In battle for first, Princeton, Harvard football meet tomorrow

For a school with no rival, tomorrow's home football game with Harvard is about as big as it gets.

The schools were favored to win the league coming into the season and have perfect 2-0 records in conference play. One team will be 2-1 tomorrow, and the other squad will be in position to take the Ivy crown.

Right now, Harvard has the crown, but, as head coach Roger Hughes says, "To be the man, you've got to beat the man, and the man's coming to town."

The Crimson have dominated the series in recent years, winning each game since 1997. Last year's game was the closest of the series, ending with a missed 49-yard Tiger field goal in the closing seconds.

The game probably will not come down to such a long boot. If the Tigers play as well as they can and have a little luck, the game won't need to.

Unlike last year and the years before that, Princeton matches up very well with Harvard. The Crimson enjoy the air attack to wide receiver Carl Morris, who is second in Div. I-AA in receptions and leads the country in yards per game — 9.2 and 141, respectively. He is part of an attack that has averaged 31 points per game.

Captain Neil Rose and Ryan Fitzpatrick have alternated at quarterback this season. Rose was injured earlier in the year but returned last weekend to start in the 17-14 loss to Northeastern. On the year, Rose is 30 of 46 for 372 yards. His competition for the job, Fitzpatrick, is 73 of 120 for 922 yards and seven touchdowns. Impressively, he has yet to put up an interception.

Fitzpatrick is a slight contrast to last week's opposing quarterback, Brown's Kyle Slager. Similarly, Slager puts up big numbers to a single person — that being Chas Gessner — but also has the most interceptions in the conference. Against Brown, Princeton had three picks and would have had a fourth had the call not been missed.

Tomorrow's coverage against Fitzpatrick and Morris will be interesting. The Tigers have maybe the best defensive secondary in the league. And, sophomore cornerback Jay McCareins and junior linebacker Zak Keasey are among the league leaders in interceptions for a defense that is near the top of the league in forced turnovers. Something will have to give, and that could be the key of the game.

If Fitzpatrick and Rose play smart football and do not put up lazy passes for grabs, Princeton may have trouble. If Fitzpatrick throws his first interception of the season — and second and third — then the Tiger offense will be able to get to work and win the game.

"The team with the fewest turnovers has the best chance to win," Harvard head coach Tim Murphy said. "We've done well in that department this year, but so has Princeton."

This is an impressive Princeton offense that, fortunately, has suffered from relatively few injuries this year. They will be battling it out with a defense that has permitted 24 points per game, slightly worse than Princeton 's allowance of 21 ppg.

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If both teams keep the turnovers low, and they will, this should be an exciting, competitive match coming down to the wire.

"My experience in games with Harvard is that they've always seemed to be fourth quarter games," defensive coordinator Steve Verbit said. "They're the defending champs until someone knocks them off, and that's an exciting prospect."