Unfortunately for Harvard, that could happen Saturday. The Crimson’s two probable starters at corner—juniors Ben Butler and Chris Raftery—are just 5-7 and 5-11, respectively.
Harvard linebacker Dante Balestracci said that stopping Gessner will have to be a total team effort—one that focuses to a certain extent on the man responsible for getting the ball to Gessner, junior quarterback Kyle Slager.
“Whenever you have a guy like him on the field, you know he’s going to get a lot of touches, so you have to pay attention to him,” Balestracci said. “Our defensive backs do a great job, but you can only cover a guy for so long. Our front seven needs to get to the quarterback. We can’t let [Slager] just sit back there all day long.”
Murphy said he plans to utilize different defensive schemes in an attempt to throw Gessner and Brown off-balance.
“Any time you’re aggressive against the run like we are, sometimes that leaves your cornerbacks one-on-one with receivers,” Murphy said. “We have good corners, and we can cover receivers one-on-one, but not on every play. We have to mix it up and not let them draw a beat on what we’re doing.”
Princeton defensive backs coach Eric Jackson said the corners that have covered Gessner well have done so by playing him aggressively.
“The guys that have been successful—and there aren’t many of them—do a good job of not backing off of him,” Jackson said. “They stay in his face. You have to take a chance in going against a guy who makes plays like he does.”
And while Harvard’s pass defense was adequate against Holy Cross, the Crimson’s two-deep zone seemed vulnerable along the sidelines at 10 to 15 yards downfield—prime catching areas for Gessner.
By their nature, zone defenses leave certain areas uncovered. Pendergast said Brown’s offense is designed to find those gaps.
“Brown does an excellent job of exploiting your weaknesses,” Pendergast said. “They make sure they don’t line up Gessner in the same spot all of the time. It’s a very impressive offensive philosophy.
“They’re going to find him wherever he is.”