At six-foot-three inches and 255 pounds, John Harding ’09 is an imposing figure to all who face him on the football field. All the way from Dallas, Texas, Harding joined the Wesleyan football team last year as a freshman. He quickly made a name for himself and started as a freshman on the defensive line. After a successful first year at Wesleyan, capped with a journey to the NCAA semifinals as a member of the men’s lacrosse team, Harding is poised for another stellar season on the gridiron.

Harding, despite his intimidating size and style of play, has come to be referred to by players and friends as “Muffins”, which is in reference to his teddy bear-esque nature and charm. Receiving a hug from Harding is as snug as being inside of a warm, well-wrapped burrito, his favorite native dish from his homeland near Mexico.

“I love having Muffins on my team,” said Kwasi Ansu ’09. “I especially look forward to Thursdays when he adorns his team issued black short shorts that perfectly complement his meaty physique. Being in the defensive backfield, I always get a front-row seat to the action.”

Harding is beloved by all, even those that aren’t his teammates.

“John Harding is a ferocious man-child,” said Eugene Wong ’09, a good friend of Muffin’s. “The sheer magnitude and girth of his skeletal frame resembles that of a woolly mammoth. He is a beast of a football player despite his small brain.”

Due to eligibility issues, Harding had to change his jersey number from number 62, which he wore since the eighth grade, to the ominous number 99, previously owned by newly installed defensive line coach Shem-Johnston Bloom ’06.

“I’m doing my best to help Harding live up to the expectations of wearing number 99,” Bloom said. “So far he has looked great during preseason and in the Trinity Scrimmage. I look forward to great things from him in the coming seasons.”

Harding is making a smooth transition to the nose guard position this season, after the team shifted to a 3-4 defensive scheme under new coordinator Doug Mandigo.

“Muffin Man has been truly dominant along our defensive line this year, against our offensive line and Trinity’s as well,” said teammate Field Yates ’09. “The only thing that seems to be able to stop him is his frequent and unpredictable bowel movements.”

Harding has had to sit out four practices already this year with an ongoing stomach ailment. If he can get past this string of irritable bowel syndrome, Muffins will be a force along the defensive line for the next three seasons, as the Cardinals look to resurrect their football program.

Muffins and the Cardinals open their NESCAC season this weekend when they travel to Middlebury College for a clash with the Panthers.