UMass Football News--September 17th, 2026

 

Stonehill has their game notes for UMass up.

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The Minuteman Command has a post on the return of Jordan Washington. 

Washington's UMass bio. 

Washington's availability adds another weapon to the UMass offense. The Minutemen are a bad-weather team and one third of the season's games are in November. League championships are won in the cold and dark of that month. This year the last four games of the season are Ball state, @Toledo, Akron and @ Bowling Green. Except for Toledo, three of those games are winnable without being an upset. Run the damm ball.

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ESPN has UMass out of the bottom ten.

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Next week's opponent (and first league game) is Sacramento State. The MAC blog "By-the-Belt" looks at Sacramento State's Saturday game with North Dakota State.

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Will Toledo be a solid favorite over UMass in November? Saturday's game between the Rockets and Temple should be informative.  

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UMass Football News--September 16th, 2026

The Minuteman Command says as UMass keeps winning, Coach Harasymiak keeps raising the standard.

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 T.Y. Harding is one of UMass' student ahtletes-of-the-week.

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The MAC Conference is moving to a nine-game conference slate in 2027. 

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The Greenfield Recorder reports UMass to host second straight FCS opponent.

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ESPN's Week #2 projected bowl games has UMass vs Old Dominion in the Puerto Rico Bowl. 

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UMass is -33.5 against the Stonehill Skyhawks in Vegas odds.

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 T.Y. Harding is the Comeback player-of-the-week.

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The Athletic has a post about Boston College's life at the bottom of college football's spending leaderboard.

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UMass Football News--September 15th, 2026

 UMass' game notes for Stonehill are up.

Stonehill's game notes for UMass aren't up yet, But Stonehill QB Jack O'Connell just won his second straight NEC conference offensive-player-of-the-week award.

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 T.Y. Harding wins the MAC conference Special Teams player-of-the-week. Who else?

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 Coach Harasymiak's press conference for the Stonehill game.

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The MAC blog "By-the-Belt" covers last weekend's results for all the MAC teams.

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WAMC reports UMass celebrates its second win of 2026. 

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UMass Football News--September 14th, 2026

 Keeping the trivia questions going: when was the last time UMass opened its season with three straight wins? Answer at the end of this blog post.

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 Pop Watson and T.Y. Harding at the press conference after the Sacred Hear game.

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Amazin' stats:

Pop Watson is #2 in FBS in pass completion percentage! 

Pop Watson is #5 in FBS in pass efficiency! 

UMass is #45 in FBS in points scored per game! No longer dead last. 

UMass is #35 in FBS in run defense! Holy crap! We're good things on both sides of the ball.

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The Hampshire Gazette reports UMass moves to 2-0 with a dominate win over Sacred Heart.

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UMass' win over Sacred Heart caused it to drop four slots in ESPN's power rankings.

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Answer to trivia question: The last time UMass opened its season with three straight wins was 2007. The Minutemen under Coach Brown beat Holy Cross 40-30, Colgate 35-17 and Towson 38-7---and then beat Maine 38-7 on the way to the FCS Quarterfinals. UMass was CAA Champions that year also.

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UMass Football News--September 13th, 2026

 Well UMass set an FBS record of two season opening wins before a crowd of almost 15,000. Ty Harding was the star of the show with 141 return yards and 2 TD's. Pop Watson went 9-10 152 a and 1 TD.

It was 37-0 in the third quarter and from then on, UMass emptied the bench. If I counted right, the Minutemen played 29 players on defense. Sacred Heart's only TD came against UMass' deep defense bench.

Aedan McCarthy came in as the #2 QB in the third quarter and looked like a true freshman, however he was working with mostly 2nd string offensive players.

It was a dominating win by the Minutemen. It's been a long time since UMass has played a game that was under control from the start.

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Dylan Podlinski image

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UPDATE: Coach Harasymiak's post-game press conference.

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The UMass website says the Minutemen ran away from Sacred Heart. 

The Pioneers website reports Sacred Heart battled on the road. 

MassLive.com says UMass sprinted past Sacred Heart. 

 The Daily Collegian reports UMass pioneered past Sacred Heart.

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Rutgers lost Friday.

Stonehill rang up an astonishing 514 offensive yards but fell to New Hampshire 42-35. 

Fresno State crushed Sacramento State 49-3.

Eastern Michigan lost to Big10 Michigan State 35-7.

Miami (Ohio) blew out Holy Cross 45-7. 

Buffalo lost to FIU 33-20. 

UConn had an eight-game home winning streak broken with a 38-14 loss to Maryland. 

Ball State won 41-17 over Stony Brook. 

Toledo crushed Central Connecticut 63-10. 

Akron thumped Robert Morris 45-10. 

Bowling Green met a different class of opponent and lost to Nebraska 56-7.

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Game Day-- Sacred Heart 2026

 Well, (and I can't really remember when I said this last) Sacred Heart is a team UMass should be able to handle.

The Minutemen are flat bigger than the Pioneers. Sacred Heart's starting LG is Ben Mercado 6-2 288, C is Christian Blackwell 6-1 269, RG is Justin Sokol 6-0 264.

On defense, they apparently play a 3-4. The Pioneer three down linemen are DE Janier Armstead 6-2 267, NT Jared Hirschfield 6-4 280, and DT Jaylin Johnson 6-4 265.

 UMass should have a big advantage in size on both lines. If we can continue to run the ball, Pop Watson should be able to pass efficiently.  The Minutemen have not opened with two wins in the FBS era. So another milestone is available today.

I'll be there, cheering for the Minutemen.

Go UMass!!

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Yahoo Sports predicts UMass 42 Sacred Heart 20.

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The MAC Blog "By-the-Belt" previews a Saturday when most MAC teams play a FCS team. 

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By-the-Belt also has UMass up to #4 in their conference power rankings. Highest ever?

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The Dayton News says Dayton native Derek Morris played a big part in UMass' upset of Rutgers.

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Edward Phillipson is MAC's Scholar Athlete of the week.

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Rutgers lost last evening to Boston College  

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UMass Football News--September 11th, 2026

That's Pioneer WR Dean Hangey 6-0 190 with the catch. Against Monmouth, Hangey had 110 receiving yards and 2 TD's.

 Sacred Heart reports they're ready for their FBS challange at UMass.

Pioneers' game notes for the Minutemen. 

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass hosts Sacred Heart at McGuirk on Saturday.

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The Minuteman Command says UMass coach Harasymiak embraces attention, not Gatorade.

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UMass is a 24.5 favorite over Sacred Heart. 

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Sports Illustrated has a CFP eliminator report after Week #1.  UMass knocks out Rutgers; Minutemen are still alive.

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The MAC conference plays eight FCS teams this weekend and the MAC blog "By-the-Belt" covers all eight matchups.

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