Masella, who also received Patriot League Coach of the Year honors this fall, led the Rams to an 8-4 overall record and a 5-1 Patriot League mark, winning the league title for the second time in the past five years. Fordham, which was picked to finish sixth of the seven Patriot League teams prior to the season, finished 3-8 last season.

At the end of the 2007 season, Fordham had 12 players named All-Patriot League, including freshman running back Xavier Martin, who garnered Rookie of the Year honors.

Masella shared the award with Dave Clawson of the University of Richmond. He is also a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award given to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision national coach of the year. Masella arrived at Rose Hill in 2006 after serving as head coach at Central Connecticut State University, where he led the Blue Devils to back-to-back Northeast Conference titles, the school’s first ever football championships, in 2004 and 2005.

Joining Masella in garnering a major award was freshman running back Xavier Martin, who was named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year. Martin becomes the third Ram to earn Rookie of the Year honors, joining placekicker Micah Clukey (2003) and current teammate and backfield partner, Jonte Coven (2004).

Besides Martin, 11 other Rams earned All-Patriot League honors. Earning First Team accolades were senior running back Jonte Coven, senior linebacker Earl Hudnell and senior punter Ben Dato. Martin, sophomore quarterback John Skelton, senior center Mike Breznicky, senior offensive lineman Mike Nardone, sophomore wide receiver Asa Lucas, junior defensive lineman Ryan Mehra, sophomore linebacker James Crockett, senior linebacker Dominique Owens and senior defensive back Sam Orah all were named to the Second Team.

The Rams finished the regular season with an 8-3 overall record and a 5-1 Patriot League mark, winning the league title for the second time in the past five years. Fordham, who was picked to finish sixth of the seven Patriot League teams, fell to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst 49-35 in the first round of first round of NCAA Division I Championships on Saturday, Nov. 24.

Masella, who is also a finalist for the Eddie Robinson Award, which is given to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) national coach of the year, arrived at Rose Hill in 2006 after serving as head coach at Central Connecticut State University for two years. He lead the Blue Devils to back-to-back Northeast Conference (NEC) titles, the school’s first ever football championships, in 2004 and 2005. He led the squad to 15 wins over the two seasons, the most victories recorded over a two-year period by a Central Connecticut State football team in school history.

“This is a great day for Fordham University and Fordham football,” said head coach Tom Masella. “This is what we worked hard all year for and to see a bunch of guys set goals and attain those goals gives us a great deal of pride and excitement.”

Fordham, the 2007 Patriot League champion, finished the regular season with an 8-3 overall record, 5-1 in the league. Massachusetts, the Colonial Athletic Association champion, closed out the regular season with a 9-2 overall record, 7-1 in the CAA, winning the CAA title by virtue of a tie-breaking coin flip with the University of Richmond.

The NCAA berth completes a tremendous turnaround for the Fordham football program, which finished the 2006 season with a 3-8 overall record, and was picked to finish sixth of seven teams in the Patriot League this fall. This is the second NCAA Division I Championship appearance for the Rams, who also won the Patriot League title in 2002. That year, Fordham upended Northeastern University (coached by current UMass head coach Don Brown), 29-24, in the first round before falling to Villanova University, 24-10, in the quarterfinals.

The 2007 Rams are a perfect 5-0 on the road this fall, including Patriot League wins at Colgate and Lafayette, which entered the season as the three-time defending league champion, as well as a season-opening win at Rhode Island, the team that handed Massachusetts its only CAA loss.

“I thought this team would come out ready to play tonight and they certainly did,” said Fordham head coach Tom Masella. “I give a lot of the credit to the seniors who practiced hard all week for this game. I think we bounced back well after last week and played extremely hard.”

The Liberty Cup is awarded annually to the winner of the Fordham-Columbia game. The trophy was dedicated in 2002, a year after the Columbia-Fordham game was postponed because of the attacks of Sept. 11. At least 43 Columbia alumni and 35 Fordham alumni died at the World Trade Center, including two former Fordham football players, Nick Brandemarti (CBA ’00) and Kevin Szocik (CBA ’97).

In the six match-ups since 2002, the series is tied 3-3. Columbia had maintained possession of the Liberty Cup for the past two years. The Rams will next be in action on Saturday, Sept. 22 as they host the University of Dayton Flyers on Jack Coffey Field for Homecoming 2007. The game starts at 1 p.m.