The Red’s run defense was porous at best in 2008 — the team gave up 147.6 yards per game on the ground, and 16 of the 22 touchdowns scored by opposing teams came via the rush. Among the Ancient Eight, only Dartmouth, which gave up 234.5 rushing yards per game en route to a 0-10 record, fared worse against the run. Cornell’s struggles started with its defensive line, which was supposed to be a position of strength, manned by veterans Dario Arezzo ’09, Frank Kunis ’09 and Lucas McCarthy ’09. With all three starters graduated and their backups no longer with the team, it seems like a logical conclusion that opponents will run rampant over the Red’s defensive line again in 2009.

But the relatively young, inexperienced group, led by sophomore tackle Emile Chang, expects improvement over last year’s squad due to one crucial factor: conditioning. The team’s offseason workouts were notoriously exhausting, but sophomore Matt McFarlane says he’s in “ten times better shape” than previous years. And extensive walk-through practices have enabled the linemen to simply react to the opposing offense.

“We’re taking a lot of indecision out of the front six, making it so they know their assignment before the play so they’re not thinking too much during the play,” McFarlane said.

Senior Ricky Ballou is the resident elder on the young line, which also boasts Hugh Stewart, a 6-5, 245-pound freshman out of Sugarland, Texas, that head coach Jim Knowles ’87 said would have an immediate impact.

“We won’t have a lot of experience,” Knowles said, “but we have some players that want to play hard.”