After last season, the departure of Dante Balestracci—All-Ivy linebacker, team captain and one of the top football talents to have ever played for Harvard—left teammates and coaches alike with the inevitable question: Who would replace him?

Would anyone on the Crimson emerge to instill in his opponents the fear of the Inferno?

Surprisingly, the answer was almost too obvious—without question, linebacker Bobby Everett was the man to carry out this seemingly impossible task.

Even with Balestracci gone, the man who had played in Dante’s shadow last year is poised to carry the team to its first unblemished season with 10 or more victories in over a century.

Everett would never entertain any statistical comparisons to Balestracci. But as a leader, not even Dante could have done any better this year.

“I never looked at it as me being better than anyone,” Everett says. “[The role of leader] was just something bestowed upon me by the coach.”

Any teammate can tell you that he has since embraced the role. At the very least, he has struck the right chord with the talented defense that he now leads.

“He’s an individual that never takes a play off, a minute off,” says fellow linebacker Matt Thomas. “He’s someone that leads by example. You can see the improvement on the defensive line from Week One to Week Nine. I can’t see us being here without him.”

Harvard’s impressive defense has held down its opponents to only 17 touchdowns and 131 total points this year.

“I was very excited about the prospects of this defense coming into the season,” Everett says, “even though we were somewhat inexperienced. It took some time for us to play together.”

After early successes on the field, Everett cautioned the team against overconfidence, reminding them that they “haven’t arrived yet.” He made sure that the defense never became complacent, made sure that it kept on improving and ultimately helping the team garner victories.

And the victories just kept on rolling in.

Everett might never rank up there with Dante in terms of physical abilities, but his pure intensity and tireless work ethic have been a motivation to his teammates on and off the field.

Sean Tracy, senior defensive back and Everett’s roommate, says of the linebacker, “He’s not a yeller or screamer. He plays hard every practice and that inspires us to follow his lead.”

Balestracci will never be forgotten, but Everett has done his best this season to make sure that the team doesn’t suffer from the absence of the Inferno on the field.