“I’ve been able to serve as a mentor to him, but I’ve also learned a lot from him about life,” Lyon says. “We’ll always talk and check in [on one another]...and we pray for one another. It’s a really close relationship.”
But despite the quiet reflection they share on Friday nights, both Hodges and Lyon turn into completely different people on Saturday afternoons.
“They definitely come out of their shells a lot more,” says senior defensive tackle Nnamdi Obukwelu. “They really epitomize what it means to be an athlete.... That’s the thing that intimidates a lot of other teams—their tenacity and their physicality. They’re not afraid to sacrifice their body to make a play, and they let their opponents know that on the field.”
Hodges has remained solely a pass-rush specialist this season, but he has excelled in that role, ranking second in the country in tackles for loss yardage.
“For lack of a better word, he’s just a freak of nature, an absolute beast,” Obukwelu says. “He’s a kid that works his butt off every day.”
Lyon describes himself more as a power rusher, which helps him play the run and attack angles at higher levels than the speed-rusher Hodges.
“At the beginning of the year, he had a lot more variables to attack the quarterback with,” Hodges says. “I’ve tried to spend some time this year and learn from him, and gain new ideas and new ways to come up with different pass rush moves.”
While Hodges—who Murphy says made a “quantum leap” this season—still has two more years to keep learning, Lyon has been playing with an extra bit of motivation in his final season.
“When you play football, even as a kid, one of the famous phrases is ‘play every down like it’s your last,’” Lyon says. “Knowing [at the beginning of the season] that I had 10 games left, knowing there was a number on it, really gave me a heightened sense of urgency.... I’ve been a little bit more on edge this year.”
“He let us know early on he was going to give us everything he had,” Murphy adds. “I think [his success] came from his incredible work ethic and his motivation to become the best player, the best kid, the best person he could be.”
Combined with Hodges’ relentlessness, Lyon’s determination has helped make this year’s defensive line even better than the one Ortiz led last season.
“We’re able to send a lot of [talented] guys at the QB, which has given us a lot of ability to be able to do a lot of different things, throw a lot of different looks at teams, [and] attack and dominate a game,” Hodges says.
“Last year with Josue being dominant was great,” Lyon adds. “But this year, we really have shown that we have a lot of guys that really can play.”
More than four years after arriving at Harvard, Lyon couldn’t be happier to be part of that elite defensive line.
“I’ve always wanted first and foremost to win games, win an Ivy League championship, but the secondary or tertiary goal for me is to be a dominant defense,” Lyon says. “It’s something that I’m really proud of, and I really think it’s a testament to the great work we put in in the offseason.”
That type of work by Lyon and Hodges, and the breakout seasons it led to, has brought about one simple result. As Murphy puts it, for opposing quarterbacks facing Harvard this season, there was “really no place to hide.”
—Staff writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu.