

354

2245

Team

151

275

1753

RUSHING

ATT

YDS

AVG

RUSHING

ATT

YDS

AVG

Alex Thomas

140

639

4.6

Gino Gordon

154

1023

6.6

Mordecai Cargill

255

5.4

Treavor Scales

496

6.0

Deon Randall

109

4.7

Rich Zajeski

197

5.1

Team

298

1096

3.7

Team

383

1910

5.0

RECEIVING

NO.

YDS

AVG

RECEIVING

NO.

YDS

AVG

Chris Smith

389

9.5

Adam Chrissis

477

12.2

Gio Christodoulou

520

14.9

Kyle Juszczyk

231

9.6

Jordan Forney

484

13.8

Levi Richards

235

11.8

Chris Blohm

252

10.1

Gino Gordon

141

8.3

Team

210

2245

10.7

Team

151

1753

11.6

TACKLES

NO.

TFL

SACKS INT

TACKLES

NO.

TFL

SACKS INT

Jordan Haynes

8-25

1-10

2-4

Collin Zych

1.5-3

3-9

Will McHale

2-5

1-4

2-17

Nick Hasselberg

3.5-22

2.0-16

Jesse Reising

4-23

1-10

Josue Ortiz

12.0-70

6.0-46

Geoff Dunham

1-1

2-18

Bobby Schneider

2.5-15

1.0-14

1-7

Adam Money

1-1

3-37

Matthew Hanson

1.0-2

1-28

Chris Stanley

3-11

2-7

1-0

Dan Minamide

0.5-5

1-0

Team

542

61-215

17-110

10-76

Team

638

53-272

24-180

13-140

PUNTING

NO.

AVG

NET

IN20

PUNTING

NO.

AVG

NET

IN20

Greg Carlsen

36.1

831

Jacob Dombrowski

36.5

1313

Team

35.5

1775

Team

37.0

1889

KICKING

XP-ATT

FG-ATT

KICKING

XP-ATT

FG-ATT

Philippe Panico

14-15

6-13

David Mothander

30-31

9-15

Team

23-26

6-17

Team

30-31

9-15

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“I predict that at halftime, the score will be Yale 24, Harvard 14, and it will end up 27–24 Yale.” MARY MILLER DEAN OF YALE COLLEGE

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

PAGE 15

THE GAME 2010 INTRAMURALS

The other Games a tradition too BY MARIA GUARDADO CONTRIBUTING REPORTER While most IM athletes consider the Tyng Cup to be the pinnacle of IM glory, it isn’t the only honor bestowed on standout IM teams. In fact, it isn’t even the only cup up for grabs. There exists a lesser-known trophy that also holds a storied place in Yale IM history — the Harkness Cup. The Harkness Cup is an annual IM competition between Harvard and Yale. Each year, the best IM teams from Harvard and Yale compete against one another, and the college that emerges from Friday afternoon’s IM games earns the Harkness Cup. The tradition of the Harkness Cup dates back all the way to 1935. “This is a very long-standing tradition,” head IM secretary Peter Jasinski ’12 said. “Back in the day, tons of teams would play. I think in the ’60s and the ’70s it would be up at maybe 20 games a year. But the tradition has gone on, so each year we play a few games.” The actual Harkness Cup was lost in the 1980s, and its whereabouts remain unknown. Because the Cup was lost, IM teams today play mostly for bragging rights, which historically belong to the Bulldogs. From 1935 to 2001 (excluding 1989, 1990, 1994 and 1998), Yale won the Cup 32 times, Harvard won it 20 times and the two colleges tied seven times. The Elis also have the advantage in overall IM championship victories during that span and lead the all-time series 214–190–16. Current IM competitions between the two schools are limited to field sports that Harvard and Yale have in common. For the past two years those sports have been coed Ultimate Frisbee, men’s soccer and men’s football, according to Jasinski. Yale residential college IM teams earn the right to compete in the Harkness Cup by winning the IM championship in their respec-

tive sports. While competing in the Cup is completely optional, most teams fully embrace the chance to play IM teams from Harvard. “It’s a nice tradition and it allows the IM athletes to do our own little Harvard-Yale thing at the football weekend,” Jasinski said. “This season all three teams have been very overwhelmingly supportive of the idea, so they just want to go and play for Yale.” In this year’s Harkness Cup competitions, the Saybrook coed Ultimate Frisbee team, the Jonathan Edwards men’s soccer team and the Branford men’s football team will represent Yale IMs and face-off against their Harvard counterparts.

