Down on the Farm

U Mass is Cornell without the Ivy Pretensions of the Gorge. Animal lovers love it, the state supports it and the football team has yet to make its mark on the win column this year.

Both schools have strong football traditions and a famous grid alum from the late 1960s. For Cornell it was running back Ed Marinaro, second in the Heisman Trophy balloting in 1971. For UMass it was Greg Landry (this week's guest predictor), who quarter backed the Baltimore Colts and the Detroit Lions in the NFL before moving to his current position with the USFL's Chicago Blitz.

But both teams could sure use a star right now. Toledo and Holy Cross have kept UMass winless thus far, and Penn squashed the Big Red last week. After last week's confidence-builder against Columbia, the Crimson will be a difficult opponent for the Minutemen. Cornell has to face Division I-AA power Colgate.

And Amherst is only slightly more exciting than Ithaca.

A goat and two cows were among the spectators when the Harvard baseball team split a twinbill with the Minutemen at Amherst in April. There isn't much in Amherst.

Maybe that's why the Minutemen travel to Boston every year to face the Crimson gridders. Four times they play Harvard in the first half of the 1980s; all four games will be at the Stadium.

Harvard may win all four.

HARVARD 35, UMASS 30--The Harvard football team is ready to blow the world off its feet. If the Crimson scores early this could be a laugher. But this year's gridders have never been behind, and your never know what will happen the first time they have to play catch-up, in the unlikely event that Harvard does fall behind, Jim Villanueva's experienced, and powerful, boot might be the deciding factor. Dr. J. did go to UMass, a factor that refuses to be forgotten. Still, it's hard to picture a UMass, victory.

DARTMOUTH 14, ARMY 2--Big Green running back Richard Weissman made three one-yard touchdown dives last week in a 21-3 victory over Princeton.

The Cadets enter this one 0-2, They'll leave it 0-3.

URI 30, BROWN 27--Brown's still riding high off last week, when the Bruins won at the Yale Bowl for the first time in 20 years. URI will win the battle of Rhode Island anyway. No one will care. Everybody will be in Newport.

LAFAYETTE 51, COLUMBIA 48--Lion quarterback John Witkowski will top last week's 368-yard performance. But the "we"in"...we are here" won't include a defense, and Columbia will fall for the second straight week.

COLGATE 21. CORNELL 7--Fluoride stops cavities.

DELAWARE 31, PENN 24--Ever seen a Fightin' Blue Hen?

BUCKNELL 10, PRINCETON 3--New York vs. New Jersey. Need I say more?

YALE 20, UCONN 17--The Bulldogs will outsniff the Huskies for the bragging rights to Connecticut. Storrs will still be prettier that New Haven. I will still hate Yale.

Last week--4-0. Season to date--4-0, 1,000. A grand slam.