hile most of the country has already experienced pads popping, crowds roaring, and the distinct crispness in the air that marks the return of college football, Ivy League stadiums have sat idle as the historic powers wait for the right moment to re-enter the scene. This weekend, at long last, the Ancient Eight return to action.

As fresh faces litter the sidelines of the gridiron, new generals command the offenses, and everyone adjusts to the renewed possibility of one of America’s premier educational institutions climbing to the precipice of the FCS division, a few things remain fixed: Harvard will be firmly in contention for an Ivy League title, The Game will defy all logic, and the pride and pageantry of college football will reign on campuses throughout the land.

This season marks head coach Andrew Aurich’s third at the helm of the program, and if either of his two Ivy League championships indicates what is to come, it’s certain to be an entertaining ten — or more — weeks of football.

According to Aurich, the biggest change from his first two seasons is the absence of star quarterback Jaden Craig ’26, the program’s all-time leader in touchdowns and passing yards, who transferred to Texas Christian University after last season.

“Jaden Craig is not our quarterback; that’s a significant difference,” Aurich said. “Having to replace a guy who’s most likely going to end up in the NFL is definitely a challenge.”

Replacing a star offensive player is nothing new for Harvard, though, as last season the team entered training camp without a go-to receiving option after Cooper Barkate ’25 transferred to Duke, where he finished top-10 in the nation in receiving yards before transferring to the 2025 National Runner-Up University of Miami for his final collegiate season.

Last year, receivers such as then-sophomore Brady Blackburn and then-senior Cam Henry picked up the lost production. This year, the quarterback tasked with following the two-time Walter Payton Award finalist is sophomore Charlie Smith.

Smith was a 247Sports Composite three-star recruit out of high school and threw for over 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns in his career at Charlotte Catholic. Similar to Craig, Smith appears to be a pocket passer who scrambles only when necessary.

The Charlotte, N.C. native wasn’t consistently listed on Harvard’s depth chart during his rookie year, but after a tight quarterback battle in the spring, he narrowly beat out senior Dante Torres for the starting role, according to Aurich.

“Those two — Dante and Charlie — really separated themselves by the end of the spring,” Aurich said. “I told them it was a really hard decision because they both played so well, so we’re in a good position because we do have two quarterbacks that I think could win an Ivy League championship.”

While Smith has yet to take a snap in a Crimson uniform, he has a plethora of options on the offensive end of the football, which should ease his transition to the collegiate level.

Leading the running back room is Harvard’s 152nd Captain, Xaviah Bascon. The senior finished last season as the team’s leading rusher and overall touchdown scorer, and it’s expected that he will carry a lot of weight in the offense and locker room.

“He’s such a great young man that players on the team turn to when they need advice in all different areas of their life,” Aurich explained. “For him to get named captain, it was not surprising to me because I know the impact he was already having on the team in the locker room, just being one of those teammates that people look to.”

Other returning rushers are senior Jordan Harris and junior DJ Gordon, both of whom eclipsed 300 yards on the ground and made timely contributions in the backfield. The team also adds freshman Najee Calhoun to the room, who is the program’s highest-ever rated running back recruit according to 247Sports.

Protecting Harvard’s backfield is a beefy group of linemen that returns two key contributors: seniors Spencer Doan and Thomas O’Brien, both named to preseason award watch lists after strong junior campaigns. In 2025, the offensive line allowed just 12 sacks all season, only behind Dartmouth for the top mark in the Ancient Eight.

On the outside, the Crimson returns three of its top five leaders in receiving yards, including Blackburn, Tattersall and senior tight end Seamus Gilmartin. The trio accounted for over 1,400 combined receiving yards last season, with over half of that coming from Blackburn.

In 2025, the offense produced 36.5 points per game with nearly 439 average yards of offense, leading the conference in both categories by a significant margin. While offensive coordinator Mickey Fein’s system is certain to change without Craig as quarterback, Aurich’s emphasis on putting the ball in the hands of the team’s strongest playmakers should produce another electric offense.

“For me, it’s always been about making sure we’re getting the touches to the guys who can help score touchdowns, so every year that changes and that is what morphs your offense,” Aurich said. “[Fein] puts it all together and puts together the plan that’s good week-to-week versus what we’re seeing — and ultimately as a system that they can build off of every week.”

In addition to its Ivy-leading offense, Harvard’s stalwart defense was a major factor in the team’s conference-leading 15.3-point-per-game scoring margin last season, and it projects to be filled with contributors at all positions.