It’s a nice tradition and it allows the IM athletes to do our own little HarvardYale thing. PETER JASINSKI ’12 Head IM Secretary Because coed Ultimate Frisbee is a spring sport, Saybrook actually won the Yale IM title last spring, but the opportunity to participate in the Cup carried over to this year. Jeremy Poindexter ’11, a member of the Saybrook coed Frisbee team, said that it has been difficult regrouping the team because some members of the team graduated and the remaining players haven’t played together since last year. Nevertheless, Poindexter acknowledged that the Harvard Frisbee team is probably facing the same situation, so he doesn’t expect his team to be at that much of a disadvantage. “Our team was really good last year, so I’m cautiously optimistic,” Poindexter said. The JE men’s soccer team

YALE INTRAMURALS

The Branford men’s IM football team will take on Harvard’s reigning champions at 5 p.m. on Friday. earned the right to participate in the Harkness Cup this year, following a season where they compiled a 9-0-2 record en route to the IM championship. Andrew Goldstein ’13, captain of the JE men’s soccer team, said his entire team is looking forward to competing against Harvard’s best at the Cup. “A lot of us recognize that this is a really unique opportunity,” Goldstein said. “It might not come around again for me, even though I’m only a sophomore, because all the stars have to align in order to win an IM championship. So we’re all really excited about it.” Goldstein added that he believes his team will perform well against Harvard, mainly due to their strong defense that, with the exception of a game that ended in a shootout, only allowed one goal in IM competition. “I think we’re going to win,

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“Yale 14, Harvard 10.”

THOMAS POLLARD GRADUATE SCHOOL DEAN

because we’re going to field the strongest guys that we have, and I really think that if we have our best team on the field we’re unbeatable,” he said. Another team that was unbeatable this year was Branford’s men’s football team, which went 11–0. However, initially the Branford squad only had its eyes set on the IM championship, according to co-captain John Lesnewich ’13. “We definitely just wanted to win the championship,” Lesnewich said. “But once we started getting closer it was a really great incentive that we would get to play Harvard the night before The Game.” Though Yale IM football is played in a razzle-dazzle style, the matchup against Harvard will be different because it will be a flag football competition, Lesnewich said. In preparation for the change, the Branford team

has been designing plays to use against Harvard. “It’ll be different because we haven’t played flag, but our defense looks really good, so we should be able to shut them down,” he said. “We have a couple really fast people, so hopefully we can sneak by once or twice.” Though all three teams already won an IM championship title for their residential colleges, winning the Harkness Cup for Yale would be another special victory. “Beating Harvard would be the cherry on top of the ice cream,” Goldstein said. The Ultimate Frisbee, men’s soccer and men’s football teams will compete at 3, 4 and 5 p.m., respectively, at the Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium this Friday. Contact MARIA GUARDADO at maria.guardado@yale.edu .

PAGE 16

THE GAME 2010 LOOKING

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

BACK

Class of 1960 reunites, reminisces BY JORDAN SCHNEIDER STAFF REPORTER This past weekend members of the football team of 1960, the last undefeated and untied Yale team, reunited to watch the Yale-Princeton game and celebrate their fiftieth reunion at the Yale Bowl. But before rooting for the Bulldogs, the alums took time on Friday to give words of encouragement to the Bulldogs during practice. After both teams sang “Boola Boola” together, one alumnus shouted from the crowd, “I think we can take you on for five or six minutes.” Mike Pyle ’61, who captained the Elis and played as an offensive and defensive lineman, noted that he went on to captain the Chicago Bears for six years. “Your body shows it!” one of his former teammates declared.

To maintain our flexibility... one winter we had ballet lessons for agility. BILL LECKONBY ’62

YDN

The 1960 Yale football team is the last group of Bulldogs to have finished a season untied and undefeated.

Fifty years ago, the Elis received the Lambert Trophy recognizing the top football team in the East and finished ranked 14th in the nation. Though Yale has never regained such national prominence and no longer pursues the countries’ top players, the alumni did not seem to have much of a problem with the focus on academics in recruiting. “We’d like them to find the biggest, strongest, smartest people,” end John Stocking ’61 said. Bill Leckonby ’62, who was the team’s quarterback and safety, noted a few of the evolutions the game has gone through in the past 50 years. “Our biggest guy weighed 225 lbs,” he said. “Yale’s current starting line averages 275. I played at 190

— they wouldn’t let the skill players weightlift to maintain our flexibility. One winter we had ballet lessons for agility.” Leckonby also said he enjoyed being able to play on both sides of the ball. “If they sacked me I could pick one off,” he said. He also lamented the fact that when he played Princeton and Harvard, the Bowl regularly drew a crowd of 70,000 or more. But he acknowledged that back then “there weren’t the distractions of twentyseven games on TV.” Mary Stocking, who dated and subsequently married end John Stocking, said that the type of people in the crowds has changed as well. “There wasn’t a lot of ruckus cheering,” she said. “Now we have guys taking their shirts off.” But some things, like how the team celebrated a big football win, don’t change. “75% of the players were in DKE house,” Leckonby said. “Saturday nights we went to DKE with a good band. “ John Stocking elaborated on the drinking habits of the team. “We made Purple Jesus in garbage cans,” Mary Stocking said. “The drink consists of a third grape juice, third triple sec, vodka, and a touch of grenadine ‘to take the alcohol flavor away,’” John Stocking said. “Jesus is there in all colors. When you have enough of Purple Jesus your brain doesn’t function.” On Saturday, as the alumni watched the current Bulldog team take the field against the Tigers, Stocking said that he and his teammates enjoyed reminiscing about bygone glories. “Each drink increases the memory of our accomplishments,” John Stocking said. “Our team’s motto: ‘the older we get, the better we were.’” Contact JORDAN SCHNEIDER at jordan.schneider@yale.edu .

