“Absolutely,” he said. “As a class, this team has won more back-to-back games than any team in Ivy history,” Murphy said. “And today, I was just so pleased with how our guys responded. There was no championship on the line, but our guys played like it was.”

Everything went right for Harvard last season. Most things did not fall for the Crimson this season—which is the difference between 9-0 and 7-3.

“When you win every game, you need to have three things,” Murphy said. “You need to have a great team, have great health and get all of the big breaks. Last year, we had all of that.”

The defense, Murphy admitted, was not as consistent at the beginning of this season as it was in 2001. That was due to inexperience more than anything else, he said, adding that the defense did a “tremendous job” against Yale.

The season certainly did not go according to plan for Rose, who was hurt for long stretches of the year and found himself on the sidelines for much of his final game.

That’s an unbelievably difficult situation for someone who took last spring off of school to play in The Game one last time.

Rose, though, is a class act and conducted himself in such a manner. When Murphy made the switch to Fitzpatrick yesterday, everyone understood why.

“As much as I love [Rose], my obligation is to the team,” Murphy said. “We talked about it last night, with the weather report, and it was a foregone conclusion that if we got into this type of game plan, [Fitzpatrick] was going to be the guy because he gives you that extra option that you don’t have with a pro-style quarterback like Neil.”

In the face of adversity, this team performed admirably—if not brilliantly—all season long. It will be hard for Murphy to watch this senior class leave, after all of the success it has brought.

And it’s just as tough for the seniors.

“I’m definitely going to miss this a lot,” Morris said. “This team is like a family, and it hurts because I’m going to lose a lot of friends. We’re a real close team—but it’s my time to go.”

The legacy of this senior class, though, will not be leaving anytime soon.

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu