THE GAME '06: On The Front Line

Mike Berg can’t see the future. But three weeks ago against Dartmouth, the senior defensive tackle looked like a prophet.

How else could a guy get a sack, cause a fumble, and recover the loose ball, all on a play intended to be a handoff to the running back?

“Everyone thinks it was a handoff,” Berg explains. “I think it was supposed to be a bootleg, because the guard I was lined up over pulled, and generally, you don’t account for the defensive tackle when you’re running a bootleg, because you figure the handoff will take care of it.”

Not exactly prophetic, but the explanation is indicative of Berg’s modest, matter-of-fact approach to the game. It’s an approach that has earned the 265-pound tackle from Stamford, Conn. Preseason All-American honors as well as double-teams on virtually every play. And though those double teams have resulted in numbers slightly less spectacular than you’d see otherwise—he’s sixth on the team in total tackles—Berg still anchors a Harvard defensive line that ranks first in I-AA in both sacks levied as well as rushing yards surrendered.

Berg alone is responsible for eight and a half of those sacks, and has also forced three fumbles for the Crimson—both best on the team. But the ‘first’ that Berg is most proud of took place in a game from 2005—The Game, to be specific.

“It happened so fast I didn’t even know,” Berg says of his crucial interception—the first of his career at any level of football—on the first play of the third overtime during Harvard’s 30-24 win over Yale last year. The extra-minutes thriller was one of the most memorable renditions of The Game in recent history.

Things happening “too fast” for Berg are a rarity. Usually, as was the case on the trifecta against the Big Green, he’s a step ahead of everyone else. And despite the Crimson’s long and storied history of defensive front dominance, that’s the case with regards to the best that have ever played at Harvard at the position.

“I would describe Mike as one of the best modern-era defensive lineman ever to play at Harvard, most definitely,” Crimson coach Tim Murphy says. “His combination of incredible athleticism and durability has made him a feared player, a player that you have to take note of if you’re on the offense.”

Though feared by offensive coordinators, Berg and his cohorts induce the antithesis of fear in their relatively inexperienced teammates in the secondary.

“I like to think of it like we can just stand back and sic Berg on the quarterback,” senior safety Danny Tanner says. “I just love to sit back and kind of feel like the man, like I just unleash Mike Berg on opposing quarterbacks.”

As scared as Ivy League quarterbacks coaches may be of Berg now, they can take solace in the fact that they’re scheming against only a fraction of what could be. This year, Berg has battled a torn patella tendon all season—but that’s nothing compared with his effort two years ago. Berg played nearly half of the 2004 campaign with what essentially amounted to a broken leg, despite being the only sophomore starting for that year’s undefeated Ivy League champion defensive line.

“It’s one thing to play, but when you see the extremely high athletic level that he plays, he’s one of the more amazing defensive linemen that I’ve ever been around,” Murphy says.

Berg struggles to deflect the praise, very unfamiliar territory for a player used to having his way in the arena in which he excels most.

“I must say, it isn’t as bad as it seems,” Berg says. “It bothers you all week in practice but as soon as you get in the game, you don’t really think about it; the adrenaline kind of takes over.”

It’s the kind of drive that impresses coaches at all levels. In addition to a speed Murphy likened to that of “safeties, not linebackers,” Berg may have the talent that will make The Game just his last at Harvard, not the last of his career.

“He’s not just athletic, he’s the whole package,” Murphy says. “I think he can get a tryout at Sam or Mike linebacker.”

Mike Berg at “Mike,” or middle, linebacker—it definitely has a ring to it, but how realistic are his pro prospects?

“I think getting a tryout is realistic,” Berg says. “It’s definitely a goal of mine, something I’ve dreamed about doing my whole life.”

But with the most important contest of the season, the last Game of his career, still looming, sights are squarely set on another goal—going undefeated against the Bulldogs, no matter what’s at stake.

“I think any time you’re able to play in The Game, it’s exciting,” Berg says. “Obviously, we’d rather have been in a position to win the Ivy League championship on our own, but it’s still going to be a great atmosphere.”

If it’s anything like last year, it will provide the kind of culmination fitting for the most dominating player on America’s most statistically dominant defensive line. Because when Berg finally watched the tape of the 2005 Harvard-Yale contest, a game he played in, the reaction was one that even he would have never predicted.

“You don’t truly realize it when you’re playing the game, because there’s so much going on,” he says. “But when I watched it from a spectator’s standpoint, I just thought, wow, to pull that off is amazing.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.