A few weeks ago, The Back Page sat down with Harvard coach Tim Murphy to talk about his enormous success in his 17 years at the helm of the Crimson football program. Murphy has won five Ivy titles and 111 games with Harvard, and his team just wrapped up its 10th consecutive seven-win season, extending its own Ancient Eight record.

You can read the full feature in our Harvard-Yale supplement, but we couldn’t fit all of Murphy’s wisdom into one story. Here are further excerpts from our interview with the coach:

The Back Page: Harvard had its last losing season in 1998. What goes into sustaining that success?

Murphy: I think constant reeducation and never taking anything for granted. I heard one great investment icon say that we’re only as good as our next year. I wake up every day like there’s a bear in the bushes, ready to take my money, and I think there’s a lot of that. I think the reeducation part is important. We may have had the same basic system at Maine, at Cincinnati, and at Harvard, but we’re constantly tinkering with it to make it better. And I think the last part of it is, even though you may have a system, your personnel does change, so taking advantage of your personnel and tailoring your systems to the personnel you have [is key].

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In the modern era of sports, being a college coach carries with it the burden of constant media attention. Facing dozens of reporters at press conferences, head coaches have gotten savvier—they say what they need to and leave the rest up for speculation. Here at The Back Page, we’re happy to decode some of these media sessions, showing the average fan what we think coaches’ answers “really” mean.

Harvard coach Tim Murphy had a little fun with the postgame press conference after his Crimson squad topped Yale for the fourth straight year on Saturday. Following the 28-21 victory, the normally sparse interview table was filled from end to end with a host of Harvard seniors. Still, when the questions started flying, the coach got down to business, and we have the breakdown of some of his thoughts on fighting past Yale, momentum swings, and what he looks for in a recruit.

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Zar Zavala won two things on Saturday: a football game against Yale and the one of the world’s most prestigious scholarships.

Zavala, a walk-on senior wide receiver, found out just after yesterday’s game that he received the Rhodes Scholarship.

“Today is definitely the best day of my life,” Zavala said.

The native of El Paso, Texas, flew home Friday to participate in the final round of interviews for the scholarship. He arrived at Harvard Stadium just before halftime and suited up to watch the Crimson come from behind to beat Yale, 28-21.

“[I was] walking around the field, searching for my family,” Zavala said. “I find them, they have my phone. I turn it on and it says, ‘Congratulations, you’re a Rhodes scholar.’”

Zavala is an engineering sciences and neurobiology concentrator in Kirkland House. He was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa earlier this month.

“I can’t think of a better day,” he said.

In the modern era of sports, being a college coach carries with it the burden of constant media attention. Facing dozens of reporters at press conferences, head coaches have gotten savvier—they say what they need to and leave the rest up for speculation. Here at The Back Page, we’re happy to decode some of these media sessions, showing the average fan what we think coaches’ answers “really” mean.

Harvard coach Tim Murphy was in an unenviable position on Saturday afternoon. In his team’s biggest game of the season, the Crimson simply got outplayed. Penn won at least a share of an Ivy title on Franklin Field, and Murphy knew his team was out of the running for its sixth crown under his leadership. He took an accordingly somber tone at the postgame press conference, giving due credit to Penn and accepting responsibility for the Crimson’s shortcomings. We take a look at what Murphy’s comments say about Harvard heading into the Yale game this weekend in this week’s edition of Sound Off.

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The countdown to The Game can officially begin. In just six days, the Crimson football team will take to the field at Harvard Stadium to play Yale in the last game of the season.

Although yesterday’s loss puts the Crimson out of the running for the Ivy League Championship, the game, fueled by hundreds of years of rivalry, is still sure to be exciting.

And while we hope we can say the same for the tailgate, it seems like the Harvard administration is doing anything it can to stifle the student tradition that necessarily accompanies any big collegiate football matchup.

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