Gridder Outlook Unsure in Brown Tiff

Brown is a good team, real good. Harvard is on a bad streak, real bad. Today's game could be trouble, big trouble.

Struggling with a five-game losing streak, the gridders travel to Providence, R.I., today to meet a team that has not lost in the Ivies since opening day.

What's more, the Crimson will play without junior running back Paul Connors, who is sidelined with a chipped bone in his ankle. Jon Hollingsworth, coming off a fine second half against Princeton last Saturday, and Tom Beatrice will join quarterback Burke St. John in the backfield.

Yet defensive troubles worry coach Joe Restic more than the offensive difficulties. Bruin quarterback Larry Carbone leads the Ivy League in total offense with a 208.7 yd. average per game--74 yds. ahead of his nearest rival.

Evil and Large

And Carbone has a fleet of behemoths to lead the way. The Brown offensive line averages about 6-ft., 3-ins. and 240 lbs, with senior captain John Sinnott (6 ft. 7 ins. and 270 lbs.) a specialist in rearranging profiles.

Restic on the opponent's offensive line: "That's the thing that worries me most. We will be outmanned there--no doubt about it."

Restic doesn't concede anything, however. He has St. John, now the Ivy League's leading passer, growing more experienced each week. And on the receiving end will be Rich Horner, the split end who has more than twice as many catches and twice as many yards as any other Ivy target.

St. John, who injured his knee in the UMass game, is "fine, not 100 per cent, but fine," in Restic's words.

Harvard's memories of last year's encounter will supply an additional motive: revenge. With 1:14 left in the game and Harvard Stadium enveloped in a bizarre indigo haze, the Crimson's Gary Bosnic missed a 30-yd. field goal to seal a Brown win. The Bruins had pulled ahead with a two-point conversion just 2:57 earlier.

The Notebook: Harvard (1-3 Ivy., 1-5 overall) holds a 56-20-2 series lead over Brown (3-1 Ivy, 4-2 overall).