News and notes

Tony Reno called it one of the top moments of his coaching career.

5-9, 153-pound senior Tate Harshbarger, who played on Yale’s JV team the previous three seasons, scored his first career touchdown on a 14-yard run in Saturday’s win over Columbia. His teammates rushed to the end zone to congratulate him and drew a penalty.

“I’ll take that penalty 100 times,” Reno said. “It was awesome. You feel great for a kid like that.”

Harshbarger was voted the team’s “senior leader” leading into the game. The senior leader leads the team with captain Beau Palin from the Walter Camp arches.

Everyone seems to call Harshbarger one of the hardest workers on the team. Tuesday practices are called Tackle Tuesdays. A scout team running back is tackled to the ground by the defensive starters. Harshbarger is that running back.

“Tate’s been there every practice, ready to go,” fellow RB Kahlil Keys said. “He fully takes on everything he does. That’s the reason why we celebrated like that when he scored.”

RENO ON INJURIES

Both RB Tyler Varga and WR Chris Smith missed Saturday’s game because of injury.

As for this week’s meeting with Brown?

“We’ll see on Friday,” Reno said. “Tyler and Chris, we will find out. It’s a big difference being able to run full speed and being able to jog. We need to see if they can do that or not. Andrew Larkin pushed through it and played. I didn’t think he was going to be able to, but he did.”

And after missing the previous game against Penn, QB Henry Furman played well against the Lions.

I will have an update from practice on Thursday.

OLUOKON LEARNING

DB Foyesade Oluokon is one of many freshmen that have had the opportunity to play immediately at Yale. He’s done a solid job in the secondary for the Bulldogs. He has 33 tackles on the year.

Oluokon moved from S to CB because of an injury to Fr. Dale Harris. Harris is back now, so that Oluokon (6-2, 200) moved back to FS where he played during the preseason.

Oluokon said he really learned to study film since arriving at Yale.

He also talked about going up against Fordham WR Sam Ajala who had 10 receptions for 282 yards and four TDs against Yale.

“I got beat in the secondary pretty badly,” he said. “It helped me become a better player. I’ve never played against a player that I couldn’t keep up with before.”

RENO ON PRINCETON

The Tigers have been the surprise of the Ivy League. Princeton sits atop the standings, following a 5-5 season last year.

Yale will travel to face Princeton next week.

“They’re playing good football,” Reno said. “They’re not turning it over. They have a good QB in Epperly and they’re playing good, sound defense.”

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bulldogs will host Brown (5-2, 2-2) this week.

The Bears have jumped on opponents quickly, scoring around 70 percent of their points in the first half and 82 points in the opening quarter. They are very experienced with 11 seniors on offense and nine on defense. And they are seniors that have played in the Ivy League, so they have experience.

QB Pat Donnelly has completed 68.7 percent of his passes this season and takes what is given to him. He’s good on the move and Brown has two tough matchups at WR in Tellef Lundevell and Jordan Evans. RB John Spooney has been coming on strong lately. He rushed for two 90-plus runs last week. Yale will need to keep Brown in 3rd-and-long situations.

Defensively, Brown will bring a lot of pressure in its 4-4 set and will use some 2-high to contain Yale’s spread attack. The Bears have a playmaker at each level on defense: DL Mike Yules (Ivy League sack leader), LB Dan Giovacchini (31 tackles) and DB Emory Polley (Ivy League INT leader).

TICKET AND PARKING INFO FOR “THE GAME”

This year marks the 130th edition of The Game between Yale and Harvard. Yale will host Harvard on No. 23 at noon. Here is a link for ticket and parking information.