A Fine Line

It has not been a fun year to play offensive tackle against the Harvard football team. Nor quarterback, for that matter. Nor running back, either.

Thanks to a front four that has swarmed opposing offenses all season long, the Crimson leads the nation in sacks and is second in rush defense, just one yard per game behind North Dakota State.

A large part of that dominance can be attributed to the breakout seasons of defensive ends John Lyon and Zach Hodges, a fifth-year senior and sophomore, respectively. Hodges’ nine sacks place him fifth in the FCS, while Lyon ranks 12th with 7.5.

“It’s certainly a luxury that very few teams [get], to have two bookends,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy says. “They’re silent but deadly. They’re really humble, classy, sincere kids off the field, but on the field you just see a different side of them that seems to manifest itself in those extremely physical, competitive situations that football can present.”

Few would have expected the Crimson to be able to rush the passer as well as it has this season, especially after the graduation of Josue Ortiz ’11, who had a team-high 10 sacks last year. Lyon and Hodges were tied for second on last season’s team in sacks with three each.

But 2012 has been an entirely different story, as the duo has established itself as the best pass-rushing ends in the Ancient Eight.

Lyon—who missed all of 2010 due to injury—has been waiting for his breakout season for a long time.

“I really had a desire to [be a better pass-rusher],” he says. “I’m glad and thank God that I was able to put it together this year.”

That was not something that had to happen. After winning his first Ivy title last season, Lyon could have decided to begin pursuing a career in the medical field, which the psychology concentrator plans to do in the future. But he instead chose to come back and play another year—a decision that for him was an easy one.

“I’ve been playing football since I was in the fourth or fifth grade,” Lyon says. “I’ve had my ups and downs with it. But since I’ve been in college, talking to my friends who went into the real world, I really understand [that] I have the rest of my life to work, but while I’m young and have energy, I really think it doesn’t get much better than getting the chance to play football. I’m just taking advantage of that opportunity while I still have it. Work and career can come later.”

Hodges’ road to Harvard, meanwhile, was exceptionally challenging. The sophomore’s father passed away when he was six, leaving him and his mother to move from place to place—at times even battling homelessness. Then, when Hodges was a junior in high school, his mother suffered a fatal stroke.

“I wouldn’t say I had the easiest of childhoods, but I definitely didn’t have the worst,” Hodges says. “I’m very fortunate and blessed that God has placed me in the condition that I currently am in.... My goal is just to try to be appreciative of that every day and make the most of it.”

Hodges’ religion, in addition to helping him overcome life’s challenges, has also brought him close to Lyon, his roommate on the road.

“First and foremost, the biggest connection between me and John is our faith,” Hodges says. “He leads our Bible studies that we do every Sunday and on Friday nights before away games. We pray a lot together. He’s a great guy, and I think his work ethic and his faith in God is a foundation for my own.”

Hodges met Lyon on his official visit to Harvard, and since then the pair has developed a strong friendship that extends off the field.

“I’ve been able to serve as a mentor to him, but I’ve also learned a lot from him about life,” Lyon says. “We’ll always talk and check in [on one another]...and we pray for one another. It’s a really close relationship.”

But despite the quiet reflection they share on Friday nights, both Hodges and Lyon turn into completely different people on Saturday afternoons.

“They definitely come out of their shells a lot more,” says senior defensive tackle Nnamdi Obukwelu. “They really epitomize what it means to be an athlete.... That’s the thing that intimidates a lot of other teams—their tenacity and their physicality. They’re not afraid to sacrifice their body to make a play, and they let their opponents know that on the field.”

Hodges has remained solely a pass-rush specialist this season, but he has excelled in that role, ranking second in the country in tackles for loss yardage.

“For lack of a better word, he’s just a freak of nature, an absolute beast,” Obukwelu says. “He’s a kid that works his butt off every day.”

Lyon describes himself more as a power rusher, which helps him play the run and attack angles at higher levels than the speed-rusher Hodges.

“At the beginning of the year, he had a lot more variables to attack the quarterback with,” Hodges says. “I’ve tried to spend some time this year and learn from him, and gain new ideas and new ways to come up with different pass rush moves.”

While Hodges—who Murphy says made a “quantum leap” this season—still has two more years to keep learning, Lyon has been playing with an extra bit of motivation in his final season.

“When you play football, even as a kid, one of the famous phrases is ‘play every down like it’s your last,’” Lyon says. “Knowing [at the beginning of the season] that I had 10 games left, knowing there was a number on it, really gave me a heightened sense of urgency.... I’ve been a little bit more on edge this year.”

“He let us know early on he was going to give us everything he had,” Murphy adds. “I think [his success] came from his incredible work ethic and his motivation to become the best player, the best kid, the best person he could be.”

Combined with Hodges’ relentlessness, Lyon’s determination has helped make this year’s defensive line even better than the one Ortiz led last season.

“We’re able to send a lot of [talented] guys at the QB, which has given us a lot of ability to be able to do a lot of different things, throw a lot of different looks at teams, [and] attack and dominate a game,” Hodges says.

“Last year with Josue being dominant was great,” Lyon adds. “But this year, we really have shown that we have a lot of guys that really can play.”

More than four years after arriving at Harvard, Lyon couldn’t be happier to be part of that elite defensive line.

“I’ve always wanted first and foremost to win games, win an Ivy League championship, but the secondary or tertiary goal for me is to be a dominant defense,” Lyon says. “It’s something that I’m really proud of, and I really think it’s a testament to the great work we put in in the offseason.”

That type of work by Lyon and Hodges, and the breakout seasons it led to, has brought about one simple result. As Murphy puts it, for opposing quarterbacks facing Harvard this season, there was “really no place to hide.”

—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.