No one wants to look back and have to confront the specter of What Could Have Been.

After all, revisiting the past—effectively poring over every mistake and decision gone awry—is disappointing, fruitless and more than a little frustrating.

But for the Harvard football team, just two years removed from a perfect season, that is exactly what Saturday’s return to the storied and familiar Yale Bowl will do.

For if everything had gone the Crimson’s way this year—and most certainly, it didn’t—the historic 120th edition of The Game would have had the potential to be the finale of Harvard’s legendary 2001 season all over again, right there on the Bulldogs’ (6-3, 4-2 Ivy) home turf. The Crimson (6-3, 3-3) would have gotten the highly-anticipated, championship-determining send-off in New Haven that so many had initially projected this year’s Game to be.

“We certainly expect it to have title implications,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said less than two weeks ago, when both Harvard and the surging Bulldogs were still in the thick of the Ivy League race. “It has the potential to be one of the biggest Harvard-Yale games in recent memory.”

But of course, that was then and this is now.

Such excited conjecture has long since faded away, disappearing with the waning days of mid-November and a heartbreaking 2003 campaign.

For Harvard, “potential” is now nothing more than the maddening memory of What Could Have Been.

And though it may seem like some time since the Crimson last was undefeated, the very recognition of that reality is still disconcerting.

Especially when one looks back and sees a team that once had every reason to expect it all.

Falling from Grace

In the alternate universe where an undefeated Harvard didn’t drop two straight games against the weakest part of its schedule, you get to muse about how beautiful it will be for the Crimson’s flawless season to wrap up on a frosty afternoon in a certain Connecticut ghetto, and this paragraph isn’t being written.

But throw in a couple of turnovers, some select injuries, poorly timed penalties, a few botched field goals and voila, there you have it: a legitimate championship-ruining formula.

Junior quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick kicked off the Crimson season leading the unranked team to four straight wins—including a victory over preseason No. 1 and then-No. 10 Northeastern—on the strength of a stratospheric four-game stretch in which he led all of Division I-AA in total offense and passing efficiency.

With averages of 282.3 yards per game through the air and a stunning 96.5 yards on the ground—accumulating 16 total touchdowns and an early slot on the Payton Award watch-list—let’s just say that you didn’t merely want Ryan Fitzpatrick on your Ivy League fantasy football team.