Photo courtesy of Bennett Scarborough
Montel Goods, Northwood’s 2015 standout running back, has been lighting up the scoreboard for the Campbell University Camels.
Through five games, he has five rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown. In the Camels’ last game, in which they won 38-0, Goods had 193 rushing yards and accounted for three scores. His 193 yards were the second highest for a Campbell player in its history. This performance earned him the title of FCS National Freshman of the Week by STATS and the Pioneer League’s Offensive Player of the Week.
At Northwood, Goods had 1,885 rushing yards (a Northwood record) along with 22 touchdowns his senior year. These numbers also got him all-area and all-metro and to the North Carolina East-West All-Star game. Against Carrboro in 2015, he tied a NCHSAA single game record with seven touchdowns.
Goods credits his current success to his experience playing for Northwood.
“Northwood, Coach Harrington and the whole staff helped a lot with me developing confidence in myself as a player,” Goods said.
His former high school coach, Brian Harrington, knew this success wouldn’t stop at high school.
“Montel is a great athlete,” Harrington said. “I had no doubt that he would be very good in college. A lot of people didn’t know how hard he worked. He would come over here during the summer, when no one else was around. He would work with me and my son by pulling sleds and lifting weights.”
Goods agrees that his hard work and persistence has gotten him to where he is now.
“[I’ve gotten to this point] through working hard and dedicating myself to get better,” Goods said. “Obviously some of it is natural talent, but that only gets you so far. Most importantly it’s my coaches for recognizing my talent and having confidence in me by giving me chances to show what I can do.”
Campbell is currently 3-2 and is first in the Pioneer division.
“We struggled a little with two of our non-conference games,” Goods said. “Ever since the conference started, we have been winning convincingly and our confidence is at an all-time high.”
Harington is happy to be seeing a former Northwood student doing so well.
“I’m proud of him,” Harrington said. “I knew he would be good, they just needed to give him a chance.”
Goods doesn’t see his success with Campbell as the endpoint to his football career.
“For a long time a goal of mine has been to get to the next level,” Goods said. “I know if I continue to work hard and showcase what I can do, I can achieve that dream.”
– By Tanner Althoff
