Gridders Hope to Save Season at Brown

You read the 1989 Brown football media guide. It says, "Brown University's football team is determined to return to the success of 1987, when the Bears finished second in the Ivy League with a 7-3 record. After a transition year where Coach John Rosenberg went with a number of players without prior varsity experience, the Bears should be ready to get back into the hunt for the Ivy League once again."

You get excited. You go to a game. You lose that excitement just as quickly as the Bruins lose.

Believe it or not, Brown, which hosts Harvard today in Providence (1 p.m. kickoff) in front of a Homecoming Day crowd, has won fewer football games (one) than Columbia has in the last two seasons.

The Bruins' 1-15-1 record in the last two years (1-6 overall this year, 1-3 Ivy) bodes well for the Crimson's chances today, but this game has more of the makings of a close matchup than one might think.

Harvard has also been struggling this year, mostly because of lack of experience on the offensive line and lack of depth, which hurt the team when a rash of injuries set in after the Army game five weeks ago. The Crimson's only win in the last five weeks, a 6-5 squeaker over Dartmouth two weeks ago at the Stadium, was sandwiched in between losses to Cornell (28-0) and Princeton (28-14).

Throw in the fact that Brown has played much better than a 1-6 team over the last five weeks, and Harvard Coach Joe Restic's second try at his 100th career victory looks even tougher. The Bruins jumped out to a 13-0 second-quarter lead against Rhode Island before succumbing, 18-13, and then almost upset Ivy powers Princeton (trailing, 20-15, in the third quarter, Brown eventually lost, 38-15) and Penn (32-30) on consecutive weeks.

Then Brown showed the Ivies that it was back with a 28-7 demolition of defending co-champion Cornell two weeks ago. In that game, senior quarterback Danny Clark completed 20 of 27 passes.

No Line

But the Bruins' main problem this year has been an offensive line with as much inexperience as Harvard's. Brown has rushed for only 785 yards this season, less than half of its opponents rushing totals.

"The difference between a good and a great football team is the offensive line," Brown Coach John Rosenberg said. "A dominant offensive line is the most controlling factor in a football game."

However, Rosenberg's crew this year has been far from dominant. Guard Dave Tauber is the only returning starter from last season's 0-9-1 team, while junior center Alan Christianson and sophomore guard David Cromack brought no varsity experience into this season. The starting tackles didn't even play on the offensive line last year--senior Steve Harrison is a converted tight end and junior David Slates used to start at defensive tackle.

Look for the Bruins to try and establish a running game behind junior running back Nick Badalato (383 yards this year), but their main threat will be Clark, who has passed for 874 yards and rushed for 124 more. However, Clark played only in the first quarter last week, with junior Rich Willis seeing the majority of playing time at QB. Junior Mike Lenkaitis also played briefly, catching a touchdown pass from Clark on a flea-flicker.

Tiger-Whipped

The Crimson comes off an impressive performance in its 28-14 loss to the Tigers, the most talented team in the Ivy League. Harvard was a couple of big plays (Judd Garrett's 70-yd. touchdown pass and 68-yd. touchdown reception, and a Silas Myers fumble at the goal line) away from defeating Princeton.

With Jim Reidy, Mark Bianchi and Kevin Collins healthy again, quarterback Tim Perry should be able to return to his passing form of the Holy Cross, Army and Lehigh games, in which he tossed for all seven of his 1989 touchdown passes. Reidy leads the team in rushing with 270 yards and Bianchi and Collins have pulled in 24 and 13 passes, respectively.