On the Bench

Harvard football coach Joe Restic attributed Harvard's poor passing performance against UMass to the wind, explaining that it's harder to throw long passes than short passes on a windy day, and Harvard likes to throw long. UMass astutely solved the wind problem by throwing short passes, and if you want to know how much the wind bothered UMass quarterback Peil Pennington, ask Barry Malinowski.

Pennington ruined an otherwise perfect prediction record for me, but as Nathan Pusey '28 commented upon waking up from the Crimson's 0-0 tie with UMass in 1963. "These early season tilts don't mean diddly-shit."

PRINCETON-COLUMBIA - Nassan St. v. Broadway and 116th, the Clubbies v. the Junkies. For 25 years. Princeton held the urban masses down, but then ROTC was kicked off campus and Columbia beat Princeton for the first time since 1946. Hopefully, Princeton will break Don Jackson's passing arm before he gets to use it on Harvard's defensive secondary next weekend. Columbia, 29-12.

CORNELL-RUTGERS - Cornell claims it found both a hot quarterback and a successor to Ed Marinaro last week against Colgate. No school can produce two Gary Woods in a decade, and don't bet your money on a new NCAA rushing record, but Rutgers is terrible, so do bet your money on the Big Red. Cornell, 24-7.

DARTMOUTH-HOLY CROSS - The Big Green Indians won't be over-confident for this semi-annual blood-bath at Holy Cross's Fitton Field. When Dartmouth cruised into downtown Worcester in 1966 with an 11 game winning streak, they left with a one game losing streak and the feeling most people have after they visit Worcester. The Crusaders' ace running back, Joe Wilson, should be back in the Cross's line-up after sitting out the last two games, and Dartmouth was less than impressive as it wallowed through the mud to a 24-14 victory over U.N.H. Holy Cross will have the edge in the pregame prayers, but the heathens will still win, 27-16.

PENN-BROWN - You've got to hand it to Len Jardine for sticking it out as Brown football coach when you consider that his only good running back flunked out last Spring, the Brown admissions department hasn't recruited enough talent to produce a winning team since 1959, and Brown has now lost 13 games in a row. That is, until you remember that if Jardine quit with his won-lost record, he couldn't find a job coaching field hockey at Pine Manor. At least Jardine used to have the consolation of looking forward to the annual battle for the cellar, the Brown-Penn game. But the Quakers scored more points last Saturday than any Penn team in 50 years, bombing Lafayette, 55-12. So the Bruins look like they will take the honors running away this year. Penn. 32-15.

YALE-COLGATE - Last year, the Elis squashed UConn in the opener, but then Colgate surprised them with a wishbone offense and Yale lost, 28-21. So this year, the Elis borrowed Colgate's wishbone, which in addition to cutting Jauron loose (four TD's and 195 yards rushing last week against UConn), will keep history from repeating itself. Yale, 19-6.

HARVARD-B.U. - A long day for the Comm Ave eleven. The Terriers will stop at Tommy's Lunch for their training meal on the way to the Stadium from the subway, and Harvard will finish off the job in the afternoon. Harvard, 49-6.

CRIMSON-BOX JOX Bok is finally off his crutches. Fraud Farber has been getting in shape by playing a lot of golf in Angola over the summer, and Chuck "Sex-Blind" Daly will bring a lot of devious tricks from the expansion league ball clubs he played on at Hyannis Port and Hickory Hill. But you can't deny destiny Crime, 232.