Nice guys sometimes hit very hard and cause a whole lot of problems. Take Will Anthony, the soft-spoken, well-mannered, play-wrecking senior left defensive end on Navy's football team.

Off the field, living among countless self-motivated, goal-driven Midshipmen, Anthony sticks out as a model citizen. An economics major, he came into his final season with a cumulative grade point average of 3.24, in part by achieving a 3.64 GPA last fall.

When asked to assess his cumulative value to the Mids, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo says Anthony may have surpassed the remarkable Jabari Tuani as the best defensive lineman he has seen during nearly two decades of coaching in Annapolis. Navy's eighth-year head coach then declares, with an admiring shake of his head, that Anthony has never created even a minor disciplinary issue in Bancroft Hall.

On the field, that's where the other side, the ferocious, relentlessly competitive side of #90, comes out - minus the show of emotion you would expect from a defensive playmaker after he's done something great.

Strong, explosive and resourceful at left end, Anthony has given opposing offensive linemen consistent fits, ever since he became a weapon in the Mids' defensive line rotation two seasons ago. Anthony took firm hold of his position as a starter in 2014.

In 2015, a year after he led Navy with 11 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks, Anthony is arguably the premier piece in one of the top defenses the Mids have produced in the past decade. With the pass rushing and run stuffing skills that can change a game by thwarting an offensive game plan, Anthony is a huge reason why Navy is off to a 4-1 start. He ranks fourth on the team with 29 tackles, leads the Mids with 3.5 stops for loss, is tied the team lead with two forced fumbles and 1.5 sacks and has recovered one fumble and broken up two passes.

"I call [Anthony] a sneaky competitor who is weirdly athletic. He's always smiling, even when he's destroying backfields," says quarterback Keenan Reynolds, who has roomed with Anthony for four years. "But he does take it as an insult when someone tries to face block him one-on-one.

"I used to wonder about Will," Reynolds adds. "I've never seen him mad about anything. What if he was a mean, nasty guy? What kind of player would he would be? I don't think about that anymore. Now, I just hate going against him in practice. He blows up [the option] when we run it to his side."

In one-on-one confrontations, Anthony is often impossible to block. Just ask Ohio State, which began its march to a national championship in 2014 with a 34-17 victory over Navy.

It was a game the Mids controlled through much of the first half - in part because the Buckeyes could not keep Anthony from disrupting their offense. His five-tackle day included a fourth-down tackle for a loss, which began with Anthony shredding a double team.

At 6 feet 1, 254 pounds, Anthony is adept at bull rushing and/or slicing through double-teams against men a few inches taller and at least 50 pounds heavier, and is quick enough to get past the trouble and into the backfield.

Yes, he is "undersized." That's a staple of Navy football. It's also a description that draws an amused rebuttal from Anthony.

"People think taller guys automatically have an advantage. I just kind of laugh at that," Anthony says. "Remember, those [bigger] guys have to bend down low to block me. It's about leverage.

"I think my shortness definitely helps me to gain an advantage against the big boys. Just because someone is larger than me doesn't mean he's better. Just because someone is bigger and stronger than me doesn't mean he's quick enough to stop me."

If you're looking for Anthony to show much emotion on the field, you are in for a long wait. His temper is pretty much nonexistent, although the joy he exhibits playing his favorite game is on display.

In Navy's recent, 33-11 rout of archrival Air Force, Anthony tortured the Falcons with eight tackles, including five solo, by penetrating into the backfield and ruining play after play. Air Force eventually chose to avoid Anthony by running left repeatedly.

After forcing one of the two fumbles he created with a huge hit on an Air Force ball carrier, cameras captured Anthony beaming as he returned to the Mids' huddle. Fist pumps and other demonstrative outbursts are not part of his makeup.

"Will has always been mild-mannered like that, and I definitely nurtured it," says Bill Anthony, Will's father, who spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy as a logistician.

"He's got a motor and a determination - I call him hyper-physical - to complete his task. I used to remind him as a younger man to keep his head in the game, have fun, and leave everything on the field. If you're not having fun, there's no need to play football."

The dichotomy that is Anthony continues to fascinate his teammates and his coaches.

