The 1985 Harvard football team, it will be said in future years, peaked too early. An upset of Penn on the penultimate weekend of the season catapulted the Crimson into a tie for the Ivy League crown, but represented the squad's season high.

On a crisp day at the Yale Bowl the following weekend, the spent gridders dropped a 17-6 decision in The Game.

The 1986 Harvard football team peaked too early as well.

But unlike its counterpart of the previous year, this year's squad played its best game of the season very early.

Try the first day of the season.

Harvard rolled over Columbia (but who hasn't), 34-0, in the season-opener, and hinted at having a shot at the league crown once again.

The Crimson had suffered devastating graduation losses, with running back Robert Santiago and QB Brian White--two of Harvard's all-time leaders at their positions--the most notable graduates on offense.

On defense, the Crimson lost nine starters, including its supurb backfield quartet of Lee Oldenburg, Frank Ciota and All-Ivy selections Cecil Cox and Ken Tarczy. Before the season, Harvard Coach Joe Restic labeled the quartet "an outstanding group, probably the best kids as a group that we've had since I've been here."

But along with the Columbia trouncing came the expansive optimism of an undefeated team. "People are going to sit up and take notice: 'look at Harvard," Crimson Captain Scott Collins said after the opener. "I was expecting more problems today than I saw. We're not as green as I thought we were. We hung together as a unit."

Unfortunately for the gridders, the rest of the season has gone downhill. The last eight games have produced just one victory--a 42-26 trouncing of weak Dartmouth--to go along with seven losses. Not since 1950 had the Crimson suffered seven defeats in one season.

It's not that the gridders have been consistently blown out--in only two of its games has Harvard lost by more than two touchdowns. Rather, the combination of an unsettled quarterback position, a rash of injuries and the lack of a home run threat on offense have combined to keep Harvard down once it falls behind.

Three signal-callers have earned at least two starts for the Crimson this year. Senior David Landau opened the season at QB and performed well against Columbia before he was lifted for a parade of seven (count 'em, seven) reserves.

But Landau went down in the Holy Cross game, and was replaced by Bill Koehler. Koehler struggled in two starts, completing 46 percent of his passes with four interceptions and no TDs, before he was felled by injury against Cornell.

Next came sophomore Tom Yohe. Replacing Koehler in the latter stages of the Big Red contest, Yohe almost led the Crimson to a comeback victory. Although Harvard lost, 3-0, the sophomore made his presence felt.

The next weekend, at Dartmouth, Yohe turned in an excellent effort, passing for 106 yards and running for 120--a performance that earned him Ivy Player of the Week honors.