October 12, 2010

Tim Murphy Quotes From Ivy Football Teleconference

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 82nd season - begins at noon and features head coaches, players and administrators from around the region from all levels of NCAA competition. This year's event will be streamed live via the web on GoCrimson.com and is part of the All-Access and Football Season Pass for streaming.

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.

Harvard Head Coach Tim Murphy on the team's win versus Cornell and the upcoming game versus Lehigh
Overall, our win was a very solid effort. The most important thing is that our kids played with great intensity from start to finish. We put a lot of pressure on their young offense with nine sacks against their young quarterback. Offensively we started much more slowly but as the game wore on, our kids got better and better. We threw the ball 35 times with Colton Chapple… we ended up with 505 yards of total offense and 300 yards plus rushing.

Gino Gordon continues to be a tremendous asset and I am really happy with Colton Chapple. He's progressed and is a very tough kid. We've got a lot of work to do. There are some things I'm not happy with - we had some mistakes, had some turnovers and had some penalties.

On special teams, our coaching staff has done a great job – we've improved as specialists and as a unit. Jacob Dombrowski kicked two inside the 5-yard line and I'm really happy with the punting unit overall.

(Looking ahead) this is a very good Lehigh team. Their two loses were to Villanova and New Hampshire… they're very athletic, very physical. This will be a step up from the past two weeks.

On Penn head coach Al Bagnoli becoming the winningest coach in Penn history
 I've said this before but they should put a statue up because he's done an amazing job… What Al and his staff have done over the years is remarkable. From my point of view, they've done an outstanding job and are the measure by which we're all measured. Hopefully when he retires, hopefully soon Al, these years will be measured as the golden years of Penn football.

On the Ivy League sporting a 9-4 record versus Patriot League teams this season and with Harvard having considerable success versus PL teams
I think it goes in cycles. There are some great programs in that league. Our league has a lot of strong teams, a lot of parity, but there are cycles.  

On the health o his program and if there are any updates for this week
No updates yet - we'll know more on the QB situation probably tomorrow morning. But I'm excited about the play of Colton Chapple; we know we've lost some guys for the season but those are the challenges you face and we embrace the opportunity for other kids to step up and overcome those issues.

About Harvard's running game and how that has helped a young quarterback
The obvious thing is it gives us great balance and unpredictability. The combination has made us a better football team. Ironically, by losing some of the players we've had, it has made us a better football team because it has forced us to achieve some balance.