NEW HAVEN, Conn. – On a day it honored its past, the Yale football team showed the present is in pretty good hands as well. Quarterback Nolan Grooms threw for a career-high 363 yards and four touchdowns, and the defense limited Morgan State to just 204 yards of total offense in an impressive 45-3 victory in the 2023 NAACP Harmony Classic at Yale Bowl, Class of 1954 Field.
 
The victory snapped Yale's two-game losing streak. Morgan State fell to 1-4.
 
KEY SEQUENCE
 
Ryan Lindley's 3-yard touchdown reception with 17 seconds left in the second quarter put the Bulldogs in front 17-3. Yale then took the second-half kickoff and went 75 yards in four plays, the final one a 33-yard scoring pass from Grooms to Mason Tipton that made it 24-3. Before the third quarter was over, the Bulldogs added three more touchdowns – an 8-yard run from Tre Peterson, a 25-yard reception by Joey Felton and a 36-yard interception return by Joseph Vaughn.
 
KEY STATS
 
• Yale amassed 521 yards of total offense - 336 yards through the air and 160 on the ground.
 
• Defensively, the Bulldogs limited Morgan State to just 12 first downs.
 
• Grooms and Marshall Howe completed passes to 11 different receivers.
 
HONORING THE PAST
 
Yale remembered Levi Jackson '50, the first black captain of the football team and the first full-season black captain in any varsity sport among the eight Ivy League institutions. Jackson's daughter Denise was in attendance and participated in the coin toss prior to kickoff. In addition, Calvin Hill served as the team's honorary captain. Hill, one of Yale's all-time greats, helped the Bulldogs win Ivy League championships in both 1967 and 1968, winning 16 straight games at one point over the two seasons. Mark Washington, the co-captain of Morgan State's 1969 team, was the honorary captain for the Bears. Hill and Washington were teammates for five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys following their college days and have remained close friends.
 
SECOND STRAIGHT HARMONY CLASSIC VICTORY
 
The Bulldogs captured the Harmony Classic for the second straight year. Last fall at the Bowl, Yale knocked off Howard 34-26.
 
QUOTING RENO
 
"It was an honor today to host our second Harmony Classic against an incredible university in Morgan State," said Tony Reno, The Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach of the Bulldogs. "To honor Levi Jackson and his contributions to Yale Football and to have Calvin Hill here was very special. We're a small piece of 150 years of an incredible tradition, and it takes moments like these to embrace it and cherish it. Our job is to continue to build on that legacy."
 
"We challenged ourselves to take it up a notch from last week. The team really came together. We realized we needed to be better for each other and go out and have fun. And today you see the result of it. We put the ball in the air a good amount and made some big plays. The defense did a great job of winning on third down and creating turnovers."
 
NOTES
 
• Grooms' 363 passing yards were a career high. He also matched his Yale best with four touchdown passes. In addition, Grooms was Yale's leading rusher, carrying nine times for 87 yards.
 
• Vaughn's interception return for a touchdown was the second score of his career. He had a 35-yard return for a touchdown in last year's win over Brown.
 
• Tipton finished with a career-high 136 receiving yards on nine catches. Lindley added nine catches for 77 yards, including 62 after the catch.
 
• Clay Patterson recorded a sack for the sixth consecutive game dating back to last season. Phoenix Grant and Ezekiel Larry also had sacks for the Bulldogs.
 
UP NEXT
 
The Bulldogs play their first road game of the season when they travel to Dartmouth next Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m.