Only Sneddon and Pawloski indicated a desire to take the job if Cleary offered it.

"Harvard is like a home to me," Sneddon said. "I really structured my value system here and I'd listen to anything [Cleary] said. Right now, I'm the coach at Union."

Sneddon would bring to Harvard one of the league's brightest young coaching minds and certainly would rate very high in any character evaluation.

If Pawloski takes the helm, he would be in the exact same position Tomassoni was when he took over--the top assistant to the outgoing head coach.

Pawloski has worked on Tomassoni's staff since 1991 and is currently the chief recruiter. A fiery man behind the bench with strong affection for the school, Pawloski would also fit within the Harvard tradition.

Since the resignation, he has assumed the duties of keeping the Crimson ship in shape until a successor is named.

"All we do right now is cast out the old drift nets and see what talent is out there," Pawloski said. "The talk is divided between myself and [Bavis] and everything is fine."

Of course, this all remains just speculation, and though Cleary has earned a reputation for preferring an in-house hiring, he has proven that he can go outside the usual route.

Frank Sullivan, for example, was plucked from Bentley when Cleary gave him the men's basketball job.

Either way more names are sure to come up, both familiar and not. The search really has not begun in earnest and some real information may surface in the next couple of weeks.

"I have no idea where the candidate will come from," Veneziano said. "We are going through a bunch of searches, but this one will heat up quickly."