For the 100th time in this celebrated gridiron rivalry, Dartmouth squares off on the football field against Harvard Saturday afternoon.
"It is New England's rivalry, an affair of the heart, symbolic autumnal struggle between the city boys and the country lads, played out in the middle of the season amid woodsmoke and whiskey sours on usually the loveliest weekend of the fall. No year should be without it." If these remarks from Dartmouth alum and writer David Shribman '76 aren't enough to inspire every student to travel down to Harvard for Harvard weekend tomorrow, then the importance of this year's battle for the Big Green's Ivy League title hopes should be.
The Big Green will take their perfect 6-0 record on the road for the second straight week tomorrow when they travel down to Cambridge to face the Crimson, who come into the contest with a 3-3 record.
Dartmouth's 13 game-unbeaten streak is the third longest in Division I-AA and a win or tie would put the Big Green one game away from tying the all-time school mark of 15 games. More importantly, a win for the Big Green would keep Dartmouth atop the Ivy League standings, where they currently sit tied with Columbia, who comes to Hanover next weekend. Dartmouth defeated the Crimson 23-7 last season.
By winning their last two games, not only have the Crimson posted their first back-to-back wins in five seasons, they have turned around a once struggling season that began with 1-3 start. But last week's 24-0 win at Princeton showed that this is a team that can play with anybody in the Ivy League, a statement backed up by their 20-13 overtime loss to league co-leader Columbia in the opening week of the season.
Perhaps the reason for Harvard's resurgence in the last few weeks has been the emerging play of their freshmen. Crimson freshmen have earned Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors five of the six weeks this year, which is necessary for a team. In fact, only four of Harvard's starting players are seniors.
"They lost some close games in the beginning of the season but their two game win streak and especially last week's shutout victory at Princeton demonstrates how good of a team they can be," Head Coach John Lyons said. "Playing Harvard always means a great deal to the players, but if we don't play well then we will be in for a long afternoon."
Tomorrow's matchup pits the Dartmouth offense, ranked ninth nationally in total yardage, averaging 432 yards a game, against Harvard's defense which is the stingiest unit in the Ivies. The Crimson run defense is second in the nation giving up 66.8 yards per game and will challenge a Big Green rushing attack that gains 230 yards a week.
The rushing attack is led by tailback Greg Smith '97 who has posted three 100 yard rushing games already this season along with seven touchdowns. Unlike last year though, if the running game is to falter, Dartmouth will just have to rely on senior quarterback Jon Aljancic '97, whose 321-yard passing effort last week against Cornell earned him his second Ivy League Player of the Week honor this year.
"Harvard's defensive guys really attack the ball," Lyons said. "Their run defense is tremendous and they will try and put eight or nine guys at the line to stop our running game. If that happens, we are going to have to try and exploit the advantage that gives us in the passing game, which means most importantly we are going to have to protect Jon [Aljancic] and allow him to throw the ball like he did last week."
Defensively, the Big Green needs to be concerned about stopping Crimson standout tailback Eion Hu, who gained 153 yards against Dartmouth in last year's contest. Hu has gained 599 yards already this year and is the second best running back in the league behind Cornell's Chad Levitt, who tortured the Big Green defense by gaining 240 yards and two touchdowns last week.
Hu has sparked a young Harvard offense that is directed by two quarterbacks, Jay Snowden and freshman Rich Linden. The two quarterbacks have begun to stabilize a shaky passing game by getting the ball in the hands of junior flanker Colby Skelton, who has 28 catches this year.
"Hu is a great back and is the key to their offense," Lyons said. "We played poor run defense against [Chad] Levitt last week and hopefully we will learn from the mistakes we made last week and improve. He [Hu] has had some big games against us in the past so we definitely need to be concerned about him."
For students planning on traveling to the game tomorrow for Harvard weekend, kickoff is at 1 p.m. Tickets at Harvard Stadium are $12 for adults and visiting students.
