Gyles is the freshman sensation, sharing the team lead for rushing scores with Harris. Possessing a mixture of the upperclassmen’s talents, he is the most versatile offensive threat and at times is impossible to stop.

In his first collegiate game, he recorded 172 yards and 4 touchdowns. On five carries.

“He can fly,” Brown said. “He’s got great shake.”

And when team’s overcompensate and don’t present a strong defense against the pass—a weak point already for Harvard—Northeastern exploits play action to burn secondaries deep down field for easy scores.

But when the run is taken away and everyone on defense knows the pass is coming, that strategy hasn’t been nearly so effective, as seen in last weekend’s 28-7 loss to Villanova.

The Crimson will try to do the same.

“We did it last year, we did it the year before,” Murphy said. “I certainly expect we’re a better defense this year than last.”

Last year, Harvard surrendered 208 yards rushing on 54 attempts and allowed just 128 yards through the air. Though that was a success against such a talented squad, Murphy is hoping for a bit more from his squad this time around.

“We’ve got to limit that number [of rushing yards],” Murphy said. “[Ideally it] would probably be around 190.”

To accomplish that feat, the Crimson won’t make any changes though, hoping the standard game plan will suffice.

“The focal point of our defense is to make people play left-handed,” Murphy said. “It doesn’t mean they’re not an effective passing team.”

But they certainly aren’t as effective in that regard, so the burden will be on the Harvard secondary to smother the Husky receivers if the front seven succeeds in blocking off the backfield.

Not that their success is guaranteed. Last weekend, Brown’s Nick Hartigan broke loose in the open a couple of times, bouncing off weak tackles attempted by an exhausted group of defenders.

“We were obviously able to overcome that last week,” Murphy said. But we’ve got to make them earn everything they get, to keep the big runs to an absolute minimum.

To ensure that the defensive line is impermeable, Murphy will rotate his linemen almost as quickly as Northeastern will its backs.