UMass Football News--November 8th, 2025

 Coach Harasymiak has his weekly press video press conference.

Another piece of bad news as he says LB Timmy Hinspeter is likely out for the season. Hinspeter was among the best of the transfers and a major loss to the already weak Minutemen defense.

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Northern Illinois, next Wednesday's UMass opponent was crushed by Toledo 42-3 in their last game.  

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NIU's weekly press conference for the UMass game. 

No game notes from the Huskies yet. 

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Vegas odds for the MAC conference championship. UMass of course, is already eliminated.

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UMass Football News--November 7th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has a video of Thorr Bjorn's introductory press conference.

It's well worth watching. It appears Coach Harasymiak and Thorr know each other and that bodes well for a good match in going forward. At least there will be no edging towards a coaching change immediately.  

I'd be happy with Bjorn in charge of the whole athletic dept. Besides football, I'm also a fan of hoops. McGuirk's deficiencies come up often with regards to football, but what is basketball's problems? Mullins is a better facility than most of the A10 teams had. Why couldn't we contend for the A10 title once in a while?

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The Athol Daily News reports Thorr Bjorn introduced and will advise Ryan Bamford.

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass hires Thorr Bjorn to lead the football program.

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Saturday Down South has a post UMass DB Brennan Baily getting sent to the locker room after drawing a unsportsmanlike-like penalty in the Akron game. 

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OT but the Minutewomen are in the MAC field hockey championship game. 

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UMass Football News--November 6th, 2025

 Maybe a ray of hope..

Thorr Bjorn joins UMass as Senior Deputy Athletic Director. 

The Daily Collegian report UMass hires Thorr Bjorn to lead the football program. 

The Greenfield Recorder says the UMass football program gets a new leader. 

Hustle Belt reports UMass hires Thorr Bjorn and retains Ryan Bamford. 

Back in the day, I had several conversations with Bjorn. Back then, the annual UMass football banquet was open to the public and I sat with him at least a couple times. Bjorn was highly thought of when he was at UMass and he was very successful at AD at Rhode Island.

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Meanwhile, back in the hell of the current season, Hustle Belt ranks the four most bizarre fumbles in the UMass-Akron game.

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With three games to go, four MAC teams are in the lead for the conference championship. 

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UMass Football News--November 5th, 2025

 Well UMass was blown out by Akron. Probably the most dominate win in the last decade by the Zips.

The UMass offense continued their history of being awful. Besides only scoring 10 points, there were two fumbles that led to Akron TD's. If this is not the worst offense in UMass history, it's pretty damn close. 

The Minuteman pass defense continued to leak like a sieve.  Like other opponents, Akron threw over the top at will. The Zips scoring drives were typically fast, around 3 minutes. 

Special teams were the only bright spot for UMass Keegan Andrews punted 6 times for 276 yards. With three games to go, Andrews has the highest average career yards/punt at 46.68 (current holder Brett Arnold 45.2 yards/punt in 2008). He also currently has 2,754 yards for the season and an average of 306 yards a game. If he keeps that up he will finish up with 3672 punting yards, which will shatter the current UMass record of 3116 yards (George Georgopoulos 3,116 yards in 2016).

Derek Morris broke his own record of the longest field goal in UMass history with a 55-yard kick. Morris is easily on the Minuteman All-FBS team..

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UMass write-up here. 

Akron write-up here. 

Minuteman Command reports UMass suffers another loss.

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Game Day--Akron 2025

 

The Zips are 3-6 overall in 2025. They are solidly in the bottom half of the conference. Akron and Ball State seem to be the two remaining chances for the Minutemen to get a victory. Then again, I printed out the UMass game notes and we still have many starters out. 

Akron is #112 in total offense at 225.0 yards/game. They are #123 in scoring offense at 18.2 points/game. UMass' defense should be competitive with the Zips offense. 

However, UMass is dead last in FBS in total offense and scoring offense. The Zips will win if we score 10 points.

It'll be on national TV and I'll be watching and cheering for the Maroon & White.

Go UMass!!

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Covers.com says UMass won't win and they won't cover the 10.5 point spread.

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Hustle Belt has their Monday MAC musings. 

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College Football News predicts Akron 30 UMass 16.

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The game time for the UMass-Northern Illinois game on November 12th will be 7:00pm EST. 

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Bleacher Nation says take the Zips to cover the 10.5 point spread.

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Bowling Green , which is #126 in total offense in FBS , fired their offensive coordinator.  UMass should not fire Mike Bajakian as he has nothing to work with. The UMass offense is nearly devoid of FBS level talent. In fact, the Minutemen offense is a pretty poor FCS offense. We scored 26 points on a 2-7 Bryant team. The Campbell Camels scored 50 points on Bryant..

In the off season, the UMass offense needs a major transplant of talent on the OL, wide receivers and running backs. 

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UPDATE:

CBS Sports model predicts UMass has a 38% win chance. 

College Sports Wire predicts Akron 31 UMass 16.

Pro Football  Network predicts Akron 30 UMass 14.

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UPDATE II: 4:30 PM

Hustle Belt previews UMass at Akron. 

Hustle Belt has ten things you should know at the start of November mid-week MACtion.

The NY Post thinks Akron will cover the 10.5 point spread. 

HERO Sports says the Zips will win by 14+ 

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Last night after I came upstairs from watching UMass lose to Marshall, Mrs Blog asked how it went.

I said, "They lost."

She said, Well, someday you'll watch a UMass win."

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UMass Football News--November 3rd, 2025

 UMass opens as a 10.5 underdog to Akron.

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The Greenfield Recorder report UMass prepares for a prime time clash with Akron. 

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Bleacher Nation thinks UMass will cover the spread.

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Sports Book has more odds stats, but doesn't pick a winner.

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Buffalo ILB Red Murdock sets an all-time FBS forced fumble record.

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UMass is still dead last in the USA Today FBS rankings, behind winless Sam Houston State.

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Sporting News reports just five Group-of-Five teams are still in contention for the CFP slot.

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UMass Football News--November 2nd, 2024

 Gee, it's strange that I don't have fire up my computer on a Sunday morning and try to say something positive about another loss..

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass heads to Akron for a Tuesday "MACtion" game. 

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Temple was 5-3 going into yesterday and looking to  be bowl eligible. Instead, they were thumped by East Carolina 45-14 on their home field. 

Bryant fell to 2-7 after being defeated by Monmouth 35-7. 

Iowa had a bye.

Missouri had a bye.

Western Michigan rallied to a thrilling win over Central Michigan. 

Kent State plays Wednesday against Ball State.

Buffalo handled Bowling Green 28-7.

Northern Illinois plays Toledo on Wednesday.

Ohio plays MAC-leading Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday.

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UConn crushed UAB 38-19 to be bowl eligible with three games yet to play. 

Boston College made a game of it against Notre Dame trailing 12-10 into the fourth quarter before falling 25-10. 

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