No. 15/17 Harvard, RV Princeton to Battle for Ivy Lead in Fall Fest Fracas

Entering the final five conference games of its season, No. 15/17 Harvard is one of just three undefeated teams remaining in all of FCS football. On Saturday, the Crimson will host RV Princeton in a bid to continue a seven-game home winning streak dating back to late 2024.

Harvard (5-0, 2-0 Ivy League) currently shares its position at the top of the Ancient Eight standings with the Tigers (4-1, 2-0). The afternoon clash at Harvard Stadium — which will mark the program’s annual Fall Fest celebration, including a jersey giveaway promotion — will determine which team takes sole possession of the lead in the league, with the regular-season winner automatically qualifying for the FCS Playoffs.

The Crimson’s connection to Princeton goes far beyond the teams’ conference membership. Harvard’s head coach Andrew Aurich once suited up in striped orange as an offensive lineman for the Tigers and later returned as an assistant coach.

“Familiarity is probably the most important thing because — they obviously have made some changes in different things that they’re doing with their schematic stuff — but I have a general understanding of how it was built because I was there when it was being built,” Aurich said of playing his alma mater. “I know the coaches really well. They’re really good coaches, and I know that they’re preparing their guys as much as they can, just like we are.”

Princeton enters the game having already racked up more wins this season than in all of last year’s 3-7 campaign, and it has already matched its two conference wins from each of the last two seasons.

The Tigers are powered by workhorse junior running back Kai Honda, who has averaged nearly 120 yards from scrimmage per game and more than 95 yards per game rushing. His eight rushing touchdowns are double the tally of the next-best Ivy League running back this season and put him 11th in the nation in scores on the ground.

Honda doesn’t do it alone, though, playing behind a trio of senior offensive linemen who were named to the Phil Steele Preseason All-Ivy First Team. Barrett Eddlemon, Justin Selbert and Oyintare Porbeni anchor one of the top front fives in the conference, giving up just four sacks through the first five games of the season.

Defensively, no team in Division I football can top Princeton’s country-leading 10.2 points allowed per game. The Tigers’ stellar defensive unit is led by senior linebacker Chase Christopher, who sits sixth in the league in tackles (44) and has already tallied five quarterback hits this season, anchoring a defense with few holes for opponents to attack.

“They execute at a high level; they’re confident in what they’re doing,” Aurich said. “When you play a team like that, it’s not like they’re doing a ton of different stuff, so it comes down to who’s going to simply be better and who’s going to execute at a higher level.”

Princeton junior linebacker Jake Moore has also been a nightmare for offensive lines. His 4.5 sacks this year lead all Ivy League defenders, and he’s fresh off a two-sack game last weekend where he also forced a fumble. While Harvard has given up just nine sacks this year, the Tigers’ rush poses a threat to a banged-up Crimson offensive line.

After losing its first game of the season to Bryant, Princeton has since won four straight. Its first conference win was a 35-7 victory over Columbia in which Honda looked more like a Ferrari, turning 14 carries into 219 yards and four touchdowns.

Last week, the Tigers outlasted Brown 16-10 after leading by 16 at halftime. While the Bears got the ball back with about a minute to play at its own 12-yard line and no timeouts remaining, Princeton’s defense held strong to clinch its second consecutive 2-0 Ivy start.

This weekend, the Tigers will look to pick up a crucial third conference win — something that eluded them last year en route to a five-game conference skid to end the season.

Although Harvard does not currently lead the Ancient Eight in total offense or defense, its depth and star power ensure it does not lag behind in either sector. Its offense has tallied a healthy 27.2 points per game, and its defense has only allowed 14.0 points per game, while giving up more than 17 just once.

Sophomore quarterback Charlie Smith — who sits third in the nation with a 71.2 percent completion rate — leads the Crimson’s offense, which has leaned more heavily on the passing game in recent contests. Smith enters Saturday on a three-game streak of throwing for at least 275 yards, a feat no Harvard quarterback had previously accomplished since 2015.

As the passing game has started to become an emphasis for the Crimson’s offense, its young receivers have also seen increased production in recent weeks. Freshman Nate Bailey leads the team, along with the rest of the Ivy League, in total receptions with 39, and fellow rookie wideout Henry Shoemaker led the team in receiving yards last week against Holy Cross, when he went for 83 yards and nabbed a deep pass down the right sideline for a 67-yard score.

“We have a bunch of other young sophomores/freshmen who stepped up from the start of the season, from our first game, and their improvement has been amazing to see. You can just feel it; everyone’s more comfortable out there,” said senior offensive lineman Thomas O’Brien.

Defensively, the linebacker duo of junior Dorsey Benefield and senior Sean Line has set the tone, combining for 15 tackles per game, while junior safety Xaden Benson has flourished with six total interceptions, a mark that leads all of Division I. The pass defense has been a particular strength, as the team tops the conference in defensive passing efficiency (94.6) and sits in the top 10 nationally in passing yards allowed (164.8).

“Honestly, you have to trust your scheme,” Benefield said of the defensive performance. “Trust the men in front of you, trust they’re gonna do their job, and do your job. Get them on the ground.”

“We’ve been playing cohesively since February, in the spring. So it’s just that communication; we know how each other play, and we trust each other,” he added.

In addition to the Crimson’s strong performance in both the media and coaches polls, the team ranked 10th in the FCS Playoff Committee’s first teaser rankings of the season, which were announced on Tuesday.

Last season, the team wasn’t included in the committee’s first top-10 release, first appearing in the second top-10 release on Nov. 5 after a dominant home win over Dartmouth to move to 7-0.

“I look at it as: ‘we got in one of those last year and then we didn’t take care of business,’” Aurich said of the team’s current committee ranking. “It’s flattering. It validates the work they put in up to this point, but we know that’s not ultimately going to matter if we don’t continue to do that the rest of the season.”

While the teaser top-10 rankings, released twice throughout the season, have no impact on final rankings or seeding, they offer a glimpse of where the playoff committee stands on different programs. Notably, Harvard sits seven places higher in the top-10 teaser than it does in the coaches poll, the largest difference of any team’s rankings since the Ivy League first became playoff-eligible in 2025.

The regular season conference champion will receive the Ancient Eight’s single automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs, a 24-team tournament that runs from Nov. 28 to Jan. 11. Last season, in the conference’s first year being eligible for the postseason, the Crimson was selected as one of the last four at-large teams in the tournament before losing 52-7 to Villanova in the first round.

Saturday’s matchup will be the 118th meeting between the colonial rivals, with Princeton leading the series 60-50-7. In Aurich’s first season at the helm, the Crimson broke a six-game losing streak with a 45-13 blowout at home before winning 35-14 in Aurich’s return to New Jersey last season.

The game will kick off at 3 p.m. EDT at Harvard Stadium, with a plethora of food and entertainment options available near the athletic complex all afternoon to celebrate the Fall Fest.

—Staff writer Connor Castañeda can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Maxwell P. Friedman can be reached at [email protected].

—Staff writer Samuel S. Rudavsky can be reached at [email protected].