The basis for that strategy, and indeed the basis for all successful college football teams, is having a bulldozer for an offensive line. Harvard may have one.

Numero uno mountain man is Mike Clark, a 220-pound senior who can do it all. And for the first time since 1975's championship club, there is depth on the offensive line. Mac DeCamp, Mike Brown, Dave Peltier and fierce sophomore Orazio Lattanzi have been going at it in a battle for the second guard spot.

Two-time starter Joe Kross and fellow senior Brian Silvey have the inside track on the starting tackle slots, but junior Eric Spiegel and 260-pound sophomore Mike Durgin will press for those jobs. "You know," Restic said, "Durgin reminds me of Danny Jiggetts." And in case you've forgotten, '76 grad Jiggetts is a member of the Chicago Bears.

Center looks weak so far, with Joe Pellegrini taking a year off, but when you guys who play like Danny Jiggetts fighting to earn a spot on the offensive line, you know things are looking up.

And if the running game happens to lag, Joe Restic may Multiflex with some play-action aerials to the likes of solid senior tight end Paul Sablock (17 receptions last year) and split end candidates Rich Horner and John MacLeod (a split end converted to safety, then back to split end when Gary Confer bagged football for academics).

Sophomore Paul Connors, Ralph Polillio and Wayne Moore lead a small battalion of talented halfbacks, while Matt Granger could be the steamroller Restic needs at fullback.

But the main man, the guy who's going to get the credit if it all clicks and the blame if it crumbles, will be none other than one Larry Brown of Norwood, Mass. The senior QB can throw, he can handle the ball, and perhaps most important of all on a green team, he knows how to handle himself with aplomh behind center.

The outlook would be almost promising at this point, but for one nasty little part of the game that I've yet to mention--kicking. If you don't think kicking is important, just ask John Madden why the Raiders are never out of a ballgame.

Senior Gary Bosnic can do the job as placekicker and kickoff man, but punting is another story. Joe Restic does not have a punter, and more than half a dozen pretenders to the role have been snapping their knees off at practice. We could be talking coffin-corner kicks from deep in our own territory, and that's downright frightening.

Forget, though, that the defense has holes in it the size of the Summer Tunnel. And forget the possibility that a couple of key injuries could destroy the team. Just sit back and consider this fact: if the offensive line pulls through and Brownie can get the ball moving, we'll have a championship caliber club on our hands.

"We must be able to move the ball," Restic said from beneath his weatherbeaten granite mask last week. "We're not a ball-control offense, we try to work the big play and that won't change. But if we do move the ball like that and score, the defense will have a chance to develop."

Let's all hope it does, because if not, Joe Restic will be left floundering on the sidelines by mid-October, like Richard III, hopelessly undersupplied.