Trench Warfare

The sun beat down on Harvard Stadium last Friday afternoon and Eric Westerfield charged across midfield, barking to his troops as he ordered them to line up for team photos by home state.

Aside from being the most energetic man on the field—save for one freshman linebacker who preened for a suprisingly attentive photographer—Westerfield also looked completely at home. The new Crimson defensive line coach ordered around his troops with the authority and ease of someone who had been around Harvard football for years.

Coordinating a photo shoot and directing the front line of an Attack Eight formation are two entirely different animals. Still, fans of the Crimson can only hope that the team’s revamped defensive line finds a comfort level just as swiftly. The defensive line that shut down opposing teams on the ground and in the fourth quarter during the 2001 undefeated campaign has lost all four of its starters.

Marc Laborsky ’02, the left end who led the Ivy League in sacks and was a unanimous All-Ivy selection, is gone, as are former captain Ryan FitzGerald ’02, Phil Scherrer ’02 and Kyle Sims ’02. Graduation decimated a unit that held opposing rushers to 3.3 yards per carry on the ground, meaning that four newcomers will be thrust to the forefront.

“Newcomers” is a misleading word. Newcomers to the spotlight, perhaps, but not to playing Harvard football. And that, Harvard Coach Tim Murphy has pointed out, makes a difference.

“We’re not playing freshmen. The kids up from will at least be juniors and seniors,” Murphy said last week. “From that standpoint, we will have high expectations even though we don’t have the luxuries of last year’s starters. They’re not particularly young guys. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they’re not very experienced.”

“Not very” experienced doesn’t mean that players like seniors Mike Armstrong, Jesse Brush and Pat Lavin have not enjoyed meaningful series in the past. Armstrong was a regular at defensive end last year, and saw big minutes in the fourth quarter in several crucial games, registering four tackles in the title-clinching bout against Penn. Brush made 11 tackles last year as part of the defensive tackle rotation, and Lavin saw action in seven games.

These three and sophomore Brandon McCafferty, the preseason starter at right tackle, will be asked to lead a unit that, given its inexperience, some might find ill-equipped to establish a decent pass rush and continue the Crimson’s recent history of being among the best teams against the run.

Harvard will continue to use the same eight-man pressure front Murphy teams have run since his days coaching at Cincinnati, in which defenders are stacked on the line of scrimmage to stymie the run and rush the passer.

Junior All-Ivy linebacker Dante Balestracci and senior John Perry will be called upon to shoulder a lot of the load of front. But don’t tell Balestracci that he will have to carry the bulk of the weight for an inexperienced line.

“I think a couple guys have been overlooked on the defensive line,” Balestracci said. “We had a lot of guys in the rotation last year like Michael Armstrong, Jesse Brush. Pat Lavin as well. They had a lot of experience on the field last year. And I think three of those guys are seniors, so as far as leadership goes I think it’ll come from them.”

Just a few days into camp, Armstrong believes that the defense can only improve from last year.

“We look pretty good, pretty solid,” Armstrong said. “Honestly, I think we might have a little more talent than last year, might fly around a little faster from sideline to sideline. It’ll be fun to watch and fun to play.”

Even if talent isn’t a question among the top four, depth should be. Murphy was able to freely rotate the likes of Armstrong and Brush into the defensive line throughout games last year, keeping starters like Laborsky and Scherrer fresher for crunch time.

As a result, Harvard surrendered more than seven points in the fourth quarter only once—a meaningless period against Columbia in which the Crimson already led by 24 points—and the late-game sacks came in bunches.

One would expect the All-Ivy holes in the line to change all that. But Westerfield has been pleasantly surprised by the number of battle-ready linemen in camp.

“We’ve identified four defensive ends with the talent to play,” Westerfield said. “We should be able to maintain a rotation and stay fresh. And at tackle, we’ve got as many as five guys who have been able to get the job done. All of our guys should go in thinking that there shouldn’t be a dropoff when they go in because they’re all number ones.”

According to Armstrong, many of the reserve linemen could easily be just that elsewhere.

“At this point in camp I think we have more players who can play in games than we had last year,” he said. “Last year, we only had three, four guys at each position. This year we probably have four, maybe five guys at each position who, honestly, at another Ivy League school, would be starting this year.”

Senior Greg Parker, junior Brian Garcia and junior transfer Brad Payne are among those reserves. Parker, a converted linebacker, will spell Brush at left tackle. Garcia had strong spring workouts as a sophomore, and could be one of the few non-seniors to contribute immediately. Payne is a transfer from Mesa Community College in Arizona who will figure into the jumble at defensive end.

“Brian Garcia could have a huge year,” Westerfield said. “And Brad Payne has shown a lot of promise.”

If they pan out as well as Armstrong thinks they can, chalk it up in large part due to Murphy’s recruiting. Murphy has said that unlike in 1998—the season after the last Harvard championship—this year’s team has deep enough personnel to maintain a championship pace while still technically “rebuilding.”

Of course, you can’t recruit experience. But Armstrong doesn’t mind.

“As far as experience goes, I don’t think that’s going to be a big factor,” Armstrong said. “My sophomore year, Marc Laborsky, Phil Scherrer, those were those guys’ first starts and they turned out to have a bigtime team. In this league, if you’re tough and you like to run and hit, you’ll be all set.”

One way or the other, the experience will take care of itself. But the ability of Armstrong, Brush and company to fill big shoes will go a long way toward determining whether the Crimson will enjoy another Ivy League championship photo shoot at season’s end.