PRINCETON, N.J.—In my three-plus years of covering sports for The Crimson, I’ve been surprised plenty of times. Like when Harvard students started believing that men’s basketball could win last winter, or when men’s lacrosse upended Duke in Durham in 2009. But never have I been quite as baffled as I was during Saturday’s football game at Princeton.

I expected the Crimson to come in and pick up a big road win. I expected Andrew Hatch to make his return under center. Did I expect to see a game that featured six different passers, a pair of position players completing their first career touchdown passes, and the return of a quarterback whose season was supposedly over before it began?

Hell no.

But when all was said and done, the Tigers had scored half their points off electrifying trick plays, and junior Collier Winters—showing no sign of the hip injury that was supposed to sideline him for the season—stepped back into the quarterback role with ease.

When Winters came out to start the second half, the entire press box was shocked. The first play was officially marked as a rush by Hatch—who had played the entire first half—and after Winters capped his first drive with a touchdown strike, a Princeton staffer had to come down and confirm with the Harvard communications director that it wasn’t some jersey-swapping that put No. 16 back on the field.

It’s easy to understand the surprise. After all, Crimson coach Tim Murphy said in a Sept. 9 interview that “it would be miraculous to see [Winters] again this season.”

Winters himself didn’t even know that he’d be asked to play until halftime.

“I was told to go warm up,” he said. “I prepared all week as if I was going to play, so if I got that opportunity—which I did, fortunately—then I was going to be ready.”

The All-Ivy signal-caller is back, and with his return, the outlook for the rest of Harvard’s season just got a little brighter. Instead of having just one healthy quarterback, the Crimson now has three.

Hatch was not as sparkling in his return from the concussion that sidelined him for the last three games. In one half of play, the senior completed just nine of 21 pass attempts for 98 yards while throwing a pair of picks.

Winters was asked to throw the ball less, but he finished 8-of-12 with two touchdowns and one interception.

“I just thank God for the opportunity,” he said. “Being able to play football is the funnest thing in the world for me.”

Judging solely by Saturday’s performance, it seems that Winters just might have his old job back. But there are certainly questions remaining—most critically, whether or not Winters can stay healthy and keep up the level of conditioning required to excel in the Ivy League.

But whoever gets the start at Dartmouth next weekend, Harvard’s got its first legitimate midseason quarterback competition since the days of Chris Pizzotti ’08-’09 and Liam O’Hagan ’08-’09, and that can only be a good thing.

Hatch and Winters both bring different strengths to the table. Hatch has still only played two and a half games at the varsity level for the Crimson, while Winters has a whole season of starting experience under his belt.

Hatch is more of a pure passer, while Winters relies more on his scrappy athleticism to move the ball up the field.

Will Murphy ultimately choose one of the two to be his starter, or will he try to devise a rotation to play to both men’s strengths? It’s too soon to tell, but this is one dilemma Murphy is only too happy to have.

“I guarantee you this: I’ll sleep a little better at night,” the coach said after the game. “But it’s great. We go from a little bit of an adverse position to a position where we feel like we’ve got some leadership, got some experience, and we can probably diversify our offense a little more.”

To surprise Penn—which cemented its role as Ivy favorite Saturday with a 27-20 win over Yale—Harvard’s going to need to be at the top of its game. But with both Hatch and Winters back in the mix, the Crimson is a big step closer to achieving just that.

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.