Counting Your Troubles

It looks like just another sheet of paper. It seems innocuous enough, this check sheet simply labeled "Squad."

But as Harvard football Coach Joe Restic scans the page his brow furrows and then his eyes begin to glaze. As he reads and rereads the column of penciled in names. Restic can't suppress a smile the one you get when you've cursed the darkness long enough but you still don't have a match.

Next to the column of names is a list of dates from early September up to the present. The list is evidently growing quickly soon Restic will need a new sheet. The thought doesn't please the veteran mentor.

"I've never had anything like this happen to me in my life," says Restic now in his 13th year as the Crimson's heads coach. "Where does it end?"

Andy Nolan's name is one of the first on the list. The notation in the middle of the sheet says thigh bruise. The senior linebacker is one of 14 players to have check marks next to their names. All 14 held starting positions before they got injured. There are only 23 starting spots on the Harvard football team.

At the fullback spot alone, the list has gobbled up five players. Latest to join the crowd is Robert Santiago, the sophomore who started at the fullback spot the first four games, Santiago who pulled a hamstring at Cornell had never run a play from the fullback position until September. He and Bill Saleeby moved to fullback from other running back positions to pick up the slack left by injuries.

The problem at fullback combined with the one game loss of halfback Mark Vignali left Harvard with a patchwork backfield to start the Dartmouth game.

"We had a situation there that was unreal," Restic says. "We just went down to the bottom. There was just complete disruption. (At times like that) you just have to drop everything and go back and start over."

The recent injury to Sophomore quarterback Brain White epitomizes the team's situation. Last week during practice White went over to Restic and showed the coach a purple passing arm swollen to one and a half times its normal size. White who Restic says would have started the Dartmouth game was rushed to the hospital and a blood clot was removed from his shoulder.

"Maybe we'll have him back before too long," Restic says." I really hope so." Just how long is "too long" is difficult to tell. But its clear that the longer Restic's list stays full the harder it will be for the Crimson to stay in the Ivy race.