Yale-Harvard Game on ESPN2
Grover Cleveland was U.S. President and Coca-Cola was first bottled the last time Yale and Harvard met in football at a neutral site. Yale captain Frank Hinkey led Yale to a 12-4 win over Harvard in 1894 at Hampden Park in Springfield, Mass., in a battle of unbeatens 124 years ago. That was the 17th meeting of the famous rivals, played before 25,000 fans. The 135th edition of this storied rivalry is a neutral site meeting at Fenway Park, The Bulldogs (5-4, 3-3 Ivy) and Crimson (5-4, 3-3) square off Saturday in a noon kickoff airing live on ESPN2, WELI Radio (AM 960) and iHeart Radio.
SERIES
It's the second oldest and third most played rivalry in college football. The Bulldogs are up 67-59-8, including a second straight win last year at the Bowl. The Elis ended a 9-game skid with a win at Harvard Stadium in 2016. Yale is 31-31-3 at home, 29-27-5 at Boston (25-26-3 in Harvard Stadium) and 7-1-0 at neutral sites. There have been 55 shutouts since the first meeting in 1875, and the Elis are 28-20-7 in those contests. The two have met in other famous baseball venues, including the Polo Grounds in New York and the National League Baseball Grounds in Boston.
BULLDOGS
Yale outscored Princeton 29-17 in the second half last week at the Bowl, but the Tigers had a big first half and came away with a 59-43 win to remain unbeaten. The Bulldogs nearly had 600 yards of offense but still could not keep up on the scoreboard. Five different Elis found the end zone, including RB Alan Lamar with a pair of rushing TDs, while LB Micah Awodiran had a game-high 13 tackles.
CRIMSON
Harvard won 29-7 at Franklin Field last Saturday while holding Penn to 229 total yards.
LAST MEETING
Yale won 24-3 at the Bowl last November and earned its first outright title in 37 years (shared in 2006). A crowd of 51,426 saw Yale's defense make 6 sacks while limiting the Harvard offense to 164 total yards. LB Matthew Oplinger had 2 sacks and DB Malcolm Dixon scored on a fumble return, while other scores came from WR J.P. Shohfi, RB Zane Dudek and K Alex Galland.
IT STARTED HERE
The Game is responsible for many original events: Yale performed the first on-side kick against Harvard in 1881; Harvard's flying wedge was first seen in the 1892 contest; the first game in the Bowl was the 1914 meeting; the first crowd at an American sporting even over 80,000 was the 1920 game at the Bowl; and the first triple OT Ivy game happened in 2005 at Yale.
MILESTONE Y-H GAMES
The YH series has seen its share of special moments, firsts and freaky plays. Here are some of the most memorable meetings:
1946: Elis overcome a 14-0 Harvard lead to win 27-14
1952: Yale student manager Charlie Yeager catches a PAT pass in a 41-14 Eli win at Cambridge
1968: QB Frank Champi completes a TD pass and a conversion play with no time left as Harvard gains a 29-29 draw at Cambridge and shares the Ivy crown with Yale
1972: Yale overcomes a 17-0 first half deficit to win 28-17
1974: QB Milt Holt scored on a 1-yard run with 0:15 left in a 21-16 victory that gave Harvard a share of the Ivy title with Yale
1975: Mike Lynch's 26-yard FG with 0:33 left gave Crimson a 10-7 win and sole possession of the Ivy title
1977: Mike Sullivan's 6 5-yard TD run out of punt formation ignites Yale in a 24-7 win at the Bowl
1995: Crimson Eion Hu scores from 2 yards out with :29 left in a 22-21 win
1999: WR Eric Johnson (21-244) scoops up a Joe Walland (42-67, 437) pass with :29 left to send Yale to a 24-21 win and an Ivy title
2005: Clifton Dawson ends the longest game in Ivy history in the 3rd OT with a two-yard run to give Harvard a 30-24 win at the Bowl
50 YEARS AGO
Among the most famous games in the history of college football, Yale and Harvard played to a 29-29 tie in 1968 at Harvard Stadium. The Crimson erased a 16-point deficit in the closing minutes to earn a result their student newspaper proclaimed a win.
