Making The Grade

If there were any cheap shots thrown last Saturday, Dartmouth coach Jake Crouthamel was in on one of them. As a result, a controversy which should have been kept private--if raised at all--has been blown up all out of proportion.

Crouthamel started the whole mess at a press conference a few minutes after Saturday's Harvard-Dartmouth game, when he accused Joe Restic's team--or at least individuals on it--of being "out to get" Indian quarterback Bill Pollock.

"We were talking about the game, and out of the blue, Crouthamel started this cheap shot thing," an irritated Restic said yesterday. "I had no idea what he was talking about."

Then Crouthamel went back to Hanover, ranting and claiming he would send game films to a Tuesday Boston writers' luncheon as proof of his accusations.

Sunday afternoon saw a reversal in Crouthamel's thinking. "Anything said now is going to be between coach Restic and myself," he announced. He refused to send films, saying that it "would only hurt the individuals involved."

But Crouthamel's raving after the game had already disallowed the possibility of the feud being hashed out in private.

Back it up

"This is like someone accusing you and not coming up with any evidence," Restic said. "I can guarantee you if I made a serious statement like that, I'd be willing to back it up with proof." Restic added that he wished the insinuations would be stopped, and everything would be brought out in the open, including names of the accused Harvard players.

"Part of my job is to stand by my players--if they're in the right--in a case like this," said Restic.

With "a clear conscience," Restic decided to show the game films himself at Tuesday's luncheon.

The films prove little. Two plays are in question, both in the first quarter of Saturday's game. One is on a faked bootleg, when Pollock is tackled away from the main action by cornerback Steve Golden. On the other play, Spencer Dreischarf obviously steps on Pollock, who is on the ground after pitching out to Rick Klupchak.

Crouthamel argues, possibly correctly, that there was no call for the trampling of Pollock, that Harvard was trying to put the Green quarterback out of the game.

George Karras, Harvard assistant coach, contests this opinion, saying that Dreischarf was pursuing a running back and Golden was just doing his job.

"It's Golden's duty to tackle the quarterback when he rolls out, whether he has the ball or not," Karras said. "There's always the possibility they may throw a pass back to him. If you don't put him down, you may be in trouble."

The referees either didn't see these occurrences, or if they did, agreed with Harvard's arguments, as no personal foul was called:

Whether or not the plays in question did indeed involve cheap shots by Harvard, Crouthamel handled his emotional reactions to them incorrectly. If he wanted to deal with the matter privately, why did he even mention it at the press conference? Furthermore, why hasn't Crouthamel even called Restic to discuss a matter which has made the sports pages as far away as Chicago?

"Although I still feel as strongly about the matter as I did Saturday, I kind of wish I hadn't said anything," Crouthamel said yesterday.

But the damage has already been done. And the saddest thing about the whole situation is the fact that it marred an otherwise outstanding college football game.