Back on the fast track

Yale football Coach Carm Cozza is not a life-in-the-fast-lane The Game kinda guy.

But this year, Cozza's cardiac crew has found the going easier on the fast track.

The Elis have become the Ivy League's come-from-behind specialists, earning three of their four Ivy victories in the last few minutes of those games.

As a result, the Bulldogs(5-3 overall, 4-2 Ivy) have rebounded from their losingest season ever a year ago and, with a win this weekned, could snag a tie for second place in the league.

Last Saturday's Yale-Princeton contest was a perfect example of the Elis 1984 antics. Trailing the Tigers, 24-20, the Bulldogs returned a Princeton kick off to their own 36 with time running out. After three unsuccessful plays. Yale faced a desperate tourth-and-10 situation.

Princeton linebacker I orne Keller blitzed and stutted Bulldog signal-caller Mike Curtin for a 13-yd, loss, giving the Tigers the ball at the Yale 23 with just three minutes left on the clock.

Under any other circumstances, for any other team, during any other year, you could call this one in and start collecting your bets.

The visitors drove to the Yale two, but on fourth and goal. Princeton's usually dynamic duo of quarterback Doug Butler and wide receiver Derek Graham failed to connect for the touchdown.

And in 1984, it's been situations like this in which Yale can be counted on to engineer a miraculous last-minute march to redemption.

The Bulldogs did just that, with a 96-yd., 82-second scoring drive, capped by a 14-yd. Mike Curtin to Kevin Moriarty scoring strike with just nine seconds to go.

And while it might be a slight exaggeration to suggest that the Elis enjoy being pinned down by a rapidly ticking clock, only under intense pressure has an otherwise anemic offense been able to produce.

With its new found lull-cm-to-sleep and ambushem-in-the-waning-seconds tactics. Yale has rebounded from last year's 1-9 disaster to jump into undisputed third place in the Ancient Eight.

At the start of this season, however, Cozza wasn't worrying about winning last-minute football games. In the wake of the debacle of '83', and '84's first two contests-losses to Brown and Connecticut-the veteran coach would have been happy just to see his troops win the coin loss.

And Cozza, who led the Elis to nine Ivy titles in his first 19 years, seemed headed out, to pasture.

"The biggest problem you have is how to regain your confidence." Cozza says. "I'm sure the kids thought, 'here we go again."

On October 6. Yale finally got things going again with a big turnaround-way around, prince-and-the, pauper style-a 41-0 shutout of Morgan State, a squad that boasted more than three dozen freshmen.

"Then we played a very inexperienced team, which was a godsend for us." "Cozza explains." It was still a victory and it gave us a little confidence.

"I think maybe the kids started to see some daylight."

And a week later, the outlook get even brighter for the Bulldogs.

After a solid 28-18 triumph over Dartmouth, the Elis began a string of miracles that would do a Sunday-morning T.V. evangelist proud.

Against Columbia, Yale trailed by a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but rallied to knot the contest at 21 with just over five minutes remaining.

After the Lions surrendered the ball, quarterback Mike Cyr led the Bulldogs down the field in a 14-play drive that culminated, in a Cyr-to-Andy Marwede touchdown pass with 1:16 left, giving the Elis a 26-21 advantage.

The Lions marched right back and only a brilliant Tim Kotkiewicz breakup of a potential Columbia scoring pass with no time remaining saved the game for the hosts.

The next week, at pean, Yale rebounded from a 17-0 deficit to pull withi a field goal of the league champions at 24-21, before failing to the Quakers, 34-21.

And against Cornell the following week, a pair of Curtin-to-Moriarty passes late in the fourth quarter delivered a 21-14 Eli victory.

Seven days later, the Bulldogs pulled off the Princeton miracle, which spectacular comeback in the 20 years I've been here."

While Rome of the last three victories can be called convincing, Yale is in position to move into a tie for second place in the Ivits.

But that would tabe a victory in The Game.

The Elis have moved up in the league primarily because they boast the best run defense in the league, a unit spearheaded by All-Ivy middle guard John Zanieski--the leading Yale tackler in 1983 and '84--and a superb pair of linebackers in Carmen Ilacqua and Ardel McKenna.

The Bulldog defense, which allows an average of less than three yards a carry, will be in a strong position to shut down the vaunted Harvard running game.

The pass defense is more suspect, having given up more then 1600 yards in the air. But the Crimson's year-long inability to pass effectively should set up an intriguing battle of weaknesses and strengths.

When Harvard has the ball, the best Ivy rushing game will face the strongest running defense and one of the weaker league aerial shows will be matched against a less-than-stingy defensive backfield.

The Eli offense is not so easily categorized.

A cursory glance at the stat sheet would seem to indicate that mirrors are the Yale offense's main weapon. Curtin has had a decent season (54 of 102 for 635 yards) but has been troubled by injuries.

Cyr--who started the year as a cornerback, not a quarterback, on the depth chart--has done an adequate job filling in, but the offense has lacked consistent leadership.

Curtin will start The Game, but according to Cozza, he is "not 100 percent."

None of the Elis' four main ground weapons-Ted Macauley, Rick Koz; Mike Stewart and Steve Kline--have gained more than 400 yards, although the Bulldogs have had to stick to the ground in lieu of an effective passing attac.

Split end Moriarty has been a vital link in several of Yale's come-from-behind efforts, coming up with several key receptions, but the junior has only 11 catches on the year.

The Eli offense is, in sum, without any bona fide scoring threats.

"Its strongest point is that it's back together [after a number of injuries]," says Macauley, Yale's leading rusher.

"I don't know if we have a glaring strength," Cozza says of the offense. "We have balance."

More than balance, the Bulldogs have had that peculiar knack for scoring in the clutch.

"It's hard to say [why]--I had a team like that a few years ago, where they waited until they got behind to start playing," Cozza says.

Yale certainly has gotten behind. But it's hard to deny that the Elis have finally started playing, for whatever reason, and pulling games out in the waning seconds this year.

And as long as his squad keeps doing that, Cozza will have to be content to live in the fast lane