XAVERIAN BROTHERS, FENWAY
Sophomore linebackers John Dean and AJ Ryan, along with first-year defensive back Brian Abraham, played for Xaverian Brothers High School, the top ranked team in Massachusetts, in a win over St. John's Prep on Nov. 26, 2015, at Fenway Park. Undefeated Xaverian went on to win the state championship. Those are the only Elis who have played at Fenway.
O'CONNOR NAMED IVY ROOKIE OF WEEK AGAIN
Yale's starting QB, Griffin O'Connor '22, has thrown for 902 yards and 7 TDs in just his two college games. That includes a school record 465 yards (on just 20 completions) against Princeton that earned him Ivy League Rookie of the Week. No quarterback in the long history of Yale Football had a debut like O'Connor, who got his first snaps in his first collegiate start against Brown. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native threw 4 TD passes to lead the Bulldogs to a 46-16 win over Brown. O'Connor completed 30 of 38 passes for 436 yards. The passing yards total was the most by an Ivy freshman and third most in school history. His 452 yards of total offense were second at Yale, which helped him earn STATS FCS national rookie of the week and Ivy League co-Offensive Player (and rookie) of the Week.
YALE QBs
There have been 3 different Yale starters behind center the last 4 games. Junior Kurt Rawlings suffered a season-ending injury on a run during the first Yale possession of the second half at Penn, a play that gained 11 yards inside the red zone. Rawlings, who is climbing the Yale career record lists, has a career-high 4 TDs and 344 yards in a win over Mercer that earned him Ivy League Player of the Week on Oct. 13. He threw for 306 yards and 3 TDs (1 rush TD)
against Maine in September (Gold Helmet Award from NE Sports Writers). Sophomore Jimmy Check got the start at Columbia and shared some of the snaps with classmate Patrick Conte, who has also been the primary holder for kicks.
LAMAR
Junior RB Alan Lamar (Olive Brank, Miss.), who missed 2017 with an injury, is back in the form he showed as rookie in 2016 with 98 yards per game and 8 rushing TDs.
LAMAR in 2018: Ivy League & CSM Offensive Player of Week for 179 yards, 2 TDs at Penn… Has had 2 rushing TDs in 3 of the last 4 games.
LAMAR in 2016: Team's freshman MVP... Second-team All-Ivy... Served as top kickoff return man for the first four games until he was needed at tailback... Led Yale with 557 yards and five TDs... Got first collegiate snaps in the backfield vs Dartmouth and ran 23 times for 180 yards and TDs of seven and 43 yards... His Dartmouth total was five yards shy of Robert Carr's freshman school rushing record of 185 yards and got him STATS FCS (national) Rookie of the Week and Ivy co-Rookie of the Week... First start vs. Penn with 118 yards and a TD catch... Scored on one-yard run in win at Harvard.
KLUBNIK
Junior WR Reed Klubnik (Austin, Texas) leads the Ivy League and is top 10 in the FCS in 3 of the 4 receiving categories, including average catches per game with 7.6. He leads the team with 60 catches, 1,052 yards and 9 TD catches and needs 88 yards at Harvard to set the school's single-season mark. Klubnik's career-best 13 catches came against Dartmouth this fall, while he notched a career-best 234 yards receiving against Princeton, the 3rd most in school history. He caught a career-high 3 TD passes against Maine, the most for a Bulldog receiver since 2013. His 9 TD catches this year tied for No. 5 on the Yale season list, while his 13 career TDs are No. 7. Klubnik's 60-yard scoring catch vs. Brown was the longest for Yale this season.
