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When the final whistle blew against the University of Pennsylvania Quakers last weekend, Harvard’s football team (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) secured a share of the Ivy League title for the second year in a row — but the Crimson did not leave Philadelphia unscathed.
Junior quarterback Jaden Craig suffered a scary injury during the first quarter of the game when he was stretchered off the field after taking a helicopter hit. While Craig returned to the sidelines by the second quarter, his status remains unclear for Harvard’s matchup against the Yale Bulldogs (6-3, 3-3 Ivy) this weekend.
Craig’s backup, senior utility man Charles DePrima took over and used his strong ground game to power Harvard to a remarkable comeback victory over the Quakers that ended with a game-winning field goal.
The Crimson demonstrated its ability to overcome adversity last weekend, and Head Coach Andrew Aurich said his squad will need to bring the same energy against Yale if it doesn’t want to settle for sharing the Ivy title.
“To get what I came here to get, we have to fucking win next week,” Aurich shouted to his players from a bench on the sidelines in Philadelphia.
“So we can be happy that we got a share, but we are not done,” he added.
For Harvard players, those words — and potential to win the title outright for the first time in a decade — will be top of mind when the Crimson faces off against the Bulldogs in the 140th playing of The Game.
For many of the Crimson’s players, it might feel like déjà vu: for the second year in a row, a Harvard victory would guarantee its first solo Ivy League title since 2014. The Crimson fell short last season, stalling at Yale’s 33-yard line on what could have been a game-winning drive.
Still, captain and running back Shane McLaughlin said the team won’t let the pressure affect them.
“I just think our team has done such a great job this year of taking ownership in the magnitude of each game we play,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve prepared for each game like it’s an Ivy League Championship, because that’s what's on the line.
“And in that way, our preparation is mirroring every other Ivy League game that we played this year,” he added.
The Crimson’s offense, however, may have to prepare to play under a different quarterback for the first time this weekend depending on whether Craig is able to play.
Aurich remained coy about Craig’s status during an interview on Wednesday, refusing to say whether his star quarterback will be available against Yale.
“He’s going through the protocol with the medical staff to try to get cleared, but ultimately they have to make the choice and clear him,” Aurich said. “We’re following them and their guidance on it,” Aurich said.
Aurich also declined to comment on the specific nature of Craig’s injury, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. But the power of the tackle on Craig — and the way he hit his head on the ground — sparked concerns of a concussion.
According to Harvard’s concussion protocol, if Craig does have a concussion, he would need to pass a symptom checklist test, a balance test, and meet his baseline cognitive testing.
With Craig potentially absent from the gridiron, senior quarterback Charles DePrima would take his place for a second week in a row.
An offense led by DePrima would look markedly different from Craig’s offense — with the offensive play-calling from coordinator Mickey Fein leaning heavily on DePrima’s legs, through designed runs from the pocket.
The senior signal-caller proved last week against UPenn that he’s capable of leading the Crimson to victory, but the Bulldogs will likely be more prepared for the potential quarterback swap than the Quakers, who allowed DePrima to gash them for 120 rushing yards.
Meanwhile, a Craig offense would rely on his strong arm for big plays through the air. Craig has thrown for 2,138 yards and 20 touchdown passes. While the uncertainty has forced him to prepare two versions of the Crimson’s offense, it has also forced Yale to do the same for its defense.
“There definitely is an advantage that comes with that,” Aurich said.
Regardless of who the starting quarterback is, McLaughlin emphasized the team’s next-man-up mentality.
“You have to live in reality, right?” McLaughlin said. “It’s an unfortunate thing that happened in that moment. We all felt super terrible for Jaden because of the season he’s been having.”
“It’s just like finding strength in those moments and then preparing for everything that’s going to come our way,” McLaughlin added.
The Crimson will enter Saturday with a seven-game winning streak. After losing their first game of the Ivy League season in a last-second heartbreaker to Brown University, the Crimson has gone undefeated since.
Senior linebacker Eric Little Jr. said that while the team is conscious of its chance to make history with a victory over Yale, it is trying to remain levelheaded going into The Game.
“We know how much tradition exists within it, but at the end of the day, it’s just another game,” Little said. “We can’t treat it like anything more or anything less.”
To solidify its place in the history books, the Crimson will have to defeat a Yale team that, despite its three losses, has demonstrated flashes of excellence on both sides of the ball.
In the Bulldogs’ last two games against Princeton and Brown, they’ve scored a combined 98 points. Senior quarterback Grant Jordan, a Louisiana native in his first year as starter, has thrown for eight touchdowns across those games.
Meanwhile, Yale’s defense is a vulnerability that the Crimson needs to exploit. Even as the offense has blown up the scoreboard, over the last two weeks the Bulldogs allowed 62 total points and over 250 yards through the air in each game.
Aurich said that he wants to see his team come out with a fire.
“I want to see us being the more physical team and being on attack every single play like what we’ve been striving for every single game, to show up on tape,” Aurich said. “And I want to finish the year with that.”
But regardless of how the Crimson manages to get it done, Aurich’s goal remains the same.
“I don’t want to share this with anybody,” he said. “So we got to win The Game.”
—Staff writer Praveen Kumar can be reached at praveen.kumar@thecrimson.com.
—Staff writer Jo B. Lemann can be reached at jo.lemann@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @Jo_Lemann.
