They found out Friday at the Harvard football team's day of spring practice--Joe Restic would be their coach no more.

One last year at the helm, and coach Restic would ride off into the sunset like all coaching legends do--Stagg, Rockne, Bryant, and now the greatest of them all, Restic.

Well...maybe they didn't all view Restic as the greatest thing to happen to Harvard football since Percy Haughton (three national titles between 1910-13), but many of his players spoke with emotion and respect--if not always surprise--about Restic's announcement that he would resign at the end of the 1993 season.

"It was always rumored that he was near the end of his career here," senior fullback Mike Hill said. "Even so, it did come as something of a surprise, because we didn't really sense that it was going to be this year."

Just a Matter of Time

"Yeah, there was a lot of talk this year that it was just a matter of time [before Restic would leave]," sophomore offensive lineman Jim DeBloom said. "And I guess the new coaching arrangement will give players with only an outside chance to start incentive to work hard for after he leaves."

But why? Restic's players have their own ideas.

"He's been here a long time and done his job with a lot of success," Tyrell said. "Perhaps the team's recent failure was some kind of catalyst for making him want to leave."

"There really wasn't a feeling [among the players] that he was coaching badly," Hill agreed. "His type of football when well-executed, is successful. But it hasn't been successful for a while, and maybe that was a reason for stepping down."

But another offensive player, who requested his name not be used, indicated that Restic's recent failures included a lack of communication with his team.

"Restic was not the kind of coach that makes you want to win for him," the player said.

Some players already seem to be distancing themselves from the lame-duck Restic. "This season will pretty much be for ourselves," another player said.

But fairness and understanding towards the departing coach seems to be the more pervasive attitude among team members who don't want to see next year's season thrown away.

"We feel it wasn't really anybody's fault," junior split end Mark Begert said of rumors that Restic may have been forced out in the wake of five consecutive losing seasons. "Even though we had heard that this might be [Restic's] last year, it doesn't come to mind that he was forced out."

Scuttlebutt Swirls

Lots of scuttlebutt still swirls in the locker room. One oft-mentioned rumor has Restic and Yale coach Carm Cozza both jointly stepping down and ending their 23-year rivalry together, but Restic has denied the existence of such an arrangement.

The fact that quarterback Mike Giardi, the consummate MultiFlex leader, will also be gone after the `93 season strikes Tyrell as an obvious correlation.

"[Restic] enjoyed Giardi as a player and a person, and he ran the Multi-Flex just like he has wanted," the sophomore defender said. "There is in my mind no coincidence about the two departures."

Giardi could not be reached last night for comment.

Moving Right Along

But the team plans to move on in spite of such developments, and as Begert comments, news of Restic's departure might be greatly exaggerated as far as its effects on the upcoming season.

"It should be an added motivation for the upcoming season, not so much a lame-duck thing," he said. "It should be more emotionally uplifting; this is his last hurrah, and we would like to make it into something special.

"He's a great coach, and he'll be dearly missed."