Making The Grade

Joe Restic came down from Canada this fall to assume the reins of a Harvard football team picked by many to win the Ivy League. He had a highly-touted, wide-open offense to install in three weeks in early September--there's no spring training in the Ivy League.

Restic never really came close to accomplishing his goal of a balanced, exciting offense. The Crimson averaged 20 points a game, ranked seventh among the Ivies in total offense, and continually collapsed at the end of crucial games.

Even in the Yale game, Restic's offense never looked great, with the defense scoring two touchdowns, and another Yale turnover awarding the ball to the Crimson on the Eli three-yard line.

Instead of producing points and victories, Restic's system has left in its wake too many losses and too many dissatisfied players.

Last Monday before the Yale game, dissension among one group, the seniors, came to a head in a secret meeting in which even a boycott of the Yale game was contemplated.

Realization

"We came to the realization that we were having a shitful season with a team that should've won the league," senior guard Jerry Hevern said last week. "Of course, we wanted to find out what was wrong--the execution or the system."

One of the major complaints of the seniors involved their feeling that they had been gradually "phased out" since the beginning of the season. This was largely due to Restic's shuffling in and out of two strings in an attempt to build depth, to keep the maximum number of people happily active, and to "make the players work harder in practice."

"We might have won one more game early in the season had I stuck with the first string all the way," Restic admitted a few weeks ago. However, he insists that "it would have hurt the team later on."

"If there is one group I wouldn't phase out, isn't it logical that it would be the seniors, since they have the most experience and the most to offer the team?"

The seniors decided against the boycott, but sent captain Dave Ignacio to talk things over with Restic.

"It was a matter of lack of communication," Ignacio said last week. "There wasn't a smooth transition into the new system, and the players and coaches never got to know each other very well."

What strained communication so much? Restic's handling of personnel so that many players didn't know whether or not they were starting certainly contributed to the problems. But the main factor was the alleged complexity of Restic's offense.

Restic's theory of offense is to put in a system of many sets which can be slightly modified each week to cope with any defense.

"We want to make it so when a team plays us they might as well throw their scouting report out the window," Restic said.

Accordingly, Restic attempted to come up with a little something different for each game, most recently the "quarterback special" against Yale.

It was apparent, however, from the first of the campaign, that Restic's system might not be as easy for the Crimson to master as he had thought. After Holy Cross, the offensive linemen and backs began to voice complaints of "too much thinking, not enough instinctive playing."

One of the most outspoken critics of Restic's system all season was quarterback Rod Foster. Before the Yale game, for instance. Foster commented. "The plays we put in this week would take a whole pre-season training to learn to execute with confidence."

"There was a general uneasiness on offense because of the change from week to week," Ignacio said. "There's so much learning involved that you don't really know what's going to work until Saturday."

Restic did have his admirers on the team, most notably quarterbacks Jim Stoeckel and Frank Guerra. "If you don't like the system, you're not trying hard enough," Guerra contended.

In defense of his system, Restic notes that, in most instances, the Crimson's failure to move could be attributed to a "mechanical failure."

Bad Passes

"The system does not account for the bad passes, the interceptions, and the key blocks missed downfield," Restic said. "Those were the reasons we lost our games this year."

Crimson quarterbacks threw 19 interceptions in nine games, and interceptions figured prominently in each of the four losses.

Restic is so right when he says, "When you're having a bad season, all criticisms of the coach seem justified."

However, one must wonder if Restic's offense, no matter how well it worked for the Hamilton Tiger Cats, can ever be run effectively by the caliber of players at Harvard.

In all fairness, Restic shouldn't be judged on the basis of one season, especially when that season did see so many close games decided by interceptions and bad breaks. And maybe the vast change from John Yovicsin to Joe Restic will necessarily take more than nine games.

We'll just have to wait until next year to see.