Or that the Cross simply was not the team it once was.

"They weren't the same kind of team, even with Wiley," Lafayette Coach Bill Russo said.

If Wiley is stopped, the Cross cannot turn to Lockbaum or some similar playmaker. The offense begins and ends with its signalcaller.

"We ordered rain for the day, which is always good," Russo said of the September 10th, Lafayette-Holy Cross game. "Wiley is not a real big kid with big hands which means a wet football will hurt his game. It's obvious, too, that he doesn't have the same kind of receivers he had last year."

Last year Holy Cross was unholy in victory. The team rolled to huge margins--41-6 over Harvard, 41-0 over Brown, 63-6 over Lehigh. Duffner was accused of running up the score. With a weaker team this year, the Cross is likely to find itself the victim of retaliation.

Duffner, with characteristic aplomb, brushes off the possibility. He still insists his team did not intentionally score touchdown after touchdown when it led by gigantic margins late in games.

"In the games where that [accusation] was mentioned, we played everybody," Duffner said. "It's not as if our first offense and first defense was on the field in the fourth quarter."

With three minutes left in last year's Harvard-Holy Cross game, the Cross led 34-6. Duffner opted to have Lockbaum, the epitome of the first-team player, throw an option pass. It was good for six points.

No truth in the accusation of running up the score?

Perhaps this year Holy Cross is paying for its sins.