Mike Levy and Phil Yarberough entered pre-season camp in August wanting to make their senior year something to remember. It started back in December when Frank Tavani took over the head coaching reigns from Bill Russo and began reassembling a new coaching staff at Lafayette. That desire continued to increase as the summer approached and the freshman class arrived on the field. But what made these two seniors determined to make an impression this season was when their fellow players named them team captains.

That's when the desire turned into determination.

"Being named a captain by your teammates is an honor because it shows that your team has that respect for you as a person and a player," Yarberough said. "I look at it as an extra incentive to go out there and try my hardest."

And who would be a better example to follow than Yarberough, who is on his way to the top of the all-time receiving lists at Lafayette, and Levy who is leading the team in sacks this season. The business and economics majors have the ability to change the tone of the game with their presence and consistency on both sides of the ball.

"These two guys are the ones you want the younger kids to look up to as leaders," head coach Frank Tavani said. "They take the responsibility of being captains very seriously and you can see that our younger guys really look up to them as examples."

Levy credits his role as a co-captain to the Lafayette coaches and the values they have instilled in him as a person and a player. "They taught me how to work hard on the field but they also showed me how to be a good person off the field," he said. "That's something a lot of coaches aren't as forceful with these days but our coaches teach us to recognize what's right and wrong on the field and they make sure we also know that difference when we step out of the pads."

Yarberough, a 6-3 split end, carries the responsibility of leading on the offense, using his height to his advantage over opposing safeties. The 6-0, 260-pound Levy, carries the responsibility on defense as the team's leading defensive lineman and the vocal leader of the team.

"He brings a sense of stability to our defense along with his leadership and intensity," defensive line coach Chris Taylor said of Levy. "He displays the actions on and off the field of a leader and he sets the tone for the rest of the team."

A native of Bel Air, Md., Levy came to Lafayette as a defensive lineman but excelled his sophomore and junior years with the Leopards as a linebacker. This year, however, he was switched back to the defensive line to accommodate the game plan of the new coaching staff. "They thought that the best set-up would be for me to move back to the defensive line," Levy said about the switch. "So I had to make a personal sacrifice for the good of the team to play at the line and I just looked at is as a different opportunity to make big things happen."

Yarberough is making big things happen offensively, recording 49 receptions for 608 yards this season, which ranks him second nationally in receptions per game with an average of 8.17. He is currently third on Lafayette's all-time receiving list in both career receptions (132) and career receiving yards (1,854), and is on pace to break both school records. But Yarberough remains modest about his achievements and is more surprised than anything else by his success. "I honestly don't know how I got so lucky to go out there and play every game," said the Lebanon, Pa., native. "I started playing football in 10th grade and the only reason I was a receiver was because I was tall and skinny and it was the only position I could be considered to play."

But Yarberough's high school coach Tom Jordan saw something much more and Jordan's connection to then-assistant Frank Tavani brought Yarberough to College Hill and into the Leopard record books.

"He's the guy you throw to when you need to make things happen on offense," said Lafayette offensive coordinator Mike Faragelli. "He can sense when our guys are getting down on themselves and he goes out there with an intensity that just charges them up. He plays his heart out and the younger kids see that and want to emulate him."

Levy is the guy who brings that fire on defense and he makes no secret of the emotion that he carries along with him. "Off the field, I'm the most laid back guy you'd meet. But on the field...I keep going hard and I can't relax," he said. "Sacking the quarterback gets me fired up. It's just exciting to take their main guy out of the game mentally from the start."

"Levy has a knack for finding the football and his aggression on the line makes him a dominating force," said Taylor. "He gives us the spark that we need out there." Providing that spark is part of responsibility both Yarberough and Levy have inherited along with their title of co-captain this season. But the two still enjoy playing the game as much as they did when they started out in high school.

"We definitely have fun every time that we play and that's how it should be," said Levy. "That's why it's called a game."

Yarberough goes out every game with the same nervous jitters he had when he first started out, despite his nationally recognized achievements at the collegiate level.

"You almost have to have a fear when you go out there as a receiver because you know you're going to get hit but it just makes playing that much more exciting," he said. "You know that there are those guys on the other side of the field that want to hurt you so it drives you to be that much more determined."

Fear is exactly what the co-captains want their opposition to feel this year on both sides of the ball. And fear is what is driving them to make their senior year the best yet.