Just one year later, Chapple stepped in behind center once again after Winters went down. Chapple says he was unhappy with his preseason performance, but he had the chance to start against Brown in just the second game of the year under the lights at home.

To deal with pre-game jitters, Chapple remembers Murphy stepping in.

“I remember meeting with Coach Murphy before the Brown game, and he said two of the things that have always stuck with me,” Chapple recalls. “With all the stress of performing, he just said, ‘Relax. Football’s fun.’”

As he got ready to make his first start of the year, Chapple remembers one other line from Murphy: “It sure as hell beats sitting on the bench.”

A few weeks later, of course, he was doing just that despite two historic performances in his four games under center. Chapple returned to the bench when Winters recovered, and although he called the decision “disappointing and frustrating,” he understood it.

But there’s no longer any doubt who the team’s quarterback in 2012 will be, and Chapple will have to prove—with the support of the receiving corps and the offensive line—that he can consistently put up the offensive numbers he managed against Cornell and Bucknell last season.

“Kids believe in him,” Murphy says. “He’s very natural.”

—Staff writer E. Benjamin Samuels can be reached at samuels@college.harvard.edu.