By Grant Catuna, Currier Times Staff///

“I remember it was third down and we only had 10 players on the field,” recalls Curry Football’s rookie running back, Montie Quinn, “and when I heard it was a run call I was just thinking, what if I score my first touchdown here. When I saw my offensive lineman make blocks and create the hole, I saw my chance and took it.”

With that touchdown play on September 10th against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Quinn scored his first of many touchdowns at the collegiate level. “It was the best feeling ever, I couldn’t believe it.”

The 5-foot-9 back out of Goose Creek, S.C. discovered his love for the game at the age of 12. “I started off playing flag football until I was 15. Then I played youth football and have been in love with it ever since.”

With his love for the game comes discipline and seriousness which Quinn proved straight out of training camp this past August.

“He was willing to do whatever,” Head Coach Todd Parsons explains. “When he first got here we were debating whether we were gonna put him as a slot receiver or a running back.” With that being said, the coaching staff told Quinn to keep an eye in the playbook as both a receiver and a running back until further notice. “He has a good football IQ and was able to pick things up pretty quickly,” Parsons said.

Through the first nine games of the season, Montie Quinn has amassed 978 rushing yards, 152 receiving yards, and 436 yards from kickoff returns totalling an incredible 1,539 yards. His play thus far puts him fourth in the nation in all-purpose yards while being the only rookie to make the top 30.

From September 19th to October 17th, Quinn was the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Offensive Rookie of the Week for five consecutive weeks. On two separate occasions during this span, he was also named CCC Offensive Player of the
Week.

Quinn’s play this season has left many to question his future and whether he’d stay at Curry. However, Quinn silenced talks about the potential of transferring to another school saying, “No, I haven’t looked at any schools. I love playing for Curry and that’s where I plan on staying.”

With Quinn’s unquestionably great performance in his young career, Coach Parsons doesn’t want people to “forget the guys around him.”

“The offensive line has obviously done a tremendous job,” said Parsons. “And then guys in the skill positions like Gabe DeSouza and Maxx Bell who have had good seasons as receivers. It makes it so that it doesn’t allow people to just key in on just him.”

Quinn reflected the same sentiment saying, “My biggest strength on the field is my whole offense. They push me to do better no matter what, especially my offensive line.”

Athletic Director and former Assistant Football Coach, Vincent Eruzione, agrees that a team’s synergy is most important to winning games. However, Quinn’s early success excites Eruzione as he compares him to all-time rushing leader at Curry, Raphael Zammit.

“It’s funny, somebody asked me about Montie the other day and I said he reminds me of Raphael a lot,” Eruzione says. “He may have the opportunity to break a lot of those records.”

In comparison to other running backs he’s coached in the past, Parsons says “I don’t know if I’ve ever coached one that was quite as fast.” Parsons adds, “I’ve definitely coached a lot of really good running backs who were multidimensional, and he brings that to the table being able to catch the ball out of the back field. But, I don’t know anyone who’s had the same open-field speed as him.”

With such a quick and dominant style of play, it makes perfect sense that Quinn’s favorite player growing up was Pro Football Hall of Famer, Barry Sanders. “He made the game of football fun,” Quinn exclaims, “he made his opponents look silly
on the field because of his amazing juke moves.”

Now, Quinn is playing football at the same position as his favorite player — and like his favorite player, he’s making an impact. When asked about his ultimate goal for football, Quinn replied, “My goal is to make it to the NFL or somewhere I could play football just to make my family proud. I already do but I wanna make them happier than ever.”

Curry’s final game of the season is this Saturday, November 12th at Nichols College where Quinn and the team hope to close out their season with a win.