Jim Pallante has been in the concrete industry for 37 back-breaking years and has watched hundreds of workers come and go. One of them was introduced as Maryland’s head football coach on Thursday.
D.J. Durkin started working concrete jobs under Pallante in Youngstown, Ohio at age 14. While molding sidewalks, Durkin forged a working-class mentality that he hopes to spread within Maryland’s program.
Pallante, who also coached Durkin at Boardman High School in Youngstown, traveled to College Park on Thursday to watch his former understudy formally accept his first head coaching job and become one of the richest people employed by the state of Maryland.