“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.”

In many ways, Rose was a microcosm for this team. His season didn’t go exactly according to plan. He was hurt, missed games and, in the end, found himself on the sidelines for much of his final game while Fitzpatrick led his team to victory.

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

Rose, though, is a class act. When Murphy made the switch to Fitzpatrick on Saturday, it was easy to tell that everyone—including Rose himself—probably understood why.

“We talked about it last night, with the weather report,” Murphy said, “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.”

It will be hard for Murphy to watch this senior class leave, after all of the success he has enjoyed with them.

And it’s just as tough for the players themselves.

“I’m definitely going to miss this a lot,” said Morris, his place in the NFL Draft all but assured. “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.

“It’s my time to go.”

Maybe so. The legacy of this senior class, though, will be sticking around for some time.

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