The Crimson used some other talented players on a fake punt last season against Northeastern. On a play similar to the one Harvard ran against Yale later that year, then-sophomore tight end Matt Fratto took a direct snap and easily picked up the first down.

But this year, Harvard has not always been able to capitalize on the trick plays it ran so effectively last season.

Down 17-14 against Northeastern in the fourth quarter on Oct. 19, Harvard attempted a throwback pass after sophomore quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick pitched the ball to Morris. The play was good for a first down, but was called back due to a holding penalty, and forced the Crimson to eventually punt.

“We had a bunch of momentum busters, the obvious one being the penalty on the reverse pass,” Murphy said after the game.

While running special plays has not always panned out this year, stopping other teams’ trickery has played a huge role in Harvard’s success this year.

“Stopping the fake [punt] against Columbia, which could have been a momentum changer, was a big play,” said Harvard special teams coach Tim Weaver.

Down just 14-7, the Lions tried to run a fake punt for a much- needed first down. But junior cornerback Chris Raftery read the play well and tackled Columbia punter Nick Rudd before he could get back to the line of scrimmage. The big defensive stop gave the momentum back to the Crimson, who took advantage of the great field position and scored again in just six plays.

Harvard coaches are well aware of the benefits trickery provides the potent Crimson attack, but they say they are not designing anything special for The Game just because Harvard happens to be facing its archrival.

“We really don’t try to do anything new or different. We just try to see if there is anything we can exploit,” Mills explains. “Every week we try to explore some option, not just for this week.”

Still, players feel that Harvard could very well end up pulling something out of the hat.

“We’re gonna have a big crowd who should be into it,” Byrnes says. “So I definitely think it [a trick play] will be that much more important.”