Yet his career at Harvard has been no fairy tale. The focus on the multiflex occasionally hurt his relations with his players. Some claimed that Restic spent so much time preparing his offensive that he didn't have enough left to deal with his personnel.
In the spring of 1982, some players wrote a letter criticizing aspects of Restic's coaching performance. Most of the graduating seniors on the team signed the letter or said they intended to sign it. The Crimson reported on May 14.
The major complaint was that Restic was difficult to comunicate with and remained unacceptably aloof. "You never see him in the locker room, win or lose," James P. Mullen '82 said at the time. Some players felt they were competing with the multiflex itself. "If we win, it's the multiflex's gain. If we lose it's because we don't have the personnel," one player said..
Restic says the whole problem arose out of "a few selfish people." "Anybody that has a selfish interests in my program, I can't help them. I can't become concerned about people like that," he adds.
"Looking back it's easy to see how complaints could be made," says Allard, who was a junior when the letter was written. "We just came off a terrible [28-Q] loss to Yale. It's a tremendous crutch when you lose to say that the offense is too complicated."
Whatever the merits of the complaints made in the letter, the problems mentioned do not seem to exist to any great degree this season. Restic frequently makes appearances in the locker room after games, and has publicly complained of inadequate personnel at only one position--quarterback.
Time continues to be a problem. "We don't have much time with the people who play the game," Restic says. Preparation, analysis and practice take up almost every hour in the week. "Saturday night is the only free minute," Restic adds.
All that time pressure eases after this weekend, after he puts his strategy to its most important test of the season. Restic, like his team, tends to be judged by The Game's result. The alumni were grumbliong loudly about the multiflex two years ago, after Yale had won its fifth Harvard game in six years with its second straight shutout. Forty-five Crimson points last year changed some minds.
But motivating players for The Game is never a problem. "They'll play with canes and crutches." Restic says. "Everybody wants to play Yale. They're really two different seasons. You play all your other games, and then you have Yale."