QB Landau Shines for Gridders

In a summer of uncertainty for the Harvard football team, the starting quarterback slot was prehaps the most uncertain.

The pre-season Crimson depth chart showed five prospects for the quarterback spot. Of the five, only one, Bill Koehler, had ever thrown a pass in varsity action before--that an incompletion against Columbia last fall.

In a word, Harvard's quarterbacking spot--the key position in Crimson Coach Joe Restic's Multiflex offense--was green.

Even on the day before the gridders' opening tilt with Columbia, Harvard's starting quarterback was unannounced. Coach Restic would name his starter right before game time, it was said.

All of which did not exactly inspire the highest confidence in the Crimson starter-to-be at game-time.

But that starter turned out to be David Landau, and his performance on the field Saturday certainly did inspire the confidence of the Harvard faithful in attendance.

Landau rushed five times for a game-high 67 yards (including a 36-yd. touchdown option run) and completed six of 10 passes for 71 yards and one interception. Not bad production from a position which had remained faceless until game-time.

"I was really excited about starting," Landau said. "I worked really, really hard for it."

And while Restic had been mum on the matter before the game, he left no doubt afterwards that it was Landau's job. "He's the starter as long as he does the job," Restic said.

Landau said that despite the official silence on the matter, he had thought for a while that the starting job was his. "[Coach Restic] never made a big deal out of it," Landau said. "I've been running with the first team for a few weeks."

"I didn't feel I had it sown up until the intersquad scrimmage [the weekend before the Columbia game]" Landau added.

The 5-ft., 11-in. senior looked quite confident on Harvard's running plays on Saturday and was particularly adept on the option. He also showed an accurate arm on short, quick-developing passes.

Where Landau's inexperience showed was on pass plays that didn't develop quickly. Although he once turned a broken play into a 26-yd. scramble, his interception came on an ill-advised pass, and he twice threw after scrambling past the line of scrimmage.

"I'm not experienced in games, that's a fact," Landau said, "but it's my job to minimize those problems and mistakes."

And the composed Landau, combined with a conservative game plan (Harvard threw only 11 passes all day), enabled the Crimson to keep its mistakes to a minimum. In fact, Landau did his job so well early that Restic took him out of the game--along with many other offensive starters--near the end of the first half with Harvard comfortably ahead, 31-0.

Restic's Multiflex offense, which uses many different formations and runs a number of plays out of each formation, puts a great burden on the quarterback. It is his job to look over the defensive alignment and select the play which best suits the situation. And Landau proved equal to the task Saturday.

"A part of our offense is having our quarterback involved," Landau said. "If I can run successfully, that takes that much pressure off of the rest of our offense."

The second half of Saturday's rout of the Lions saw a parade of seven substitute quarterbacks as Restic gave everybody a chance to take a few snaps from center.

"That's really important," Landau said of his numerous replacements, "It really is. It's a thrill for me to see them get a chance to play."

David Landau could afford to be magnanimous. Because for now--and for the forseeable future--he was number one.