OPPONENT SPOTLIGHT: Yale's Masella is a history maker

Rob Masella was theRob Masella was thefirst Ivy Freshma everRob Masella was thefirst Ivy Freshma everto touch the ball in a Rob Masella was thefirst Ivy Freshma everto touch the ball in a varsity football game. Rob Masella seems to have a knack for making history. Now a senior cornerback at Yale, Masella first became a footnote in Ivy League history three years ago when he became the first Ancient Eight freshman to ever touch the football in a varsity game. It wasn't very dramatic. Masella simply received the opening kickoff from Brown in the first game of the 1993 season and instantly became the answer to a trivia question. He doesn't even remember exactly what happened on the play, although he thinks he returned the kick 15 or 20 yards. "I just remember doing it," Masella said. "Everybody was talking about it. It was pretty cool." Masella's memory of the incident is fuzzy because it seemed to happen so long ago. A lot can change in three years. "Yeah," Masella said, "that was quite a while ago." Since then, Masella has gone from being just a kick returner to a leading defensive back, although he still maintains his special teams duties. Now, as a senior, he is making history again, in a different sort of way. He is the captain of the last Elis team to be coached by Carm Cozza, who is retiring after this season. It is Yale tradition for each team to have just one captain, selected by his teammates. Masella realizes that to be picked as the team leader is "pretty special," and even more so in Cozza's last year. "Maybe someday people will remember me when they think of him," Masella said. As for Cozza, his memories of his 32nd and final team will include plenty of fond thoughts about Masella. The coach has nothing to do with the selection of the team captain, but he strongly agreed with the choice of his players. "He's very upbeat," Cozza said. "He never gets down on Sunday, no matter what happened on Saturday. He's a positive influence, not only on the team, but on the coaching staff." Masella has always been like that for the Elis, even before the first game of his freshman year, according to Cozza. Masella's skills and leadership were visible immediately, even as a rookie straight out of West Caldwell, N.J. "He had the speed, and he was very tough inside," Cozza said. "He was mature. His dad was a coach, so he had a very good background in football. He had every ingredient you need to be a good football player. You could almost see that from day one." Masella contributed right away, using his speed to run back kicks. But Cozza thinks the experience may have held Masella back in his development as a cornerback. "What hurt him was working with the varsity [special teams]," Cozza said. "He didn't get a chance to work with the defense at cornerback." Masella finally saw significant time in the secondary as a sophomore, but his progress was halted again by a foot injury early last year. He missed Yale's first few games and spent the next few working himself into playing shape. Masella was finally in peak form when Penn went to the Yale Bowl last October, and he had the best performance of his career to date, recording 13 tackles and recovering a fumble in the Elis' 16-6 loss. "It took me a while to get into shape," Masella said. "By the time we played Penn, I was finally at full strength, so I could play the way I was capable of playing." Masella is looking forward to meeting the Quakers again, even though Penn isn't at the top of the Ivy League this year as in years past. The Elis have not beaten Penn in Masella's three seasons time in New Haven -- although they have come close a few times -- and Masella wants one more shot. "Now we're even," Masella said. "We haven't beaten them yet, so that's an incentive." The Quakers had better be ready for a little bit of everything from Masella. He has intercepted two passes this year and run both of them back for touchdowns. He is 34 yards shy of becoming the Elis' all-time kickoff return yardage leader. And because Yale is a bit thin at the running back position, Masella even carried the ball three times last week against Columbia for six yards and a touchdown.