Word: multiflex
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...plays we could have made." Of course injuries have occasionally crippled Restic teams, most notably last year, when Harvard lost four quarterbacks during one six-game losing stretch. Perhaps the bitter experience of last year prompted Restic to add to his list of potential disasters for the Multiflex, "You can't have disruption at the quarterback position; I don't care what system you're using...
...when it works, the system can glide and accelerate like a Ferrari. The Multiflex at its best can be elegant football. Plays like Harvard's second touchdown in the 1971 35-16 victory over Yale still warm hearts. With the ball on the Yale 29, Restic put his quarterback, Eric "End Zone" Crone, at tailback while Rod Foster called signals. But Foster backed off the ball at the line of scrimmage and the snap went back to Crone, who rolled out and found Dennis Sullivan deep in the endzone for a score. Or, for a more contemporary example, Brian Buckley...
...single-game passing record. The team had everything--a great quarterback, a flashy wide receiver-Jim Curry-and a superb interior lineman, Danny Jiggets, now with the Chicago Bears. But for all the fine performances, it was the quarterback's day and Restic's selection of it as the Multiflex's finest hour illustrates that his is a quarterback's offense...
...Multiflex lives or dies with the quarterback. Restic says solemnly, "The quarterback has to understand what we're trying to accomplish." Though Restic calls many plays, the final decision about what will happen to the ball rests with the quarterback. Restic uses what he calls "playomatics," two plays selected together in the huddle, narrowed to one by the quarterback calling signals at the line of scrimmage. For example, one current playomatic calls for a sweep to a halfback. If the quarterback reads a zone defense and yells out "zone" while calling signals, then the halfback continues around right...
...therein, perhaps, is the problem. While the play sounds simple, it is enormously difficult to execute. Few disparage the logic behind the Multiflex, but in an area where success and failure can be measured with perfect accuracy--i.e. wins and losses--the system has proved only a moderate success, and, for the past three years, not very successful at all. Since 1976, Harvard football is 11-15-1; Restic steadfastly maintains the system is not at fault. The coach says all of the system's problems stem from personnel fallibility: "The only time it [the Multiflex] doesn...