Wayne Hunley's been washing his uniform lately.

That's no reflection on the junior offensive guard's personal hygiene, just on the fact that Hunley wasn't expecting to see a lot of action this season. Right ahead of him on the Harvard football depth chart was, after all, a senior.

But when starter Ben Thio went down with strained knee ligaments in the Oct, 13 Cornell game, it was time for the backup to get his uniform dirty.

"There was no time to be nervous-I was basically tossed into the thing," the Pittsburgh, Pa. native recalls.

"You're standing on the sidelines and 10 seconds later somebody's trying to take your head off."

And for the next two weeks, Thio-who returned to the starting lineup last Saturday against Brown-was the one standing on the sidelines, helping his replacement out.

Even with Thio back in the lineup, Hunley will be spelling him-as he did in last week's Brown game-until the leg's back at full strength. And both parties seem pleased with the arrangement.

"I was happy to get a chance to play, obviously, but especially with Benny, I hated to see him get hurt,' one Kirkland House resident says of the other, but the junior adds, "I feel like I'm a lot better than I was three weeks ago.

"Especially with the offensive line, there's no substitute for game experience."

Especially with this offensive line, which has cleared more real estate for league-leading running backs Robert Santiago and Mark Vignali than the average bulldozer.

And that's definitely been a result of the fine play from both right offensive guards. At 5-ft., 11-in., 230 lbs., Thio's considerably smaller than the average offensive lineman. "Benny's got the lowest center of gravity of anybody I know," says Santiago. "For his size...Benny does an amazing job."

"He's not a real big kid or anything, he's just really worked hard," Hunley says.

But Thio was a pretty big kid even when he

Was a little kid. "When is was young wanted to play Pop Walter but i was too heavy," recalls the Engineering and Applied Science concentrator.

So as a high school students, the frustrated the gridder finally played football for four Years and amused himself in the off season with wresting track and rugby.

For now, though, football and academic are it. And Thio's just hoping not to have to leave his starting slot in Hunley's more than capable hands for two more weeks.

Hunley has no problem with that. "I'm just glad," he says, "that Benny's back.