September 22, 2009

Tim Murphy Quotes From Ivy Football Teleconference

Pictured: Chris Lorditch celebrates his fourth quarter touchdowbn at Holy Cross last week with Matt Luft.
Photo: Gil Talbot

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Tim Murphy, the Thomas Stephenson Family Head Coach for Harvard Football, recently took part in the Ivy League's weekly teleconference. Below are his quotes from the event.

Additionally, coach Murphy will give more insight into his Crimson as he takes part in the weekly New England Football Writers' Association Luncheon Wednesday afternoon at Harvard's Dillon Field House.

The event - the nation's oldest weekly football media gathering, now entering its 81st season - begins at noon and features head coaches, players and administrators from around the region from all levels of NCAA competition. For the first time, this year's event will be streamed live via the web on GoCrimson.com.

Fans can login to Harvard's Multimedia section of the website to watch the streams. Recaps of the event will be posted in the afternoon and will be sent to media and area schools as well. Local fans can do even better as the event is open to the public for a fee of $10 per person.

Each school's coach/administrator will speak briefly about his team's last game, a preview up the upcoming games and an assessment of his team's top players. Additionally, the weekly Gold Helmet Award is given to the preceding week's top players. The award is sponsored by the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston and the weekly winners - one from Divisions I and one from Divisions II/III - are presented with a plaque.

Tim Murphy Quotes from the weekly Ivy League Teleconference
Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2009

Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy opening statement:
First of all, we played a very fine team in Holy Cross... The bottom line is - they made just a few more plays and made fewer mistakes than we did. We have no excuses, we played hard, played solid but have to be better than that against a Holy Cross team that has a chance to win nine or ten games.

On preparing for a Friday game as opposed to a Saturday:
The obvious thing is that, instead of three practices, you only get two... I think what offsets it is that our kids love playing night games and love playing on Friday night. The enthusiasm for the (night) game offsets any of the issues we have as players or coaches.

On the Brown game being a "rivalry" game:
Every game with us is a "rivalry" game. I get this question every week. Our big rival is obviously Yale and traditionally Princeton as well. We've got a bull's-eye on our front and our back as well... Whoever wants to call us a rival is fine with us.

On playing a big game early in the season and the keys to get his team playing at a high level so fast:
One of (they keys), if you have a veteran quarterback , that helps... the other is you somehow have to do a good job on the turnover rations. We didn't have any takeaways last week against Holy Cross. We keep it simple early and give our kids a chance to be successful.

On Desmond Bryant, now with the Oakland Raiders and telling him he had the talent to play at the next level:
He's a kid we legitimately beat Duke for in recruiting, scholarship for scholarship. He's from a working class family, a great family. He was one of those kids who, physically, looked like an SEC kid. His work ethic really paid off to the point where he is still dramatically improving today. He is going to be one of those 300-ponds inside guys in the NFL. We are very proud of what he has accomplished.

On advantages for an NFL-caliber player attending an Ivy League school:
There  are several things, I think: Number one, he's going to have some potential left over. What I mean by that is that, at another school, he might not have gotten on the field as quickly or as consistently. At some schools its 80 percent football whereas here the kids are not given any special favors and are representative of the student body.

If you have the ability to play at the next level, you come away very mature (from Harvard) , well-prepared socially, intellectually and a lot of the guys who have gone on to the NFL from here have felt very well prepared in a lot of different ways

On running a balanced attack with 37 running and passing plays last week; and on playing freshman running back Treavor Scales in a close game early in the season:
I won't say that Treavor has been a surprise because we thought he was a very fine, skilled athlete. He is a step faster than we thought he was, he has absorbed the information faster. He has had an outstanding preseason and can come in right now. When you have a freshman like that, you have to play him. He is very mature.

On the Brown game plan:
They are an outstanding team. We've been fortunate to have a good record against Brown. Part of it is, they are such a physical and well-coached team. They play us hard. The added challenge (this year) is how good they are defensively. They have a lot of guys back. We won't see a better defensive front that what Brown has this year. They have probably two of the three best linemen in the league and we are going to be tested right from the get-go.