The big story today, however, could come from a makeshift Harvard offense and a Harvard defense that's still not set.

After a quarterback derby that began with the graduation of 1983's signal-caller, Greg Gizzi, and ended yesterday with the announcement of junior Brian White as Harvard's starting general, more problems than just who would start at quarterback immediately surfaced.

There are problems all over the Harvard backfield, with two of the Crimson's top three running backs highly doubtful for today.

Starting fullback Brian Cooke is suffering from a bruised shoulder and will definitely not play. Complicating matters, Coke's backup, Chris Ridout, is bothered with a sore leg and extremely questionable.

As a result, starting wingback Robert Santiago will shift to fullback, even though he's also been slightly hampered with an injury this week.

"He'll team up with the Crimson top runner of a year ago, Mark Vignali, who many feel will have to carry the team if it is to win today.

Meanwhile, as of Thursday, Restic and his coaches were reportedly still shifting people around on the defense. That doesn't bode well for a Harvard team that returns just seven starters from last year' entire squad.

The biggest question mark is at linebacker, where Brent Wilkinson and Dan Bennett have earned the starting roles.

THE NOTEBOOK: This is the first Harvard trip to Columbia in three years...Next year's game will also be played in New York...Restic has taken five sophomore running backs to New York because of the recent rash of injuries to the offensive backfield.