It was a month ago tomorrow that the Ivy League officially canceled its fall football season. Though the decision was anything but surprising, the league's coaches still remember a wave of sadness and sorrow for a lost season.
And then... gratitude and optimism.
Gratitude that the League and its member schools placed their players' health first, and optimistic for the future.
That's the sense I got in talking to Brown's James Perry, to Columbia's Al Bagnoli, and to Harvard's Tim Murphy.
When you've gone nine months and counting without being around your team in any serious way, a fall full of strength workouts with 40 to 50 percent of your roster sounds a heckuva lot better than the present. And the idea of a 2021 with two football seasons? Beats the heck out of the present, doesn't it?
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
FootballScoop: How did you feel when the news came down?
Murphy: I must admit it is a tough pill to swallow, for no other reason for me than this is the first time I have not played football since 1968. But they did the right thing, and I say that based on the premise that all you can ever ask as a coach or a parent is, is my son or daughter's safety paramount? It is interesting, when the Ivy League was the first one to shut down sports last spring, everybody said they were overreacting and this will blow over. And within 10 days, every league in the country had done the exact same thing. Even as we head into the quote-unquote NFL season, nobody's betting the farm there's going to be fans in any of these stadiums. I think we did the right thing. I think our leadership did the right thing. This is a global event, a once every 50 to 100 years global event. So in that context, they did the right thing.
FootballScoop: What's the morale like among your players?
Murphy: Initially, the morale was down. There was no doubt about it. These kids are warriors. Football is a huge part of their life and always has been. It's hard for people to understand how crushed they were if you haven't played the game. If you have played the game, there's no explanation necessary.
But, it is interesting as we've gotten deeper into it. A lot of the parents are grateful. They're grateful that we're putting their health and welfare as the most important part of this equation, and therefore I think it has softened the blow. Initially it was very, very challenging with morale.
FootballScoop: Will you have players on campus this fall?
Murphy: We will. In the Ivy League each school will be a little bit different, but Harvard has gone with a very low density plan to try to eradicate COVID on our campus, whereas some schools in our league have decided they're going to bring back everybody, which is going to be very challenging. In Harvard's situation, the freshmen are coming in the fall semester and the seniors will be here in the spring, plus some other students. Students that really need to be on our campus for reasons that make sense to everybody. That will give us about 40 percent density, rather 100 percent.
What Harvard has done to mitigate is they are testing every three days, which is obviously extremely aggressive, extremely expensive. If they're going to have kids on campus, they're going to the best of our ability make sure they stay healthy and happy.
FootballScoop: What's your plan for workouts with your players on campus this fall?
Murphy: First of all, for the kids on campus in the fall, the Ivy League rule -- which obviously is a new rule -- is that we can utilize our student-athletes and work with our student-athletes 12 hours a week. They haven't yet broke it down, they need a little bit more detail, but essentially about 60 percent of that will be strength and conditioning, and then about 40 percent of that will be meetings, and probably virtual meetings. That's what we've been doing since they sent everybody home in March. Twelve hours is a lot more than we had this spring and summer. You have to adapt and maximize your output, maximize your player development.
Like anything else, kids want to not not just what, but why. We're doing this to preserve your good health, to make sure that you're safe and well, and to make sure you're going to be able to compete again some day. We're going to do that by staying engaged with our players on a daily basis as much as we can. Whether that be through strength and conditioning, through workouts, through position meetings, team meetings, we're going to be constantly in touch with our student-athletes. Even though they're not coming in here and playing games in September, they will be engaged with their coaches more than anybody else on this campus.
FootballScoop: Do you find yourself busier now than you would be in a normal year?
Murphy: To some extent, yes. We've gotten a big jump on recruiting. When we found out we weren't able to go off campus, okay, we adapt, we evolve, we utilize our technology. I had 500 FaceTime calls with prospective student-athletes. Through that process we've yielded about 70 percent of our 2021 class, so we assume that we're going to get a big jump on 2022. Be that as it may, we're constantly doing Zoom meetings with past, present and future Harvard football players.
Who are those folks? The past are alumni. We have a lot of interaction with alumni as we always do, that's critical for a lot of different reasons. They want to know what's going on, how we're going to manage this. Fundraising is an important part of any coach's job, and we've got to continue to do that if we're going to be successful as a program.
We're constantly engaged with our players. When had a lot of the social justice issues that we're facing in this country, from the George Floyd senseless killing, we've had multiple meetings on social justice and what we need to do to make sure and make everybody understand that we will not ever accept racism.
And then recruits. In constant touch with our recruits. As a head coach my job is to have FaceTime meetings with our top 500 guys in the country. We're constantly engaged, my to-do list seems like it's longer than ever. We're just doing it a bit differently.
FootballScoop: It's easy to see how you'll be able to finish out the 2021 recruiting class this late in the game, but how are you going to manage 2022 with no camps, no visits and no fall season in some places?
Murphy: The reality is we're going to have to place bets on student-athletes without as much information. In a usual summer we'll have 1,000 rising seniors on our campus. Through our Crimson Camps we have the ability to meet, evaluate, do drills, get very, very accurate metrics and be able to make very, very educated decisions. Now we have to make educated decisions to the best of our ability on junior film and just the gut feeling you have about a kid when you spend 45 minutes with him and his family. You're just going to have to place your bets on the right horses.
FootballScoop: Have you thought ahead to what you're going to do on Saturdays this fall?
Murphy: Go crazy. People ask, "Why is this so tough for you? You can relax and spend more time with your family." On paper, yes. But after my family and some close friends, this isn't my job. This is my life. This is my passion. I have this theory that 10 percent of people really love what they do, 10 percent hate what they do and then everybody else is in that middle spectrum. Well, I'm in that (first) 10 percent. This is my life. Because of that, boy, it's really, really hard to accept. Clearly understanding our leadership made the right decision but, boy, it's tough.
FootballScoop: Do you think there's any chance at all this turns into a permanent cut for Harvard football?
Murphy: Oh, hell no. We've played football longer than just about anybody in the country. Football is a huge tradition. Harvard Stadium was the first major football stadium in the world. Absolutely no question that will never happen at Harvard. I can't speak for the other schools, but I can guarantee you it's never going to happen at Harvard. Our alumni would go crazy.