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In the fall of 2017, for the 13th straight year, a defensive player will captain Harvard football.

At an end-of-season banquet, teammates voted junior linebacker Luke Hutton to be team leader for next season. Hutton will succeed cornerback and fifth-year senior Sean Ahern.

“I was a little overwhelmed at first,” Hutton said. “There’s so much history behind being captain…. I felt honored, more than anything.”

Hutton’s selection as the 144th captain marks the fifth year in the last seven in which a linebacker has led the Crimson. Most recently inside linebacker Matt Koran steered the 2015 squad to a 9-1 record and Ivy League title.

In 2016 Hutton topped Harvard with 56 tackles. Leading a depleted linebacker unit, he battled injuries himself early in the year but saw action in ever game. That performance landed Hutton on the All-Ivy second team.

“This year just magnified his passion,” said sophomore wide receiver Justice Shelton-Mosley. “He was hurt, and you couldn’t tell. He was always out there playing.”

Hutton’s finest game came in mid-October, when Harvard visited Princeton with first place on the line. The junior set a career high with 10 tackles, and on the first possession of overtime, he dove to break up a third-down pass.

That play, which forced the Tigers to kick a field goal, proved crucial. When the Crimson offense took the field, senior quarterback Joe Viviano marched to the two and plunged into the end zone for the Harvard win.

Hutton already has captain experience from his time at Lake Travis, a 2,400-person high school 20 miles outside Austin, Texas. As a senior, Hutton guided the football team to a 12-2 record.

“His love for the game is unmatched,” Shelton-Mosley said. “I’ve never met anyone who has the same passion that he does for the game. He’s able with that passion to keep us all accountable. It’s partly from being from Texas, I think.

Athleticism runs deep in the Hutton family. Hutton’s grandfather, Claude King, played football for the Houston Oilers, and Hutton’s uncle, Kelly Gruber, manned third base for the Toronto Blue Jays. In addition, the linebacker has an older brother, Jonathan, who played basketball at a pair of Texas colleges, Concordia Austin and Texas Lutheran University.

The banquet celebrated more than Hutton, however.

Teammates voted defensive lineman James Duberg as the most valuable player. A unanimous selection to the All-Ivy first team, the senior started every game and finished second on Harvard with four-and-a-half sacks. The 2016 season marked the third straight year in which Duberg has gained all-league recognition.

At the banquet, two other senior linemen grabbed awards, testifying to the upfront strength of the Crimson. Defensive end Langston Ward was recognized for his “dedication to the program,” and offensive lineman Max Rich earned the honor of “top interior lineman.”