Harvard hires former Princeton, Rutgers assistant Aurich as football coach

BOSTON — Harvard hired former Rutgers assistant Andrew Aurich as its football coach on Monday, the school announced.

Aurich, 39, replaces Tim Murphy, who retired last month, ending three decades on the Crimson sideline in which he became the winningest coach in Ivy League history.

“I have been preparing for this moment all my professional life and look forward to making a difference in the lives of the young men in this program,” Aurich said in a statement. "Harvard is the best academic institution in the world, and we will pursue the same level of excellence on the field.”

It will be the first head coaching job for Aurich, who has been an assistant with the Scarlett Knights since 2020, most recently serving as their tight end coach. He also coached running backs and the offensive line this past season. He was an associate head coach and offensive coordinator at Princeton, his alma mater, during a run there from 2013 to 2019.

Prior to that he was a defensive assistant with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2012.

“He brings great coaching and recruiting experience from Rutgers as well as his time at Princeton and in the NFL,” Harvard athletic director Erin McDermott said in a statement. “He is a true Ivy model of an educator-coach and brings a hard-nosed, focused mentality that is both caring and demanding.”