 |
| MIT running back Justin Wallace. Photo by David Silverman. |
Ed. Note- Pardon me as dig back into my personal archives. While a graduate student at Boston University I did some side work as a play-by-play announcer for the MIT Engineer football team. I used that access to write my final piece in SB Nation NBA guru Paul Flannery's class about MIT's brave new vision for building a Division III football power.
Well, that vision finally became a reality last Saturday as MIT defeated Maine Maritime to capture its first ever New England Football Conference championship, as well as the first playoff berth in school history.
Here is my original story (which earned me an A-, if I'm not mistaken), and I think it offers some unique insight into how this season's undefeated MIT squad came to be. In the piece I focus on a serious freshman named Justin Wallace, who this past weekend set the school record for rushing yards and remains the driving force behind the Engineers' amazing turnaround.
Clearly, coach Chad Martinovich's recruiting strategy is working quite well.
MIT still has one more regular season game, this Saturday against U.S. Coast Guard Academy, before the Engineers make history in the first round of the NCAA tournament the following weekend.
It’s All Relative for MIT Football
By Joe Parello
Thanks to harsh conditions brought on by a late October snowstorm, Steinbrenner stadium, home of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Engineers, was hammered with a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain so thick that you couldn’t see their opponents from Nichols College on the opposite sideline. The Engineers rode the future of their program, freshman running back Justin Wallace, for 41 carries, resulting in 190 yards and three touchdowns in a 23-0 victory, their only conference win of the year. The effort earned Wallace New England Football Conference (NEFC) Freshman of the Week honors.
