“[Pierre] is doing good work for us,” Teevens said. “He’s a good sized back, [and] he’s a powerful back, we would just like him to be a healthy back.”

Pierre’s absence puts pressure on freshman backup Brian Grove and sophomore quarterback Alex Park to move the ball against the FCS’ stingiest run defense in terms of yards per game.

“It’s hard,” Teevens said. “Nobody’s done it yet.”

Harvard’s run defense will be missing captain Bobby Schneider, whose season ended with a broken arm in the third-to-last play of last week’s game. The middle linebacker was leading the team with 43 tackles on the year, including 5.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

Schneider’s absence only adds to the challenge Harvard will face when it steps on the field for the first time since losing heir place atop the Ivy League.

“We haven’t had a lot of adversity this whole season, and this is our chance to show what we can do when we are facing adversity,” added senior Kyle Juszczyk, who called last week’s loss the toughest of his career. “I’d definitely say this is the most driven this team has ever been.”

—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacobfeldman@college.harvard.edu.