HARTFORD, Conn. — Meet young Matt Allen, America's winning-streak crasher.
He won his last 31 high school games as a member of Oaks Christian in Westlake Village -- recording eight solo tackles in last year's Southern Section Division XI title game -- and was in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 4 when Texas halted USC's march at 34.
USC's setback sent the streak down the laundry chute to Trinity, a small liberal arts college that started playing football in 1877.
Allen was so excited that USC came up short, he bought a long-sleeved Texas sweatshirt.
No wonder.
Allen is sitting in his head coach's office as he tells this story over the noise of squash balls being whacked into adjacent walls.
Allen is now a freshman linebacker ... at Trinity, which recorded its 31st consecutive victory last week against Colby and takes "The Streak" on the road today to rival Williams College.
"I wouldn't know how to deal with it," Allen jokes about the prospect of losing.
Allen remembers distinctly the day he received his first recruiting letter from Trinity.
"Dad, throw it away," Allen says he told his father.
Jimmy Clausen, Allen's teammate at Oaks Christian, has committed to Notre Dame. Tailback Marc Tyler, son of Wendell, is headed to USC.
Even Bill Redell, Allen's high school coach, questioned Allen's application decision.
Allen was not a major-college prospect, but what was wrong with UC Davis?
"He kept saying, 'Are you sure?' " Allen says. "He didn't want to let it go. I said, 'Trust me, I've found this school.' I like the feeling I get when I'm here. I knew this was kind of like the place for me. And it's good football."
That's if you consider good one losing season since 1979 and a 502-337-42 record since the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.
It would be a tough adjustment, though, going from a machine-like high school program to a think tank.
Trinity is everything you'd expect at Division III -- and less. Schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) are limited to eight games a season and are not allowed to compete in the NCAA Division III playoffs.
At Miami, winning eight games probably gets Larry Coker fired.
At Trinity, it caps a fourth consecutive perfect season.
"At first I was like, you play eight games?" Allen says. "That's almost half of what I played in high school. But the more I looked at it the more I sort of like it."