"Everyone does different things to get ready for a game. Some guys slam their heads into lockers or get worked up in other ways," says senior nose tackle Bernie Sarra. "I've seen Will sitting by his locker in his pads before a game, just being quiet and playing card games on his phone. At first, I really didn't like that. But I give Will a pass on that now."

"Will is probably the most unusual player I've ever been around," Niumatalolo says. "Football is a violent contact sport. I'm used to seeing guys get fired up when they're getting ready to play. I'm thinking of guys like [Ravens future Hall of Fame linebacker] Ray Lewis screaming and getting his guys going, with spit flying.

"Will is just calm and collected all of the time. Because of Will, I've stopped looking at how people get ready, as long as they do the job," Niumatalolo adds. "I've never had any player turn it off and on like Will does.

"He's the nicest kid. Then, he's a one-man wrecking machine who will knock your teeth out. Then he puts on his [Midshipman] whites after the game and says, 'See you later, Coach, I'm going to dinner.' It's like the Clark Kent-Superman deal."

"If you played offensive or defensive line at our school, you are measured against William Anthony," adds Verlon Dorminey, the longtime coach at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Fla., where Anthony was a leader on the school's state championship team in 2010 and its state tournament runner-up in 2009.

"Everybody loved William. The sweetest kid you'll ever meet," he adds. "When he strapped on that helmet, he could become a real monster."

And to think Anthony didn't even play football - or any other organized sport - until his eighth-grade year. That, says his father, was by design, as it was for Will's two siblings.

Bill Anthony said Will showed lots of natural athletic ability as a young boy. The motor skills and hand-eye coordination were evidenced by his ability to juggle balls and execute back flips and front flips. But the Anthony children first were conditioned to focus strongly on academics.

By high school, Will was already pushing 6 feet and 200 pounds and was responding to an incentive system in the Anthony household. He earned $20 for each A on his report card, less for a B, nothing for a C, while any grade of D would wipe out all financial gains. Straight As would net a $100 bonus.

Besides building a nice piggy bank account, Will established himself in basketball and as a weightlifter, where Trinity started a program in his sophomore year. But football was the sport for him, and it was the sport that yielded scholarship offers from Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee State and serious recruiting interest from Florida and Tennessee.

"By my junior year, my mind was set on Navy. My Dad told me about all of the benefits, such as being guaranteed a good job as soon as I graduated. But it was my decision," Anthony said.

Based on Anthony's life experience to that point, Navy seemed like the natural choice. While Bill Anthony was stationed in Sicily, Italy, Will was the first child born at a brand new hospital on the base of U.S. Naval Air Station Sigonella. From there, the Anthony family would zigzag from Jacksonville to Virginia Beach and back to Jacksonville, where they eventually settled before Bill retired from the Navy.

After spending a year at the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I., Anthony arrived in Annapolis and became an immediate contributor on special teams. He appeared in every game, earning his first start in the season's final game against Arizona State in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl.

Anthony was credited with three tackles in that game. Clearly, his playing career was on the upswing. By the following spring, Navy's coaches were experimenting with Anthony at inside linebacker. He made remarkable progress, and his blend of size and speed made him a perfect choice for the switch.

But the coaching staff realized the Mids were too thin at defensive line, and they opted for Anthony as a complement to former starters Paul Quessenberry and Evan Palalei.

"It was fun to get a head start running at people, instead of having people stand you up at the line and having to wear knee braces. But I wanted to go back to playing with my hand in the dirt," Anthony recalls.

"Will could have great at middle linebacker or outside linebacker or raider or wherever we decided to play him," says Shaun Nua, Navy's defensive line coach. "He's very explosive and smart and efficient. No stage is too big for him. He's not star-struck by anything. Steve Johns [inside linebackers coach] was sad to see him go."

Says Johns: "Will would have been the starter and our best defensive player wherever we decided to play him, and it was best for us to move him back to defensive line. I think he's the best defensive player on our team, bar none. No one can block him without help. He's as good as or better than anyone I've ever seen at the Naval Academy."

Anthony doesn't see himself that way.

"I just look at every game like it's another season," he says. "I take the game personally, but I really focus on what I need to do that day to help this team win that day. I approach every game and every practice like it's my last day."