Question Marks Surround Football's Secondary

A week after dropping a triple-overtime contest to Princeton, the Harvard football team faced a must-win situation at home against Dartmouth last year. Two losses in the conference would all but guarantee that the Ivy League championship would be out of reach.

Down just a field goal with 43 seconds left and a timeout remaining, the Big Green began a drive deep in its own territory. Second-string quarterback Alex Park gave the visitors a flicker of hope, driving the Big Green down to the 38 with 30 seconds to go. But on the next play, Park overthrew his receiver and then-senior safety Jaron Wilson ’14 was there to pick it off.

When Dartmouth gifted the Crimson with a share of the Ancient Eight title by toppling Princeton three weeks later, Wilson’s last-second interception to seal the game took on championship-winning importance.

This year’s Crimson squad won’t feature Wilson. Or D.J. Monroe ’14, another defensive back who had a key interception in the Big Green contest. The two graduated as part of a senior class that also included corner Brian Owusu ’14 and safeties Chris Splinter ’14 and Reynald Kirton ’14—with one notable exception, the entire starting secondary of 2013.

“There are definitely new faces at all positions, but everybody who’s had to step up into these roles has made huge gains and accepted them fully,” captain Norman Hayes said. “They’re getting to know our defense and how our schemes work. It’s been tough at times because of inexperience, but everyone’s pretty much on the same page now.”

The only experienced member of the secondary remaining has the unique challenge of leading not only the defensive backs, but also the entire team. Hayes, elected captain last December, became the first non-linebacker to receive the honor since 2010.

“He’s just such a confident, tough, high football IQ guy,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “People think he’s one of the guys with tremendous integrity and class on our team, and you put it all together and yeah, it’s hard to make that decision among thirty or so guys, but I think it was the total package.”

Beyond Hayes, the defensive backfield remains a question mark. At cornerback, the Crimson will likely rotate a group composed of juniors Sean Ahern, Jordan Becerra, and Chris Evans. Ahern and Becerra have eight tackles combined between both of them, and Evans has yet to see any game action.

Despite the relative inexperience of the new corners, Murphy remains optimistic following a promising preseason.

“Corner was a position that a year ago we were really concerned about—losing guys like Brian Owusu, DJ , and some other guys,” Murphy said. “But all of a sudden, we feel like we’ve got a bunch of good corners. Guys just growing into the position and developing…. They’re tough, physical, big cover corners, so it’s all good news at corner.”

The Crimson’s depth falls a little shorter at safety, a position which Hayes, who split time between corner and safety last year, will be playing this season. Junior Scott Peters, a former freshman walk-on, and classmate Asante Gibson will join Hayes in the safety rotation. While both Peters and Gibson have more game experience than any of the new corners, the lack of depth will likely require Hayes to take more reps while the defense is on the field.

“[Hayes is] a two-time All-Ivy player, he’s the only guy with significant experience, and he’s the captain of the football team,” Murphy said. “So you put that all together and, predictably, he’s going to be the guy back there who has to really be the quarterback, be the coach on the field, and he can do it. He’s got broad shoulders. He can do it.”

But luckily for Hayes, the inexperience in the defense is limited to the secondary. Three of the Crimson’s front four are seniors, including veteran defensive end Zach Hodges, who anchors the defensive line. With Hodges up front pressuring the quarterback, the secondary’s job should be easier—the senior, who was the only FCS player named to the watch list for the Butkus Award, an honor given to the best college linebacker, ranks fifth in Harvard history with 18.5 sacks.

Joining Hodges as veterans on the line are senior defensive tackles Obum Obukwelu, who struggled with injuries last year but still managed to notch 19 tackles on the season, and Ryan Delisle.

The linebacking crew isn’t exactly starving for experience either. Despite graduating captain Josh Boyd ’14, the squad retains a number of seasoned linebackers, led by now-healthy senior Connor Sheehan, who was sidelined for most of last year by an elbow fracture, and junior Eric Medes, who led the squad with 72 tackles in 2013.

“I’ve got a big role,” Hayes said. “It’s pretty important, but I’m not at all overwhelmed by the responsibility because of the rest of the leadership that I have on defense…. So as captain I’ve got to be looking out for the whole team, but being a leader of the defense is not as intimidating of a role.”

Though Harvard may have graduated nearly the entire secondary, there may be a silver lining in an almost-clean slate. While the Crimson was third in the league last year in points allowed against Ivy opponents, Harvard came in sixth in pass yardage allowed. The turnover in the secondary may bring with it an improved pass defense, which gave up over 270 yards per game in 2013.

The secondary will get its first real test in the Friday night home opener against Holy Cross, when it faces quarterback Peter Pujals. Pujals tore up the Crimson’s defense last year, throwing for four scores and 345 yards. If Hayes and company are able to limit Pujals in the second go-around, it should bode well for the team, which will need to defend dangerous Ancient Eight quarterbacks in Princeton’s Quinn Epperly and Dartmouth’s Dalyn Williams.

But if there’s any team in the Ivy League that’s able to withstand an entire overhaul of the secondary, it is Harvard, which features an offense that should be able to keep the defense off the field and an experienced defensive front to take the pressure off of the backfield.

Led by Hayes, whom Murphy characterizes as exhibiting “unique football charisma,” it’s not hard to imagine the young squad stepping into the championship-winning shoes left by the defense of last year.

“It’s a high intensity, very physical style of play on defense, and we all love the game, and we love the way we play the game, so it hasn’t been too rough of a ride too far,” Hayes said.

—Staff writer Samantha Lin can be reached at samantha.lin@thecrimson.com.