Defense: The Next Generation

At its most fundamental level, the job of any defense is relatively simple: give the ball back to its offensive counterpart.

For the Harvard defense, the increasing complexity of offenses in the Ivy League has made its job considerably more difficult in attaining that goal. There are, after all, more schemes to learn—particularly those incorporating the spread offense—and more reads to make.

But the Crimson still feels it can dominate on the gridiron.

In fact, even with the graduation of several major contributors—including linebacker Jon Takamura ’10, cornerback Derrick Barker ’10, and safety Ryan Barnes ’10—the Harvard coaching staff expects this year’s defense to be even better.

“We’re really excited about our defense,” Crimson coach Tim Murphy says. “We have an expression: it’s what’s up front that counts. And our front seven has the chance to be one of the better front sevens we’ve had in a while here.”

Senior defensive tackles Chuks Obi and Josue Ortiz—both All-Ivy selections a season ago—return to form the Ivy League’s most formidable interior line.

“They’re both physical, athletic, and disruptive,” Murphy says. “And it’s tough—we struggle to block them in practice.”

Together with senior Ryan Burkhead and junior Ben Graeff—two defensive ends who missed all of last season due to injury—both Obi and Ortiz will strive to make Ivy offenses one-dimensional by controlling the line of scrimmage and stopping the run.

“What we want to be known for [as a defense] is stopping the run,” says senior middle linebacker Nick Hasselberg. “We want to concentrate [on] being physical at the point of attack. We essentially want teams to have to throw the football, because they won’t be able to run on us.”

As the only returning starter, Hasselberg will lead a linebacking corps that is the least experienced unit of the Harvard defense. Juniors Blaise Deal and Alex Gedeon will man the strong-side and weak-side linebacker positions, respectively.

And though the unit may have lost veteran leadership, the coaches believe that it will get a major upgrade in speed.

“There’s some good players that have graduated from the program,” says defensive coordinator Scott Larkee ’99. “But what we have now is three tremendous athletes, upper level of the league in terms of athletic ability. We feel good about the athleticism, but a lot of stuff is going to be new for them.”

Though last season the Crimson employed multiple defensive formations that often incorporated the Raider position—a hybrid capable of playing both the safety and linebacker positions—Harvard will return to its base 4-3 package this season while breaking in two new starters.

“With [Gedeon], I’ve never seen a linebacker pick up the scheme as quickly as he does,” Hasselberg says. “To run our classic 4-3 defense in a time when more and more offenses are running the spread, linebackers have to really know their coverage and become even quicker.”

“We’re 4-3, but our outside linebacker has to be a guy who’s a slot defender that can play in space and can also have great inside linebacker technique,” Larkee says. “There’s a lot of schematics, but at the end of it, it’s all about putting the best 11 players on the field.”

Protecting the deep ball and leading an experienced group of athletes in the secondary will be preseason All-American captain Collin Zych, a do-it-all safety who led the Crimson with 73 tackles last season.

“Our goal as a secondary is to be the best defensive backfield in the Ivy League, which we feel we can do,” Zych says.

While Zych may be the face of the Harvard defense, several new defensive backs will look to make an impact as starters this season. Sophomore DJ Monroe and junior Dan Minamide both had impressive preseasons and will look to replace Barker and Barnes.

“[Minamide] is really the guy who’s probably the most improved guy in the [secondary],” Murphy says. “He’s very athletic [and] had never played defense until he came to Harvard, and now that he’s in his third year, he’s really adapted.”

Junior corner Matt Hanson—the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2008—also returns after registering 31 total tackles and seven pass breakups last season.

“We’ve put a lot of speed and athleticism on the field,” Murphy says. “We think that these four guys are All-Ivy caliber players.”

Despite having blue-chip talent across the board, both Murphy and Larkee have devoted most of the preseason to developing depth—a must-have they believe to be crucial to the Crimson’s success on the defensive end of the ball this season.

“Developing our depth, developing our backups, from my standpoint, is one of the most important things you can do,” Larkee says. “You lose certain guys every year, and we need a lot more [from the players] than they can go, from a depth, substitution, and injury perspective.”

As the season opener against Holy Cross looms, the pieces appear to be in place for a stifling Harvard defense.

“Our defense certainly has been way ahead of our offense in the offseason,” Murphy says.

With the defense looking to be as strong as ever in Murphy’s tenure, an Ivy championship certainly appears to be in the works for the Crimson.

—Staff writer Kevin T. Chen can be reached at ktchen@fas.harvard.edu.