Another Passing Team Visits Stadium; Minutemen Look for Their First Win

Wait a minute, didn't we see all this last weekend?

Here comes another football team into the Stadium that's not so hot overall, but loves to make the pigskin fly. In their two games so far, the Minutemen of UMass Amherst have gained three quarters of their yardage in the air, outpassing the opposition, 311 yards to 167.

It just so happens they lost those games by a combined score of 62-13.

The Harvard defensive secondary may be busy for the second straight Saturday, but the work will probably be easier today, because UMass quarterback Jim Simone isn't really another John Witkowski. His incompletions outnumber his completions and, more importantly, he lacks the mobility the Columbia starter displayed in repeatedly escaping the clutches of Crimson linemen. He's been sacked 12 times.

When he's getting rid of the ball, he may be tossing it to older brother Bob, the starting split end, who has eight receptions so far. Or he might be handing off to tailback Duckworth Grange (3.4 yards per carry) or fullback Richard Jenkins (3.7 yards), neither of whom really stack up to the opening-game status of Crimson rushers Mark Vignali (six yards per carry) and Robert Santiago (seven).

All in all, this is a team without much to brag about. Its only authentic star is free safety Grady Fuller, a Division I-AA All American last year and a strong threat to nab a couple of passes if the Crimson takes to the air often.

But because Harvard has a good running game to turn to, quarterback Chuck Colombo won't have to take his chances with Fuller if he doesn't care to. Last week, in his debut as the starting signal-caller, Colombo directed a well-balanced offense, as the Crimson gained 164 yards in the air and 274 on the ground. If he lets his running backs go to work again, it may nicely complement the softness of the visiting defense against the run--472 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground against UMass in two games.

Interestingly, when the Minutemen came calling last year (all 16 previous games in the series have been in the Stadium), they were the ones boasting a strong running attack, featuring two-time All-American Garry Pearson.

And it was Harvard's quarterback who concentrated on passing. Don Allard not only set a school single-game record for passing yardage in that 31-14 Crimson victory, but won the starting QB job for the rest of the season

Besides helping to establish the Harvard offense, the Harvard-UMass contest last year had another lasting effect on Crimson football. Following complaints by UMass President David Knapp, the Harvard Band dropped its time-honored practice of "warm-ups" before halftime shows

THE NOTEBOOK: This is the one weekend of the fall when all eight Ivy squads play non-league opponents, a prospect which two years ago meant an embarrassing squad of Ivy losses. Last year, Ivy teams took three out of eight UMass's losses were to Loledo (45-13) and Holy Cross (17-0)