WEST HAVEN — Carm Cozza used to take his youngest grandchild to watch Yale football practice, wanted him to see, “How the big guys worked.”
Little did the Connecticut coaching icon know what he was setting in motion. After playing in high school and college, Mark Powell told his “Pops” in 2013 he wanted to be the next football coach in the family. “Are you sure?” Cozza asked him then, warning there would be late nights, stress, heartbreak, job insecurity and all the things that go with the profession.
“The first thing he told me when I got into coaching was, ‘Keep your head down, your mouth shut and your feet moving,” Powell said, “and the thing he was always big on was having the kids understand how much you care.”
Cozza, who died in 2018, coached Yale from 1965-96, winning or sharing 10 Ivy League titles, always known for his gentle, but firm way of moving selflessly forward. His grandson inherited Carm’s nose and, by all indications at the University of New Haven, his steady hand. It came to the fore when Powell was named interim, and later full-time head coach of the Chargers last spring, an exciting, but tumultuous time in school history in the weeks following the move from NCAA Division II to Division I, FCS level.
Coach Mark Powell and grad student defensive back Brodie Williams celebrate the University of New Haven’s first victory as a Division I football program last Saturday at Marist. (New Haven Athletics photo)
A few days after the move was announced in May, New Haven parted ways with head coach Chris Pincince, who had a long record of success in D-II. With a year as an independent before joining the Northeast Conference in 2026, New Haven’s schedule and roster was up in the air. Players, veterans, recruits, players transferring in, had to be reassured that everything was on track and under control.
“All the kids had gone home,” Powell said. “I immediately called a Zoom call, I wanted to check in on them as people. I wanted to let them know, ‘Hey, I got your back, I care about you, we’re going to get through it.’ Then I wanted to get a schedule done as fast as I could, because that would be normalcy for them, ‘Okay, we’re playing, we’re going to be Okay.’
“Once we got that done, the guys just went with it. We had to get some guys out of the portal, it was a process.”
When players returned to campus, Powell hosted them, one position group at a time, at his home.
“When he first came in he was very clear in trying to get to know everyone on on the team,” defensive back Liam Godwin said. “He was adamant about knowing us and becoming one of our family members, he got comfortable with us, we got comfortable with him.”.
The Chargers have 177 players on their first Division I roster, enough to field a developmental junior varsity squad. Veterans returned, and quarterback AJ Duffy, who had transferred in from San Diego State, stayed the course. New Haven lost its first two games, at Marist and Mercyhurst, but won at Albany last week as Duffy, who began his career at Florida State, threw for three touchdowns in the first win.
“I haven’t been a starter since my senior year of high school, it’s been a blast,” said Duffy, from St. Augustine, Fla. “A huge part of my decision this time (in the transfer portal) was having a chance to compete. I got here in January, we were still D-II at the time. When we moved up, I was fired up. Get to play at a high level again, let’s go do it. Coach came in and established a new identity; it didn’t differ that much from what it was before, but he put his own flavor on it. He really cares about us, wants us to have a good time.”
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The Chargers will play their first D-1 game in their on-campus stadium Saturday against Saginaw Valley State. Their 10-game schedule is a mix of future NEC opponents, other FCS programs, including Sacred Heart, a couple of D-II or D-III programs. Next year will be the full conference slate, including Central Connecticut and, yes, a nonconference game at Yale Bowl is said to be in the works in the future.
“Obviously, we’re ecstatic,” said Godwin, who had 11 tackles at Albany and was NEC Defensive Player of the Week. “Ever since I was little, I dreamed of being a Division I football player. But at the end of the day, it is just football. It doesn’t matter the label, the division, it’s the same game every single day. The identity, I think we’re still figuring it out, but defensively, it’s relentless pursuit to the football, we’re going to stand on your necks, blitz a bunch, attack the football.”
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Godwin says it’s “almost annoying” trying to defend Duffy, 6 feet 2 and 220, in practice. Powell saw immediately he had a player of a different level, an ideal triggerman to lead the Chargers into a challenging, historic season.
“When I first got here as the defensive coordinator, I immediately was like, ‘This guy’s different,’” Powell said. “The way he maneuvers, knew how to maneuver in the pocket, continuously keep plays alive and he can run. He was operating at a high level.”
Coaching has been everything Carm Cozza told his grandson it would be in 2013, including plenty of late nights and stressful times. After playing at Notre Dame-West Haven, right across the street from the UNH campus, and at Lafayette, he coached defense at his alma mater, then at Fordham, Austin Peay, Christopher Newport, Marshall, Villanova, Yale and Mississippi State, where he was part of a top-rated defense in 2018.
He joined the staff at UNH in January, returning home — he and his wife, Stephanie, own Cookie39, a cookie store in the middle of Yale’s campus — to become a Division II coordinator. Five months later, he was a D-1 head coach.
And now the mementos of victory No. 1 can be tucked away with his collection of his grandfather’s old notebooks. As these transitions go, it came rather quickly, especially for a move that came suddenly, unexpectedly, with the NEC extending an invitation. It’s working because order was restored so quickly — head down, feet moving — with the a resolve so reminiscent of … you know.
“It was a dream of mine to be a head coach, and I called people who’d done it before at a high level,” Powell said. “I’ve worked for some great coaches. They all told me a lot the same things, be you, be honest, be transparent, show the guys you care. Those are things my grandfather instilled in me.”
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