- Curry College running back Montie Quinn set a new NCAA all-time record by rushing for 522 yards in a single game.
- The senior achieved the record on just 20 carries, averaging 26.1 yards per run and scoring seven touchdowns.
- Despite the historic achievement, Quinn remains focused on leading his team to a successful season.
Less than 10 miles south of Boston, in Milton, Massachusetts., lies Curry College. A Division III private school with roughly 2,000 undergraduate students at a campus that sits on 131-acres, surrounded by a picture-perfect tree setting.
Perfect would be the best way to describe what occurred on campus Saturday, Oct. 18.
At Walter M. Katz Field, 2,500 people witnessed one of the greatest performances in college football history. Curry running back Montie Quinn ran for 522 yards, an NCAA record and the first player to eclipse the 500-yard rushing mark. Quinn led a dominant 71-27 homecoming victory for the Colonels over Nichols.
“I’m just calm and just chill,” Quinn told USA TODAY Sports. “I know I’m a humble person, but like everybody expected me to get excited.
“But the job’s still not finished.”
Montie Quinn’s NCAA record day
Even if Quinn seems pretty nonchalant about his achievement, there’s nothing boring about how he achieved history.
The first sign of greatness came on Curry’s second drive of the game, Quinn broke free for a 64-yard touchdown. After that first score, Quinn said he felt “everything that we wanted in our game was going to click.” The momentum continued as he piled up 217 yards and three scores by halftime.
On Curry’s first play of the second half, Quinn ran for an 84-yard score. The game was starting to get out of hand, but coach Todd Parsons decided not to pull his star, noticing something special was happening.
“In the back of my head, I kind of had it in my mind, but you don’t really realize what’s going on,” Parsons said. “He’s breaking all these long touchdown runs, and you’ve kind of figured he’s gonna hit something.”
After three quarters, Quinn was 30 yards away from the NCAA record of 465, set by Heidelberg’s Cartel Brooks in 2013. So what did Quinn do on his first carry in the final frame? Take it 85 yards to the house. Record broken on his longest run of the day, set on his seventh score of the day. Quinn made history with more than nine minutes left in the game and his day was wrapped up.
The final stat line was 522 yards on just 20 carries – an average of 26.1 yards per run — with seven touchdowns. The Nichols Bison spent much of the day watching No. 1 with the guardian cap running past them with eight rushes over 25 yards.
While it was Quinn’s day, he made sure to shout out his offensive line, noting “everybody did their job correctly” in the blowout victory, with the 71 points scored a school record.
Montie Quinn helping build Curry College
Since celebrating after the victory, it’s been a whirlwind for Quinn and Parsons, spending its Sunday speaking to a flurry of reporters. While this may be the first time anyone has heard of Quinn or Curry College, Parsons wants it to be known this is nothing new from his star running back.
Coming into his senior season, Quinn was already the Curry career rushing leader at 4,435 yards. The 1,652 yards he ran for last season are a school record, which he’ll likely break this season with 1,450 through six games. His 53 career rushing touchdowns are a school record and after Saturday, he’s tied for most career touchdowns in team history.
After three straight losing seasons in his first three campaigns, Quinn has led Curry to a 5-1 start, its most wins since 2017.
“Obviously people are taking notice, and what he did yesterday has never been done before, but he’s been doing this for four years now,” Parsons said. “He’s done a great job of putting himself on the map and helping build this program back up.”
The big day still hasn’t set in for Quinn or Parsons, other than the fact Quinn’s father, Dennis, keeps reminding his son “almost every second of the day” of his accomplishment.
“I feel like soon I’ll take some time and just think about all the stuff that I accomplished,” Quinn said.
Even though it will take time for Parsons to fully realize how special the performance was, he wants it to serve as a reminder anything can be accomplished at any level of college sports. He believes it will help the schools recruitment and prove you don’t need to be a Division I athlete to be special.
“Hopefully, student-athletes kind of see the platform that they can create for themselves at any level and have success,” he said.
It will be hard to top Quinn’s day, but he has his eyes set on a special season, as Curry tries to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008.
“We have a lot more to prove, and everything is just getting started,” Quinn said.
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