SHOHFI
Junior JP Shohfi, a WR from San Marino, Calif., is having a great fall with 6 catches per game and a total of 5 TD grabs. Against Brown, he had a game-high 9 grabs for 2 scores and 104 yards, and his first quarter, spinning, one-handed TD catch made NBC's SNF highlights as well as ESPN's Top 10 Plays. Shohfi snared six passes for 152 yards and two scores in a win over Mercer on Oct. 13. Shohfi, who handles punt returns as well, is now third among Ivy receivers in every stats category.
NICHOLAS CROWLE, CAPTAIN
Nicholas Crowle was voted captain by his teammates last August. He is a senior DL using a fifth year of eligibility. His career totals are 64 tackles and 10.5 TFL in 35 career games. The Fairfield Prep star two-way player is the 18th Yale football captain from Connecticut and the second from Milford. He is a Political Science major in Ezra Stiles College who grew up attending Yale games and always wanted to be a Bulldog.
ZANE DUDEK
Sophomore RB Zane Dudek has 18 career TD runs and just cracked Yale's career top 10 list this year, but he has not played in the last two games.
DUDEK in 2018: Best day was 22-217 at Holy Cross… 2 TDs at Cornell.
DUDEK in 2017: Phil Steele FCS Offensive Freshman of the Year and First Team Freshman All-America... Finalist for Jerry Rice Award for FCS Rookie of Year... CSM Freshman of the Year... Phil Steele and CSM Third-Team All-America... Ivy League Rookie of the Year... First-Team All-Ivy League... New Haven Gridiron Club's Harry Jacunski Award... Led league
in every rushing and scoring category including yards (1,133, 9th at Yale), yards per game (113.3), rushing TDs (15, 5th at Yale), yards per carry (7.1, 2nd in Ivy history, ties Yale record set in 1956), overall TDs (16), points (96, 2nd in FCS) and all-purpose yards (134.5)... First true freshman to lead league in rushing... Best Yale freshman football season ever for a running back... Six games over 100 yards... Ivy rookie of the week six (last 5 straight) times and the offensive player of the week once... STATS FCS National Rookie of the Week and took both Ivy honors after going for 173 yards against Columbia... Hero Sports Candidate, Ivy League Honor Roll, STATS Honorable Mention after rushing for 131 yards on nine attempts and 2 TDs against Lehigh... Ivy League Rookie of the Week after rushing for 173 yards on 16 attempts and 1 TD against Cornell.
Dudek Career Bests:
Yards: 217 at Holy Cross 2018
Attempts: 35 at Princeton 2017
Rushing TDs: 3 vs. Brown & at Princeton 2017
ALL-IVY LEFT SIDE
A pair of juniors who were All-Ivy picks last fall are playing side-by-side this season on Yale's offensive line. LT Sterling Strother (Moraga, Calif.) and LG Dieter Eiselen (Stellenbosch, South Africa) are both over 300 pounds and command great respect from opponents. Strother was a college hoops prospect who was convinced by his high school football coach to focus on the gridiron. Eiselen (in photo)was a rugby player and weight lifter in South Africa looking for a way to become a college football player. He accomplished that by attending summer college football camps in the states, getting coaches interested and learning the game quickly while attending Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn.
YALE'S ROMAN EMPIRE
Senior J. Hunter Roman is a regular on the defense who plays end and was a semifinalist for the NFF's 2018 William Campbell Trophy, the most prestigious scholar-athlete award for a college football player. His brother, D. Major Roman, had a career-best 2 catches at Columbia on Oct. 27. D. Major, a sophomore tight end, was a NFF High School Scholar-Athlete (national) finalist when he played at New London (CT) High School.
GALLAND
Senior PK/P Alex Galland, an All-Ivy pick last fall, is happy to blow his own horn… especially if he can take part in the national anthem. The Bakersfield, Calif., native, has played his trumpet with the Yale Band for the Star Spangled Banner at home games when the team schedule permits and his band mates remember to bring his instrument. Galland, a mechanical engineering major, worked at Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation in Stratford, Conn., last summer and was offered a full-time job. He will have to let the company know soon if he is accepting the offer; Galland is ahead of schedule on graduation requirements and will finish school this semester, including a very interesting senior project (he is designing a mechanism to gauge the accuracy and decision making of weapon-carrying law enforcement officials). Galland, who has 19 career field goals and 56 punts inside the 20 in his 3 years as the starter, was Chris Sailer's 2018 California Camp pick as "top college punter."
