Byline: Brian Ettkin
SCHENECTADY - The RPI media guide lists running back Nick Costa as 5-foot-6.
RPI fibs.
A reporter eyeballing Costa for the first time suggests his true height is about 5-foot-4.
'I won't deny it,' Costa said. 'It doesn't bother me.'
Why should it? Has size ever mattered less than when Costa rushed for 156 yards in 13 attempts in the first half to help carry RPI to a 20-14 win over archrival Union and earn a space in the NCAA Division III football tournament bracket?
Costa makes undersized NFL running backs such as Warrick Dunn and Kevin Faulk look like Bigfoot and Goliath, and Costa isn't even the Engineers' shortest player. That would be fellow freshman running back Bob Munier, whom RPI lists at 5-foot-5, which means the truth is probably being stretched along with his height.
One RPI assistant coach calls them the Munchkins.
Lollipop Guild members can play.
When it prepared for RPI, Costa wasn't among Union's biggest concerns. Costa had rushed for only 217 yards and 3.9 yards per carry before Saturday. But starting in place of injured Isaac Williams, Costa scored on a 59-yard run and also broke off runs of 32 and 25 yards. (He finished with 160 yards in 15 carries despite spraining his foot, Costa said, early in the third quarter and not returning.)
It was a breakout game for a player who didn't play organized football until he was a freshman at Iona Prep High School (where he rushed for more than 80 yards in a game only twice as a senior). After Costa absorbed a hit that broke his jaw and ended his junior season, 'I felt that was the end of his football career,' said Anthony Costa, Nick's father.
Nick was a gifted sprinter who would become a high school track and field All-American in the 1,600-meter sprint medley as a senior. But Anthony always worried his son might injure his legs playing football.
Or worse.
But his son came back.
And when Anthony told his son before his RPI football career began, 'You're going in as a freshman. There are over 100 kids (on the team). Don't expect to play,' his son possessed too much confidence and drive to believe him.
'You know what, before the season's over Dad, I will be on the field, and I will be playing,' Nick replied.
Good thing, too.
The Engineers didn't play their 'A' game Saturday.
The star quarterback, Jimmy Robertson (who went to the same high school as Costa), was intercepted in the end zone twice in the first half. The Engineers were only 2-for-12 on third- and fourth-down conversions. They took a 20-7 lead with 7:12 to play, yet the Dutchmen had a chance to score a winning touchdown on their final drive.
But the Engineers' defense, which limited Union to 3.3 yards per play, stiffened, John Tesiero's interception with 1:26 remaining sealed triumph after Costa, behind his elephants up front, had dashed for big plays.
'We had to have them,' RPI coach Joe King said. 'We had some people banged up on offense that are big-play people for us ... so somebody has to step up.'
It was the guy so short, when he crouches behind his offensive line, he seemingly vanishes, the little big man rising above.
Brian Ettkin can be reached at 454-5457 or by e-mail at bettkin@timesunion.com. Check out his blog at http://blogs.timesunion.com/.