Leading the defense is senior All-Ivy linebacker Sean Line, who, according to Aurich, was an “unknown going into last year” before becoming one of the conference’s premier defenders by the end of the season. Beside him will be junior Dorsey Benefield, who was on pace for his own All-Ivy campaign before an injury sidelined him six games into his sophomore campaign.

The secondary unit is filled with experienced seniors, including preseason All-American Damien Henderson, Austin-Jake Guillory and Jack Donahoe, all of whom played at least 10 games last season and are projected to be crucial in the team’s passing defense.

The secondary will be supported by a defensive line led by senior defensive end Josh Fedd, who tied for second on the team in sacks (3.0) and ranked fourth in tackles for loss (3.5) last season.

Also projected to return as starters are two junior special-teamers, with unanimous All-Ivy kicker Kieran Corr and punter Dylan Fingersh providing experience and depth to the special teams unit.

While the team retains more than half of its starters, the kickoff to this season will be a new experience for everyone in Crimson.

In its last two openers, Harvard played Stetson, a team that in recent years has been repeatedly defeated by non-NCAA foes and posted a putrid -94 scoring differential against the Crimson in its past two matchups.

This season’s opener will look different, as Harvard begins its 153rd campaign on the road against perennial FCS playoff participant the University of New Hampshire. The Crimson narrowly won the last matchup against the Wildcats, 28-23.

New Hampshire currently sits at 1-2 on the season after recording a win over Stonehill and losses to FBS Syracuse and RV UAlbany. However, the Wildcats finished last season as the nation’s 23rd-ranked FCS team and will pose a bigger threat to Harvard than Stetson has in the past.

“They consistently go to the playoffs and have really good players, and that’s the same this year,” Aurich said. “My vision for this moving forward is putting ourselves in that position in the early season to learn more about our team with who we’re playing non-conference.”

While certain non-conference opponents can increase a team’s strength of schedule and improve its résumé, there is only one way for the Crimson to guarantee its spot in the playoffs.

“The only way you can truly control your destiny is you’ve got to win the Ivy League championship, and the way to do that is go outright,” Aurich said. “I think having a better non-conference schedule obviously could help you at the end of all of this with seeding or the possibility of getting in as an at-large, but I don’t think you can count on that.”

Standing in the way of Harvard and that automatic playoff berth is Yale. In Aurich’s first two seasons in Cambridge, his team is 11-1 against the rest of the Ancient Eight – and 0-2 against Ole Eli’s men.

Comparison may be the thief of joy, but the Bulldogs have been the thieves of the Crimson’s joy for four straight seasons. This season, though, already brings some certain changes to the rivalry, most notably the location. The Game returns to Fenway, America’s Most Beloved Ballpark, for the first time since 2018.

Another change is that this time around, Harvard enters the rivalry matchup as the underdog. Yale was picked to win the Ivy League by 15 of the 16 media members who participated in the preseason poll. The Crimson did manage to get the lone dissenting vote. The Bulldogs also enter the season, for Ivy teams at least, ranked higher, checking in at No. 20 in the AFCA Coaches’ Poll while Harvard received no votes.

Although most of the attention on the Ancient Eight will rightfully center around the collision course that is The Game, neither team will have an easy path surviving the rest of the conference in the buildup to Nov. 21. A road trip to the feisty Brown Bears opens league play for Harvard, followed by the long odyssey to Ithaca.

The Crimson plays its first of only two conference home games on Oct. 24 against Princeton, ranked sixth in the Ancient Eight. In unfortunate scheduling for Harvard, the other home game is against the Ivy League’s eighth preseason pick, Columbia.

The team will go through a gauntlet at the end of the year, traveling for road games against RV Dartmouth and a Penn team that has taken double-overtime, triple-overtime, and two walk-off field goals to beat in the last four seasons, in addition to the “neutral-site” game against Yale

At the end of the day, this season may differ from Aurich’s first two, but that’s something that people around the program are excited about, especially as the team prepares to show what it can do this weekend.

“There’s a lot that this group of men can do all together,” Bascon said. “If we continue to handle our business, we can go really, really far this year. We have all the talent, the work ethic is there, the mindset is there.”

“I really do think this is an exciting season from a standpoint of seeing that we can really have a deep run in the playoffs this year and continue to keep running through the Ivy League and really be successful,” the captain added.

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

—Sports Chair Reed M. Trimble can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ReedTrimble1.

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

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