CLASS OF 2019
There are 23 Yale seniors playing their final game Saturday, including 10 offensive players, nine on defense and four special teamers.
BLUE RAINE
Yale first-year DL Adam Raine saw his first collegiate snaps against Mercer on Oct. 13. Getting on the field for eight defensive snaps was more special for the Basingstoke, England, native than the average college football player making his debut. Raine grew up playing soccer and cricket and didn't put on football pads until he was 17, after a suggestion from his uncle, who was playing on a club American football team in England and knew New Orleans Saints DE Alex Jenkins (Bath, England). Raine, a bruising center back on the soccer pitch, sent over 200 emails to college football coaches and didn't get any responses for a long time. Yale was the first to make contact and many others followed suit after he attended summer camps in 2017 and then played a year at Berkshire School. Raine has six siblings, one of whom drove him seven hours (through 5 countries) to a football ID camp in Germany. He has 1.5 tackles in 5 games played this fall.
JUMPING BACK IN ACTION
WR Keith CJ McCord II, a senior who is also a jumper for the Yale Track & Field Team, got the first two catches of his career against Maine in his first collegiate start. The first time he got on the field in a varsity game was the 2018 opener at Holy Cross. McCord broke his leg in a JV game early in his rookie (2015) season. He missed the 2016 football season and then had an excellent 2016-17 track campaign (4th in high jump, personal best 2.03 meters at the outdoor league championships), but he was not on the 2017 football roster. The Huntington Beach, Calif., native rejoined the team last August and suddenly moved up when injuries hit the receiving corps.
FENWAY
Fenway Park has a long history of hosting football games, but this is the first YH meeting at the home of the Red Sox. Boston College and the Boston Patriots once called it home, but there was a long period without football on Fenway. The sport returned in 2013 with a Boston College-Notre Dame game and a Fenway Gridiron Series was created in 2017. The last Ivy game played was Brown hosting Dartmouth last fall in a night game.
ALL-IVY BULLDOGS ON ROSTER
DL Charles Callender '20 – Second-Team 2017
DB Malcom Dixon '20 – Honorable Mention 2017
RB Zane Dudek '21 – First-Team 2017
OL Dieter Eiselen '20 – Honorable Mention 2017
P/PK Alex Galland '19 – Second-Team 2017
RB Alan Lamar '20 – Second-Team 2016
QB Kurt Rawlings '20 – Honorable Mention 2017
OL Sterling Strother '20 – Second-Team 2017
LEADERS ON THE ROSTER
There are many leaders among the 2018 Bulldogs, including senior J. Hunter Roman, who was selected as a semifinalist for the National Football Foundation's William Campbell Trophy. Here's how we quantify the leadership on the roster.
Captains of high school football teams: 82
Captains of another sport in high school: 50
National Honor Society Members: 45
High School Class Presidents: 6
High School Class Valedictorians: 2
ROSTER FUN FACTS
The 2018 Yale football team represents 24 states and 4 countries (US, Canada, England, South Africa)... California has the most players with 14... Connecticut and Texas have the second most with 9, while New Jersey and Massachusetts both have 8... Kamsi Nwangwu, from Woodbridge, is the Bulldog whose home is closest to the campus... Dieter Eiselen, from Stellenbosch, South Africa, came the farthest to attend Yale (nearly 7800 miles)... The tallest players on the team are So. Grant Neagli and Jr. Jett Sexton, who stand at 6'7. Grant Neagli is also the heaviest player at 325 pounds… The average for Bulldog O-linemen is 6'4 3/4 and 290 pounds…. The average DL is 6'3 1/4 and 254 pounds.
