Added Weight Helps Mazza Fly

Freshman Corey Mazza was probably warned about the “freshman 15,” but it’s his opponents who had better watch out for a heftier Harvard wide receiver.

Mazza, who entered camp in the fall weighing in at 200 pounds, has added 18 pounds of muscle thanks to his off-season workout regimen and with it more than an additional burst of speed in his step.

“The testing times haven’t said I got faster,” said Mazza, noting that the track used slowed many of his teammates as well. “But I feel a lot faster.”

Anyone in the secondary who unsuccessfully tried to cover him during the squad’s intrasquad scrimmage last Friday would probably agree.

But the five catches, 163 receiving yards and a touchdown the Crimson’s top spring wideout racked up weren’t just the product of increased physical speed, but a level of mental maturity that was admittedly not present just months ago.

“I feel pretty confident in just going out there and not being a freshman any more,” Mazza said. “Just to have done this before, it felt like a second season almost.”

And that, according to Mazza, has opened up a different perspective out on the field. Now accustomed to seeing so many balls heaved his way, he spends less time worrying about actually recording the catch, instead focusing on where the available seam has begun to open.

“The drag across the middle, I cut right after I caught it,” Mazza said. “It wound up being a 20-yard gain instead of an eight-yard gain. I think [junior wide receiver Brian] Edwards really did well this past year. He wasn’t really thinking about how he was going to catch the ball but how he was going to juke the next guy.”

Mazza similarly turned a 10-yard slant across the middle into an 88-yard touchdown.

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

After temporarily withdrawing from the College and rendering himself ineligible to play football, junior offensive tackle Mike Frey had made it all the way back. But in just the third game of his return run, during yet another battle in the trenches with Northeastern, Frey was dealt another setback.

One broken bone in his leg would probably not have been enough to end his season, but Frey broke his tibia and fibula, an injury that continues to thwart the completion of that initial comeback.

“I didn’t feel sorry for myself,” Frey said. “I kind of felt like I’d let the team down. And I don’t like that feeling.”

But the news Frey received from the doctor yesterday afternoon certainly won’t produce that same sickening feeling. Seven months after the initial injury and six weeks after undergoing surgery to have corrective pins removed Frey’s recovery is on track and on schedule.

“[The doctor] said that everything’s healing well,” Frey said, “and that I can start doing things that I wasn’t able to do such as stair stepping and mild running.”

That’s good news for an offensive line plagued by injuries, one which saw at least five players’ time limited by injury, much to the sidelined Frey’s chagrin.

Setting fall’s two-a-days as his target, Frey said he plans on being back at full strength come the season opener against Holy Cross on Sept. 18.

“Assuming my off-season workouts go well,” Frey said, “that would mean getting my leg back in shape. I hope to be as strong if not stronger than what I was last year.”

THIRD AND 10

Sophomore Ryan Tyler—who suffered a knee injury two weeks ago that had limited his snaps in practice—was surprisingly utilized by Harvard coach Tim Murphy in Friday’s Crimson-White game. Tyler, who began the transition from running back to wide receiver after losing the backfield battle to Northwestern transfer Clifton Dawson last season, made little impact participating at less than full strength…With Dawson sidelined by the coaching staff for what he termed “precautionary reasons” during the Spring Game, freshman Raffael DeLuca carried the bulk of the load rushing 13 times for 83 yards, but given Dawson’s history as a workhorse and the expected return of Edwards next season, it is unlikely that DeLuca will be so heavily relied upon in Murphy’s offensive set with any regularity…With the spot formerly filled by number-two receiver Rodney Byrnes almost certainly filled by Mazza after his dazzling spring, the competition for Mazza’s old role continues to heat up. Sophomore Corey Waller had impressed coaches throughout off-season workouts, but it was freshman Danny Brown who stood out as second-best with his six catches and 65 yards on Friday…With spring ball officially over, the countdown has begun. Only 139 days until opening kickoff against the Crusaders at Soldier’s Field.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.