All the buzz surrounding Tufts' Homecoming match with Williams was that if there ever were a year to knock off the Ephmen, then this would be the one.
Williams had been blanked in its last game, a 7-0 home loss to Middlebury. It had lost its top two running backs and had benched its starting quarterback. Williams, it seemed, was not the juggernaut it had been in years past and was a team swirling with confusion instead.
Tufts coach Bill Samko never believed any of that, and, as it turned out on Saturday, he was right. Williams came to Medford and showed that it hasn't really lost a step from years past, and that it doesn't matter who's playing the skill positions - anyone can fill in admirably.
The most admirable of those replacements Saturday was tailback Michael Hackett, a freshman from Rutland, Vermont, who had seen limited action so far this season. Hackett was the third string back, predominantly sitting and watching as seniors Fred Storz and David Kinsley accumulated a combined 110 yards per game.
But the seniors had been watching out for their heir apparent and making sure that he was ready when the time called.
"I was a little nervous before the game," Hackett said. "But those two guys have worked with me a lot on the transition from high school to college. It's a different game."
Hackett made the transition with flying colors, as the freshman, who had gained only 117 yards in his previous three games, easily eclipsed that mark Saturday, rushing for 148 yards and receiving another 56.
So did Williams know it had a diamond in Rutland, Vermont?
"I can't say I'm surprised," said Williams coach Dick Farley. "We recruited him so we knew he was decent. He is much better in person than he is on tape, though."
Hackett may be the real deal, but that doesn't necessarily explain his tearing through a Jumbo defense that had only allowed 65.3 yards per game on the ground, and had shut down much more proven backs.
According to Hackett, it was a combination of his running style and the scheme that allowed him to run that way.
"I'm not the biggest back," Hackett said. "But I try to run hard, I put my head down. This game's 90 percent mental. If you want to get that one yard, you can get it.
"I knew Tufts had a great D-line," he continued. "But their linebackers pursue like crazy, so we ran a lot of cutback plays to use their talent against them."
According to Farley, though, who makes everything seem easy, Hackett just ran the ball and good things happened.
"It wasn't really a design," Farley said, referring to the myriad of cutback runs Hackett had. "That's just how we run. That's how everybody runs."
The best example of both Hackett's ability to get past a hotly pursuing Tufts defense and Farley's ability to downplay his coaching was a screen pass the coach called at the end of the third quarter. With only eight seconds to play in the period and the Ephmen down 10-7, Farley called a timeout after both teams had set up at the line of scrimmage. It seemed, at least from the press box, that some great scheme was about to ensue.
"There wasn't really any strategy in it at all," Farley said after the game. "Our formation was screwed up and we thought we might get a penalty, so we called timeout. Then we just called a screen pass."
Sounds simple enough, but this play was the turning point of the game. The Williams offensive line, which had been pushing Tufts back all game, allowed the Jumbo defense to get to the quarterback. At the last minute, freshman quarterback Joe Reardon lightly lofted the ball over the Tufts defenders, who had just realized they had been duped, into the hands of Hackett. The tailback, who had three offensive linemen clearing the way for him, scampered 48 yards, getting one final block from wide receiver Matt Student, and into the end zone. It marked the last time in the game the Jumbos would hold a lead.
Farley, now 12-0-2 against the Jumbos since coming to Williams in 1987, claims he doesn't have the secret to beating Samko's club, but it seems like everything that he touches turns to gold against Tufts. On Saturday, he discovered a golden tailback, and the worst part about it from a Tufts perspective is that the Jumbos will have to figure out a way to stop him for three more years.
