By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Brian Kelly is no doubt deserving of all the hype he's been getting as one of college football's top coaches, but does the name Tim Murphy ring a bell?
Those familiar might remember Murphy as the guy who turned Cincinnati's program around with a steady, five-year plan that culminated with an 8-3 record in 1993, his last in Clifton, and almost steered the Bearcats to their first bowl berth in decades.
Before Murphy entered the picture in 1989, the Bearcats faced a 4th and Remarkable, and by the time his work was done, he'd done far more than just keep the drive alive.
"We are proud of the fact that we took one of the worst programs in the country with several major NCAA sanctions compromising the rebuilding process and brought the ship in on time and under budget," Murphy told OGS in an e-mail interview this week.
And as one of the sport's greatest rivalries nears its 126th renewal of what they simply call The Game -- no, it's not Ohio State-Michigan -- Murphy, who has been the coach at Harvard since leaving Cincinnati, said the order in Cambridge was as tall in 1994 as it was at UC five years earlier.
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"Re-building the program at Harvard was very similar in that we had to change the culture, dramatically improve our recruiting, player development, strength and conditioning as well as improve our facilities," said Murphy, whose Crimson visit the Yale Bulldogs for a noon kickoff on Saturday.
Changing the culture is something I witnessed with my own eyes while covering Murphy's Bearcats for a couple of seasons when I was a student at UC. I had a Sunday morning interview scheduled at his office, just hours after he and his Bearcats returned from Morgantown, W. Va., where the Mountaineers handed Cincinnati yet another loss. But the coach was in a positive mood because UC did what coaches tell their players to do in pregame locker room speeches. They did their jobs, they carried out their assignments, they played hard and they didn't make mistakes. The score was close, but when you're not necessarily contending for AP votes, and the scheme of things is indeed grand, you measure your progress by games like the one those Bearcats played at West Virginia. It was a victory everywhere outside of the standings in the newspaper.
And while you might hear the "changing the culture" cliche frequently in sports, its repetition makes it no less necessary. Murphy has created and maintained an environment that, after Saturday's game, will have produced 10 straight seasons of finishing in the top three of the Ivy League, including four conference championships in that stretch. A win at Penn last week would have given the Crimson their third straight Ivy crown.
"We are proud of the fact that every player we have recruited has graduated and played on a championship team, including several NFL players," Murphy said.
Murphy is 10-5 against Yale in the oldest-continuing and third-most-played rivalry in college football. The teams first met in 1875, and Yale this Saturday will try to win in front of its home fans for the first time in a decade.
"To the players, and especially the seniors, (the Harvard-Yale game) is the most important and memorable day in their life to this point," Murphy said. "To the students, alumni and fans it is the big event of the year in terms of the great sense of community and tradition that it brings to their respective schools. And in my opinion it embodies all that is good about college athletics."
So yeah, odd as it sounds, Harvard has been the bully of the Ivy League since
Murphy's arrival, and while his loyalty is obvious, he still remembers his UC days with fondness, even if no one gives him credit for laying the foundation for his successors.
"I take no responsibility for UC being where it is today; that is for others to determine," Murphy said. "I love watching UC on TV the few chances I get. The university, the physical plant and facilities and the success of UC football are impressive and something for anyone connected with UC to take great pride in."
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 11:12PM 