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“I’m predicting Yale will leave Harvard with a 17-7 victory.” JAMES LEWIS CHIEF OF YALE POLICE

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

THE GAME 2010 LOOKING

BACK

THE GAME PREDICTIONS

“I look forward to a glorious win over our rivals to the north. Harvard delenda est!” STEVEN SMITH BRANFORD COLLEGE MASTER

PAGE 17

PAGE 18

YALE DAILY NEWS · FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2010 · yaledailynews.com

PLAYERS TO WATCH

YALE OFFENSE

BY MAX DE LA BRUYERE AND TIMOTHY THREADCRAFT

ALEX THOMAS ’12

HARVARD OFFENSE GINO GORDON

Running back 5’ 11” 190 lb

The Elis will have to account for a shifty and versatile Gino Gordon. Gordon has rushed for 1023 yards, second in the Ivy League, and averages 6.6 yards a pop. Gordon has also proved he’s a threat in the passing game as well and is fourth on the team with 17 catches for 141 yards.

Running back 5’9” 190 lb

Defensive tackle 6’ 4” 260 lb

The Avon Park, Fla. native is a disruptive tackle that will command some help on the interior. Ortiz leads the Ivy League in tackles for a loss with 13 and ranks second in the league in sacks with six. He has also added four pass breakups and a fumble recovery.

CHRIS SMITH ’13

Wide receiver 5’ 11” 190 lb

TREAVOR SCALES

Running back 5’ 10” 190 lb

Thomas had his first career 100-yard rushing performance against Harvard last year, and he has proved this season that it was no fluke, running for the thirdmost yards in the Ivy League with 639. He has proved especially consistent late in the game, with crucial carries in the past two weeks that allowed Yale to let the clock run out.

Scales has combined with Gordon to make up the better portion of the Ivy League’s second-ranked rushing attack. Scales averages six yards per carry, and the Crimson offense likely would not miss a beat if Scales were to get carries in favor of Gordon.

HARVARD QUARTERBACK

HARVARD DEFENSE JOSUE ORTIZ

PAGE 19

COLIN ZYCH Defensive back 5’ 11” 195 lb

An all-around safety prospect, Zych has broken up eight passes and intercepted three in addition to racking up 73 tackles, to rank sixth in the Ivy League. Zych also played a crucial role in stopping the Bulldogs’ fake punt attempt in New Haven last year.

COLLIER WINTERS 5’ 11” 190 lb

Winters missed the first five weeks of the season because of a torn adductor muscle and was not able to compete until Oct. 23 when the Crimson faced Princeton. In the four games since, he has completed 60 percent of his passes and thrown four touchdowns. However, Winters has been sacked four times and has thrown five interceptions. If the Bulldogs can find a way to shut down the Crimson running game, they could better their chances for victory on Saturday.

YALE QUARTERBACK PATRICK WITT ’12

Smith is a threat every time he touches the ball. His two kickoff return touchdowns against Brown electrified the Bulldogs in their 27–24 win. He is one of Witt’s most trusted targets with 41 receptions to lead the team. Expect to see him set the team up with good field position with the ball headed his way on third and long.

YALE DEFENSE JORDAN HAYNES ’12 Linebacker 6’ 1” 220 lb

TOM MCCARTHY ’11 Defensive end 6’ 6” 255 lb

6’ 4” 220 lb

When Witt is on, he is the top passer in the Ivy League and a play caller opposing coaches lose sleep over. When he is off, the entire offense shuts down. No Ivy League quarterback has thrown for more yards. No Ivy League quarterback has tossed more interceptions. Adding to the puzzle the fact that Witt is nursing three injuries, the Yale passing game could go any number of ways.

A linebacker must be strong enough to stop runs and agile enough to drop into pass coverage. Haynes has both covered. He has shown his ability to stop runs and drop into pass coverage. The junior leads the team with 88 tackles, and also has two interceptions, including one in the end zone against Princeton last week.

Since missing the first two games of the season with an injury, the Bulldog captain has racked up 28 tackles to lead the defensive line. McCarthy will have to keep that performance up Saturday, as he and his unit are the main line of defense against Crimson’s treacherous running game.