Harvard Director of Athletics Erin McDermott announced Monday that Andrew Aurich has been named the Crimson’s head football coach.

Aurich, a native of St. Paul, Minn., will be Harvard’s fifth head coach since the formation of the Ivy League in 1956. Aurich will be replacing Tim Murphy, the winningest coach in Ivy League history, who patrolled the Harvard sidelines for 30 seasons. Muphy was 200-89 overall with 141 Ivy League wins and nine conference titles.

“I am excited to welcome Andy Aurich as the Thomas Stephenson Family head coach for Harvard football,” said McDermott. “He brings great coaching and recruiting experience from Rutgers as well as time at Princeton and in the NFL.

“He is a true Ivy League model of an educator-coach and brings a hard-nosed focused mentality that is both caring and demanding. We look forward to the future of Harvard football with coach Aurich.”

The news that McDermott ventured outside the tight-knit Harvard community was a bit of a surprise considering there were two quality holdovers from the Murphy regime interested in the position.

Quarterbacks coach Joel Lamb (1993) and defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Scott Larkee (1999) were long-time Murphy assistants and former Harvard players.

Lamb was a Herald All-Scholastic quarterback from Natick High School who finished his 18th season instructing a long stream of successful Crimson’ passers. Lamb served in the same capacity at Yale for nine seasons. Larkee is a former Harvard linebacker who just wrapped up his 17th season as a Harvard assistant accumulated over two stints.

Aurich spent the last four seasons at Rutgers as an assistant to Greg Schiano in several capacities. He was the offensive line coach from 2020-2021, moved to running backs in 2022 and tight ends in 2023.

Aurich spent the previous seven seasons learning the ways and means of the Ivy league at Princeton. He served as a position coach, recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and offensive coordinator with the Tigers. Aurich spent 2012 in the NFL as a defensive assistant with Tampa Bay.

“I would like to thank Erin McDermott and all those on the search committee for their support,” said Aurich. “I have been preparing for this moment all my professional life and look forward to making a difference for the young men in the program.

“Harvard is the best academic institution in the world and we will pursue the same level of excellence on the field.”