In Search of the Last Touchdown Pass

When the Harvard football team takes the field Saturday, it will have been exactly three years since a Crimson wide receiver last caught a touchdown pass.

Three years.

Not since split end Wally Rutecki '82 caught a 25-yd. touchdown pass with 1:38 remaining to play in an Oct. 2, 1982, 17-13 loss at Army has a Crimson wide receiver hooked up with a Crimson quarterback for a scoring strike.

In the three years since, Harvard halfbacks have tallied 11 touchdown receptions, Harvard tight ends have caught six touchdown passes, Harvard fullbacks have accounted for five touchdown receptions and Harvard wingbacks have made one touchdown catch.

Harvard wide receivers--or split ends, if you will--have accounted for none. Zero.

Moreover, not one of the five wide outs Harvard currently carries on its squad has ever caught a pass of any kind in a varsity game.

And despite all the talk of Harvard's much vaunted Multiflex being the superior wide-open offense of the Ivy League, the problem seems confined solely to Cambridge.

Wide receivers at Brown and Cornell caught touchdown passes last Saturday, wide outs at Columbia and Yale caught scoring strikes two weeks ago, and wide recievers at Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton caught touchdowns in their squads' last or second-to-last games a year ago.

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Critics of Joe Restic's fabled Multiflex offense are beginning to wonder just how much respect opponents are giving to the split end position.

Opposing defenses, perhaps, are beginning to key instead on the running game of fullback Robert Santiago (see below) while virtually ignoring the deep threat. Over the past three years, it seems, this deep threat has hardly been a threat at all.

Multiflex defenders might point out that passes are rarely completed to wide receivers because of the limited abilities of the passers and receivers, not because of a flaw in the offensive system.

But if the Multiflex is so flexible, why isn't it adjusting to fit the abilities of all 11 offensive players?

And if the offense is going to waste one player--which is virtually the case now--why should it waste a 170-lb. player who can't even block consistently well?

Just wondering.

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Poor Dartmouth.

The Big Green machine used to be the Jolly Green Giant of Ivy League football, a feared foe both in and out of Ancient Eight competition.

Now, non-conference opponents can't wait to get the Big Green gridders on their schedule.

Dartmouth hasn't won an out-of-league contest since the third game of the 1977 season, when it pummelled Boston University, 38-0.

Since then, the Hanoverians are 0-19-1 out-of-conference, with their latest loss coming last Saturday against a powerful University of New Hampshire squad.

And who's up next for the Big Green? Holy Cross. Followed by Colgate.

By the way, Harvard's non-conference record since 1977 is 10-10-1.

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Harvard (2-0) will put a 4-0-2 series record on the line Saturday in the Stadium against the Tribe of William & Mary (3-1).

Kickoff time for the showdown between the two oldest schools in the country is set for 1:30 p.m.

The series dates back to 1925, when the Crimson picked up a 14-7 victory.

Harvard equalled its longest win streak of the series with back-to-back wins in 1980 (24-13) and 1981 (23-14). The two teams haven't met since then.

In that 1981 contest, Harvard travelled to Williamsburg, Va. for the first time since the series started, and held off a serious Tribe rally to come away with its fourth victory of the season.

This year, Coach Jimmye Laycock will bring to town a very talented Tribe that already has knocked off Delaware--the pre-season number-one choice in Division I-AA.

From this week's tidbit file comes this fact: the number-one spot on the Harvard-William & Mary series scoring list belongs to Madison "Maddy" Sayles '27, who had the game-winning touchdown in the 1925 game, which was played on Halloween.

Sayles also had 13 points in the 1926 game for a total of 19 series points.

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Ever wonder what house a starting Harvard football player lives in?

Wonder no more. Leverett wins hands down, with eight of the starters calling it home. In second place is Kirkland with four starters, followed by Eliot and North with two each. Dudley, Dunster, Quincy, Cabot and Winthrop each boast one starter.

The Football Notebook was not able to locate the home of one of the squad's starters.

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It's somewhat of a surprise, but despite the Crimson's 2-0 record, it trails its opponents in almost every statistical category.

Though it holds a 59-20 advantage in points, Harvard has fewer first downs, fewer yards rushing, fewer total yards gained, and a worse pass completion percentage than its opponents.

It does, however, have more yards passing. It leads in that category by three yards.

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The Crimson defense kept Harvard in its opener against Columbia and won the game Saturday against UMass.

Part of the reason the Cantabs have had to rely on the defense has been the disappointing play of seniors Brian White and Robert Santiago.

The two were the squad's standouts a year ago, but so far this year they've both played well below preseason expectations.

A year ago, White had a .580 percentage completion mark, but this year his completion percentage is a meager .360. The Massachusetts native also picked up 177 yards rushing in '84. So far this year he's lost 18 yards running.

Meanwhile, Santiago last year gained 822 yards on his way to the Ivy League rushing title.

This year, he's got 82 yards. At this time last year he had 263 yards.

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THE NOTEBOOK'S NOTEBOOK: If William & Mary scores 15 points or more Saturday, it will set a school record in the series...Harvard has picked off six passes this year. At that rate, the Crimson would exceed the school record of 25 in a season by five...Last season K.C. Smith led all Crimson tacklers with 79 total tackles. This year, Captain Brent Wilkinson already has 26. If he keeps that up, he'll have 130 by season's end...Santiago needs 723 yards to become the Crimson's fifth leading rusher of all time...White needs 503 yards to become the Crimson's fifth leading passer of all time...Harvard has not given up a touchdown in the last seven quarters...The Crimson has given up just three points in the second half this year...The Crimson has given up no points in the fourth quarter this year...Harvard has not scored in the first quarter this year...The three points allowed last Saturday were the least since a 28-0 shutout of Penn in 1983...Senior kicker Rob Steinberg had a career-long 43-yd. field goal last weekend and a career-high 11 punts. Steinberg is now tied for 10th on the all-time Harvard kick scoring list with 52 points.

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THE PICKS: William & Mary over Harvard, Penn over Columbia, Army over Yale, Brown over Princeton, Cornell over Lafayette, Holy Cross over Dartmouth.

The Football Notebook Appears Every Tuesday in The Harvard Crimson.