THE offensive line is the problem, however. Harvard was cleaned out from tackle to tackle by graduation, and has only two lettermen, John Ferullo and Tom Waldstein, with whom to fill the holes. Eric Honick, Paul Masaracchio, Arn Rossi, and sophomore Bill Jahsman will man the top two strings at tackle, but none have any real varsity experience. Junior Frank Veteran, who played on the JV squad last year, may team with Ferullo at guard, but behind them, there is precious little depth. Waldstein, a junior, will start at center, with Skip Starck as backup.

The prospects are a little brighter at end, however. Bruce Freeman, a starter at split end last year, will switch to fight end to replace Varney, and junior Denis Sullivan, a durable performer with fine speed and good hands, will replace Freeman. John Hagerty and Steve Zakula are the re serves.

The kicking game should not suffer appreciably. Brock Roben, if he can achieve more consistency, will be a fine replacement for All-Ivy punter Gary Singleterry, and Richie Szaro, the team's leading scorer last year, is back to handle placekicking duties.

On defense, the picture is one of mixed quality. The backfield, with four veterans returning, may be the best the Crimson has had in several seasons. But given the experience of the line, it may have to be. Harvard lost four of its top five men at defensive end, graduated both tackles, and lost two linebackers. There is some quality left, and the replacements, in time, should be effective. But there is no depth to speak of.

Starting end Chris Doyle, who logged more playing time than any man on the squad last year, is the sole experienced player at his position. Sophomore Phil Robinson quit the squad after a few days of practice. Fred Martcucci, who was being switched from safety to end, broke his arm on the first day of contact. Phil Peters and Howie Keenan are both injured. That leaves sophomores Mike McHugh and John Ambrozaitis to fight for the other starting spot, and no one behind them.

THE SITUATION is a little better at tackle. Mark Steiner, a starter as a sophomore last year, will hold down one slot, and there'll be a fight among sophomores Tom Mesereau, Bruce Wood and Ed Vena for the other. The position should be a strong one by mid-season, barring injuries.

For the first time in several years, however, Harvard will be thin at linebacker. In each of the last four years, the Crimson has placed one man from the position on the All-Ivy team, and the last one, Gary Earneti, is back again, this time as cap?? he can stay healthy, he could be the key to the defense. If he can't, people like Cornell's Ed Marinaro might have a field day running through the spot he vacates. Greg Koski, the only other man with experience, quit the squad, leaving Jack Neal, brother of last year's regular linebacker Dale, as the other starter. Three sophomores, Mark Ferguson, Andy Rose, and Jim Westra, will be the reserves.

So the backfield may have to cover a multitude of sins, and the pressure will be on seniors Brad Fenton and All-Ivy Rick Frisbie. Both are tough, gritty cornerbacks, talented at stopping the outside running game. Both are also seasoned veterans, and if theycan stay uninjured, they might be able to provide the Crimson's sophomore ends with a dependable cushion against a running attack. Junior Toby Harvey and sophomores Rick Bridich and Steve Golden should be quite dependable reserves.

At safety, the lineup is a little weaker, but adequate nonetheless. The graduation of Neal Hurley and the loss of Martucci leaves Harvard without an experienced starter, but senior Walter Johnson has proven that he can turn in an acceptable performance, and Dave Ignacio can play there as well. Tim Bilodeau, Ron Suduiko and sophomore Barry Malinowski are available as backup men.

So THE defense is faced with roughly the same problem that it had last Fall-to try to make up for an offense that might or might not get untracked at any given moment. The fact that the Crimson's opponents scored one point more than Harvard did last year would seem to indicate that the defense had almost accomplished its mission, but the 51-0 victory over Columbia distorts the reliability of that statistic as an accurate measure. Three times last season the offense put enough points on the scoreboard to insure a victory under normal circumstances, but the defense yielded 41, 51 and 24 points. At other times, the situation was reversed. Boston University only needed 13 points to win its game with the Crimson. Yale needed but seven. Inconsistency was the word, and there is no reason to believe that Harvard has stabilized out of nowhere this Fall.

