No. 13/16 Harvard Set for Spooky Showdown Against Dartmouth On Friday

While most college students across the country will spend the first night of Halloween weekend partying on their campuses, two Ivy League institutions will see their squads convene at Buddy Teevens Stadium in Hanover, N.H., on Friday as No. 13/16 Harvard visits Dartmouth in a pivotal Ivy League matchup.

For the second straight week, the winner of the Crimson’s football game will take the lead in the Ancient Eight standings. Harvard (6-0, 3-0 Ivy League) sits undefeated in conference play, while the Big Green (3-3, 2-1) is one of two teams with one Ivy loss. With a win, Dartmouth would hold the three-way tiebreaker over Princeton and the Crimson in the event that the Tigers win this week.

Nonetheless, Harvard head coach Andrew Aurich is focused on getting each win week-by-week in the crowded Ivy League standings, and he’s maintained all season that winning every game in the league is the best way to ensure the team reaches the postseason.

“We’ve had a stretch of games where the person that we were playing was tied in first place with us, so to me it’s the status quo,” Aurich said. “The fact is, you’re only guaranteed 10 [games], so you want to make every game count. These guys don’t want to have any blemish on their record.”

Harvard’s undefeated record is not the result of one player’s contributions. In a roster with eight Phil Steele FCS Midseason All-Americans and nine players who have scored at least one touchdown this season, the Crimson shines on both sides of the ball.

Since a sluggish career debut, sophomore quarterback Charlie Smith has been all gas and no brakes, averaging 276.4 yards per game with an 11-3 TD-INT ratio over the last five games. Across the entire season, the sophomore carries the second-best completion percentage of any signal caller in the country (72.3 percent), and his completion rate is almost 10 percentage points higher than the next best in the Ancient Eight.

On the ground, six different Harvard skill players have double-digit rushing attempts on the season, spreading the wealth for a team that averages 128.5 rushing yards per game. New to the already deep running back room is junior DJ Gordon, who played his first game of the season against Princeton last week after being the team’s second-leading rusher in 2025.

“No one has these flashy, super outstanding stats, but it’s everyone, and that’s what’s making us super successful right now,” said captain running back Xaviah Bascon. “We have so many playmakers, so many guys that can all make many kinds of plays, and that just makes us so dynamic.”

Protecting Smith and the running backs is an offensive line with two of the Crimson’s Midseason All-Americans: seniors Spencer Doan and Thomas O’Brien. The group has limited disruption in the backfield all season, allowing just one and a half sacks per game despite persistent injuries causing rotations along the line.

We came into the season knowing in every position that we had great depth, and the o-line obviously was one of those,” Bascon said. “They’ve been incredible communication-wise, new guys in different roles and stuff, and they’ve just worked super hard. And it starts in practice, starts in film, and all those things have come along, and guys have stepped up and been great.”

Dartmouth started its season by losing back-to-back games in which it led after three quarters. In its season opener, the Big Green fell 24-20 to then-No. 7 Lehigh. Despite making it inside the Mountain Hawks’ 30-yard line twice in the last three minutes of regulation, Dartmouth’s offense was unable to execute down the stretch.

After falling to Monmouth 31-28 in its second game, the Big Green picked up a tight conference win over Penn before losing to Yale 28-7 in a game that saw the Bulldogs gain 537 yards and 30 first downs. Dartmouth quickly bounced back in its final non-conference game with a 27-21 win over Merrimack in which it scored 13 unanswered fourth-quarter points.

Last week, the Big Green notched a resounding 38-18 victory over Columbia. Dartmouth’s secondary excelled, recording three interceptions and only allowing 5.2 yards per pass attempt.

While no Dartmouth players were named Phil Steele FCS Midseason All-Americans, the Big Green features a formidable rushing attack led by one of the most physically domineering offensive lines in the league.

The heart and soul of Dartmouth’s run game — and offense — is sophomore back Myles Craddock. The Phillips Exeter product utilizes his impeccable patience and shiftiness to find holes and pick up chunk yardage on nearly every rush. Defenders who go for tackles below the waist have a tendency to slip right off of him, and it typically takes at least three to finally bring him down.

Craddock rushed for 128 yards in the Big Green’s victory last week and is one of only four backs across the Ivy League to have eclipsed 500 rushing yards this season. Regardless of Craddock’s early-season success, the standard stays the same for Harvard defensive coordinator Scott Larkee ’99 and his stout defense.

“Regardless of the opponent, we still come in with the same mentality,” senior defensive end Josh Fedd said. “Coach Lark does a really good job getting us prepared for these things, just putting the scheme in that allows there to be an extra man every time, but he’s much more concerned with the intensity with which we play every week.”

“Being able to execute with a high level of intensity is what we go for, and that’s how we plan to stop any back,” he added.

That intensity has paid off so far this year, as the Crimson has recorded at least one takeaway in each game. Last week, Harvard recorded its first defensive touchdown of the year on a late-game scoop-and-score after a strip sack by junior defensive back Xaden Benson.

Friday night will mark the 129th game in the series, which Harvard leads 75-48-5. The Crimson has won four straight against Dartmouth and 24 of the last 28 matchups.

Last year, the Big Green came to Cambridge with a 5-1 record, hoping to challenge an undefeated Harvard for the top spot in the Ancient Eight. The Crimson dominated 31-10 to crush Dartmouth’s playoff hopes and continue its unbeaten season.

Harvard will hope to feel déjà vu as it faces a near-identical scenario heading into its showdown with the Big Green this year. All three of Dartmouth’s losses this year have come to teams receiving votes in FCS polls when they played the Big Green.

Unlike last season, should the Crimson prevail Friday, it can afford to lose one of its three remaining conference games and still claim the Ivy League’s automatic qualifier to the FCS Playoffs.

The Friday night game will kick off at 7 p.m. It is Harvard’s second of three nationally televised contests this year and will be broadcast on ESPNU.

—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].