SURVEYING THE ELIS
A survey of the team produced some interesting anecdotal information about the Bulldogs.
Most humorous: Spencer Matthei & Rodney Thomas II
Most intelligent: Alex Galland
Most vocal: J. Hunter Roman
Most likely to become president: JP Shohfi
Most interesting extracurricular: Alex Galland (plays in Yale Band)
Best singer: Kamsi Nwangwu
Strongest (pound-for-pound): Alan Lamar, Melvin Rouse II
Most involved in community: John Lager
COACHING CHANGES SINCE LAST YH GAME
When you win, schools come calling. Three coaches from Team 145 left Yale last winter. OC Joe Conlin became Fordham's head coach and took DB coach Paul Rice with him. TE coach Chandler Henley went to the NFL with Titans. New Members: Matt Cerins (TE, intern on Yale staff 2017), Ben Olson (DL, at Colgate in 2017, brother of Jake Olson, Chief of Staff), Al Netter (OL, at Michigan in 2017). Changes: Kevin Cahill went from Pass-Game Coordinator to Offensive Coordinator; Art Asselta (WR) is now Pass-Game Coordinator; Jordan Stevens went from DL in 2017 to co-Defensive Coordinator and LB coach.
BULLDOG BITES
Junior LB Ryan Burke leads the team with 39 solos and 44 overall stops, while his 6 sacks are also tops for the Elis… Junior LB John Dean and sophomore DB Rodney Thomas II each have one interception… There is no JV game Friday at Harvard. In fact, this is the first year Yale has scheduled only varsity contests... Yale leads the Ivy League in passing yards, third down conversions and time of possession... Yale's 2018 non-league opponents (Holy Cross, Maine and Mercer) are a combined 16-14 this fall.
NFL ELIS
Three Yale seniors from the 2017 championship team were on NFL rosters over the summer and made it to the final cut. Foyesade Oluokun made the 53-man Atlanta Falcons roster and has 39 tackles (9 GP) to date, while Jaeden Graham is currently on the Falcons' practice squad. In addition, Matthew Oplinger played in multiple exhibition games and turned some heads.
YALE RADIO
All 10 games air live on AM (960 WELI or 1300 ESPN) as well as iHeart Radio with Ron Vaccaro '04 and Jack Siedlecki providing the call.
THE GAME
The 135th meeting of Yale and Harvard is also unique because it sold out in a few days last spring. That's the earliest tickets have ever gone on sale and the fastest the tickets have been sold. The New York Post recently came out with "The 20 Best Experiences College Football Has to Offer" and The Game ranked No. 5 behind Clemson (Howard's Rock), Army-Navy, Notre Dame (TD Jesus) and Wisconsin's "Jump Around."
WEEKLY HONORS
Sept. 15: Zane Dudek (Ivy HRoll); Ryan Burke (Ivy HRoll)
Sept. 22: Spencer Alston (Ivy ROW); Alex Galland (Ivy HRoll)
Sept. 29: Kurt Rawlings (NE Gold Helmet, CSM Ivy POW); Reed Klubnik (Ivy HRoll), Alex Galland (Ivy HRoll)
Oct. 5: Reed Klubnik (Ivy HRoll)
Oct. 13: Kurt Rawlings (Ivy POW, CSM Ivy POW, CFPA); Noah Pope (Ivy HRoll)
Oct. 20: Alan Lamar (Ivy & CSM POW); Noah Pope (Ivy HRoll)
Oct. 27: Reed Klubnik (Ivy HRoll)
Nov. 3: Griffin O'Connor (Ivy co-POW, Ivy ROW, CSM POW); Reed Klubnik (Ivy HRoll); JP Shohfi (Ivy HRoll)
Nov. 10: Griffin O'Connor (Ivy ROW); Reed Klubnik (Ivy HRoll)
Contact: Steve Conn, Yale Associate AD/Sports Publicity - steven.conn@yale.edu
