The football team's defense really enjoys inserting its practice-jersey color into nonsensical phrases. Blue kids on the block. Blue cross, blue shield. Everything usually ends with "baby," so "Blue zone, baby; it'll leave you feeling sick" is also popular.
"We just scream random things that don't make any sense," senior tri-captain Nick Falk, a linebacker, said. "That's just us getting pumped up to play with high adrenaline, high tempo every single play."
The defense has good reason to be amped this year, and maybe even shout a few ridiculous slogans. Even with notable losses in major statistical categories, a veteran linebacking corps is leading the way for a unit that experienced its fair share of struggles during last year's 1-7 season.
In 2010, Tufts' defense ranked last in the NESCAC in points allowed, coughing up 33.6 points per game — the most of any conference team since Hamilton allowed 36.9 per game in 2005. Opposite a high-speed, no-huddle Jumbos offense that shattered school, NESCAC and New England passing records, the defense gave up 457.1 total yards and 221.4 rushing yards per game, by far the worst in the conference.
"We're sick of losing. It's terrible to think about yourselves that way," said senior linebacker Zack Skarzynski, the lone returning starting linebacker. "In a way you forget about the past week to week, but as a motivator and a chip on your shoulder, I don't think we have. We've changed so much, but you look up ‘Tufts Jumbos' and it still says 1-7."
Gone from the middle three in defensive coordinator Scott Rynne's 4-3 scheme are Matt Murray (LA '11), the team's leading tackler the past two seasons, and senior linebacker Ferras Albitar, forced to sit out the season due to concussions.
The Jumbos taking their places have hardly missed a beat.
"I think they've worked [very] hard to stick together and get better as a team, and when that happens, you can only focus on the guy to the left and the guy to the right of you," said interim head coach Jay Civetti, echoing the mantra preached during a Marine-run Judgment Day session. "It wasn't the guy to the left of you, the guy to the right of you and then the guy who's outside the fence. And it's a credit to those players. When it comes to football, they're focused on each other."
Falk, a lifelong defensive back, shifted to linebacker this year, joining Skarzynski, his former prep teammate at Fenwick High School in Illinois. Falk and Skarzynski were second and fourth on the team in tackles, respectively, last season.
J.T. Rinciari, a senior tri-captain along with Falk and senior offensive lineman Luke Lamothe, also switched from playing defensive back in 2010 to linebacker, though he played his first two seasons at the latter position alongside Skarzynski.
Any physicality lost from Murray's and Albitar's departure — "Ferras was an absolute animal," Falk said — has been compensated by the overwhelming returning leadership stacked at a position crucial for closing gaps in the run game and dropping back into pass coverage.
"We're a little undersized, from the standpoint of the league," Skarzynski said. "I'm about 205 [pounds], J.T.'s 210, Falk's maybe 180, but the seniority and leadership we have make up for any problems there. It's just about trying to create camaraderie of the defense so we can fly around and make plays together."
Skarzynski, Rinciari, Falk and Albitar all live off-campus together, which created what Skarzynski called frequent "stress and pissed-off-ness" at seven straight losses. With Albitar — who Falk said has still been helping him adjust to linebacker — sidelined, the remaining three are carrying a heavy chip on their collectively broad shoulders into 2011. Football is all they talk about these days in that household.
"We're more worried about the conscious decisions we have to make on the field than what the hell happened last year," Falk said. "With our schedule this preseason, we haven't had time to even think. It's football five to six hours a day, and we have class and other commitments, so we can't afford to look into the past."
Instead they'll just nonsensically scream themselves into the future.
