This time around, however, Puopolo got the starting nod. "I won the job in camp," he said the other day. "It came down to the last five minutes before the opening game until I knew. If I hadn't started, I would have been a little disappointed, but I'm not sure at whom, myself or the coaches."

But what if Puopolo had not gotten a break? He was obviously aware, especially since he was returning from an injury, that he might not start, so what motivated him to give it another shot, what carried him through two years of bench duty?

"If I didn't believe that I could play someday, I wouldn't have gone through with it. But I wanted to play football for Harvard, for the sake of the game, and I didn't want to lose contact with the guys. I enjoy kibbutzing." For Puopolo, it wasn't a question of "If I don't start I'll quit," but more of a search for that elusive rainbow.

Andy Puopolo says his biggest thrill was the victory over Yale a year ago, a game in which he did not even play, so when you watch him perform in a starting capacity tomorrow afternoon, you just know that you'll be watching someone who has reached his goal.

And if you look closely enough on the Harvard sideline, you'll see Fred Cordova, still in search of his, and Bob Peabody, who, by his wild gesticulations, will let you know that he, too, has reached his goal, albeit one of a different sort.

And Dave Mitts will be quite happy that he is warming a bench in the stands.

...with the thought of two months, if not three, of splinter-gathering looming large, they quit the team altogether.