ELIZABETH -- They might be the best college football team in the country you've never heard of.

They might be the smartest, as well.

The Massachussetts Institute of Technology football team has yet to lose a game this season, coming off an overtime playoff win over Husson University, following a 9-0 regular season.

One of the team's captains, Brad Goldsberry, currently ranks second on the team in both rushing and receiving yards.

His football playing days started in Elizabeth.

"He was a great kid," says Trudi Goldsberry, Brad's mother. "As a mother, it just makes me feel really good because I know he's doing what makes him happy."

Brad began playing football in the third grade, excelling both on the field and in the classroom.

"He knew his alphabet before he was two years old by sight. I could pick up a letter and he could tell me what letter it was," Trudi says. "Once he got a taste of football in third grade, I knew I lost him to football."

Brad's success in the classroom carried into his time at Elizabeth High School, where he was named valedictorian of his senior class, just months after he and his football team went undefeated as state champions.

But his biggest accomplishment came before graduation, when he was accepted into MIT, where he would also join the football team.

"It was the neatest thing in the whole wide world," Trudi says. "It still just blows my mind that I have a son studying at MIT."

Brad's start in football at a university more known for its Nobel Prize winners did not get off to a good start.

"The football team did not do well his Freshman year," Trudi says.

At 2-7, Brad's freshman year in football would not normally be one to remember, if it wasn't for the fact that it set the team up for its unprecedented success that it has seen this season.

"I mean, we thought it was really cool when they had a winning season," Trudi says. "You know, nobody had ever dreamt that we would get to his senior year and in the regular season go 9-0, get a bid to the playoff games, win the first playoff games."

Win or lose, Trudi says she'll always be proud of what her son's team has already accomplished.

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