And the need for a consistent offense and a solid defense will be even more marked this year. Yale, which survived a rebuilding season well enough to tie for its third League title in a row, has 15 lettermen returning on offense, 14 on defense. The Elis are two-deep at almost every position, have a good group of sophomores, and will face their two most dangerous opponents, Princeton and Dartmouth, in the comfortable surrounding of the Bowl. They appear to be the class of the League. Dartmouth, which appeared to be the class of the League last year for six of its seven games, retains 20 lettermen from an 8-1 team, and can fill graduation holes with talent from an undefeated freshman squad. And then there is Princeton, which laughed its way past Harvard, 51-20. Princeton, which blanked Penn 42-0 and took apart Dartmouth 35-7 on the final day of the season. Princeton, which took an awesome offense, a fine defense, and a three-game winning streak back home to lose to Yale, 17-14, and blow its chance for an unshared Ivy title. The Tiger is rebuilding this year after losing half of his 37 lettermen, but he'll be tough when Harvard plays him at Palmer Stadium.

Cornell may be the surprise this year. Twenty-nine of 42 lettermen return, including quarterback Rick Furbush and, more important, tailback Ed Marinaro, one of the greatest backs in Big Red history. Last Fall, he personally scored five touchdowns in the victory over Harvard, and unless the Crimson's line can jell by October 17, is capable of doing it over again. In any case, the Cornell game may well hold the key to Harvard's success again. If Harvard loses as badly as it did last year, it can forget a first-division finish, since the Ithacans are only the first of at least three more difficult games.

But this year, no game will be easy for the Crimson. Columbia, on the verge of a comeback for several years, may be able to start moving at last with material from a good freshman team and 20 holdovers.

BROWN, which has been talking about the Bear Rebellion for two years now, is finally ready to do something about it. The Bruins, with almost an entire junior roster, will not be able to make a serious impact on the League's final disposition, but they could hang one on the Crimson again, as they did in Providence last year.

Only Pennsylvania stands to be in poorer shape. The Quakers were all set for a run at the championship last year, but injuries in their first two games made them easy pickings for Dartmouth, 41-9, and for Princeton two weeks later. Harvard, Yale and Cornell enjoyed victories at their expense as well, and this year Penn may have passed its peak. Only 15 lettermen return.

Luckily for the Crimson, seven of its nine games will be played at Cambridge, including five of the first six. Cornell and Brown, both of whom victimized Harvard on their home fields last year, must both come to the Stadium this Fall, where neither team has won in over a decade. Princeton is the only team of consequence that Harvard must face away, and in light of the Crimson's performances against the Tigers in Cambridge recently, the game may be better off being played in New Jersey.

All in all, however, the prospects may not be quite as grim as they appear to be on paper. Much of the Crimson's problem lies in its abrupt shift to a new offensive system, and its need to use more sophomores in critical positions than it has ever used before. The talent is there, but it is inexperienced, and the depth is questionable. If the Crimson can avoid injuries, if Yovicsin can come up with a steady quarterback, and if the transition can be made to a system oriented toward passing, the relative ease of the Crimson's first three games may provide the offensive and defensive lines with time to make mistakes and be able to learn from them without jeopardizing the Crimson's chances of victory too seriously.

Northeastern and Rutgers, both undergoing rebuilding years, replace Holy Cross and Boston University as the non-Ivy teams on the schedule, and the downshift in quality should make the Crimson's initiation period a little less hectic. The game with Columbia at New York will be a nice test-one which Harvard should win, but not as easily as it did last year.

FROM THEN on, the road becomes increasingly more difficult. But with any luck at all, the Crimson should win five games-a significant improvement over last year's record. A triumph over Cornell, not entirely out of the question, would make six, and a 6-3 record during a rebuilding year would be quite a satisfactory accomplishment. It may gall some alumni to lose to Dartmouth, Princeton and Yale again, but seeing the Crimson in the first division again is enough for right now.