UMass Football News--July 31st, 2026

 The Minuteman Command previews the 2026 UMass running backs.

The Minuteman run game was perhaps the biggest bust of the 2025 season. UMass averaged 2.70 yards/run and 81.4 yards a game. 

A great deal of hype is being centered around Pop Watson, but if he's consistently coming up to the line of scrimmage and it's 3rd and seven or eight all the time he's not going to have good stats. It's a good rule of thumb if you can run the ball, you've got a good looking QB.

Last year Rocco Griffin was a bust. He had a good first quarter against Temple and disappeared for the rest of the season. Part of the problem was the offensive line, but still..

With Jordan Washington out for the start of the season,  UMass will lean on Justin Williams-Thomas and Curtis Kimmons. 

I like freshman RB's TK Davis and Justin Lewis. NCAA rules allow a player to play in four games without burning his redshirt and if the running game sputters again, I'd give the two freshmen a shot.

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The MAC Conference blog "By-the-Belt" looks at the declining willingness of Power Four teams to play at MAC venues.

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Sacramento State begins a "fast,violent and physical" fall camp. 

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UMass Football News--July 30th, 2026

 The Minuteman Command reports Coach Harasymiak remains committed to the plan.

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Tyler Martin gets included in the East-West Shriners Bowl 1000.

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Ball State President Geoffrey S. Mearns is named to the College Football Playoff Board of Managers. 

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Sports Illustrated has a post on how Northern Illinois' move to the Mountain West will work out (be sure to watch the the Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion commercial).

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The clock is ticking for a 24-team college football playoff.

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UMass Football News--July 29th, 2026

 The Minuteman Command reports Coach Harasymiak wants a more violent defense in 2026.

Any discussion of the defense needs to be preceded by  how bad the the offense was in 2025. UMass was #128 in time of possession last year. Any defense that's out there the whole game is going to have bad stats.

The Minutemen were #132 in rushing defense. Bad football teams ran the ball successfully against the Minutemen.

UMass was #127 in sacks (13 sacks in 12 games). One of the best pass defense attributes is a pass rush. We did not have one.

The Minutemen were #127 in total defense giving up 433.4 yards/game and 6.32 yards/play. 

We were dead last in scoring defense giving up 38.8 points/game. 

UMass should start a whole new defensive line with Josh Nobles, Zakar Morris, Justin Krueger and William DePaepe being likely starters. The defensive line has the chance to be maybe the most improved unit in 2026.

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HERO Sports previews the 2026 minutemen, and says the Minutemen could win three games.. 

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Arizona State is now offering a degree in being an influencer. Google says the UMass football blog had 14,211 clicks yesterday..

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UMass Football News--July 28th, 2026

 The Minuteman Command has Coach Harasymiak's comments on transfer QB Pop Watson.

Watson needs to stay healthy. In 2023 I watched UMass beat New Mexico State with QB Diego Pavia. Taisun Phommanachanh shined. People on social media were saying "He looks like a SEC quarterback". Phommanachanh got hurt in the very next game and was never again a force on the field. 

Run out of bounds Pop! 

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The MAC conference will have a Week 0 game with Sacramento State at Eastern Michigan.   Unfortunately, the game will only be available on streaming ESPN+.

In 2027, the MAC will get another Week 0 game when Ohio plays West Virginia. 

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The Sacramento Bee has a post on new FBS team Sacramento State and why the MAC wanted the Hornets.

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UMass Football News--July 27th, 2026

 

 WMUA sports has their first podcast of the 2026 season.

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The Toledo Blade has some anonymous comments on  various aspects of the MAC conference after Media Day.

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The Athens Post (Ohio University) has some takeaways from the MAC Media day.

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Toledo, one of the MAC conference's most successful teams, was picked third. Last year's Toledo head coach Jason Candle and a lot of Rockets players have left for UConn. 

The Rockets added Mercer head coach Mike Jacobs, who brought with him a number of Mercer players including FCS Defensive player-of-the-year Andrew Zock.

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Stanford College football players reach a key threshold for unionization. The march towards college pro teams continues..

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UMass Football News--July 25th, 2026

 

Video of Coach Harasymiak, Pop Watson and Tyler Martin at the MAC Media Day.

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A Substack sports writer previews the 2026 Minutemen. 

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 Pop Watson is the key to UMass' offensive rebound in 2026. Through most of the FBS era the Minutemen have struggled to start a FBS-level QB. We did not have one in the Molnar and Bell periods. We had a QB for one game (New Mexico State) during the Don Brown era.

Watson needs to stay healthy for UMass to have a better year.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2027--Sharrod Simmons

 

Sharrod Simmons, a 5-11 185 pound WR/Athlete from Collins Hill HS in Suwanee, Georgia has a UMass offer.

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

Simmonds is a fast and shifty WR/DB. He could be a good fit in the new Minuteman offense. UMass needs playmakers and he could get an excellent education in Amherst. 

UMass Football News--July 23rd, 2026

 UMass picked last in the preseason MAC coaches poll.

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MassLive.com has a post on the Minutemen's last place vote in the coaches poll. 

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The Minuteman Command has preview of the quarterback position for the 2026 season. 

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The Minutemen catch a break with the 2026 schedule. As an Independent, we always seemed to play teams from the top half of the MAC every year. In 2026, UMass does not play Western Michigan or Ohio. The Minutemen are 0-2 all-time against Western Michigan and 0-4 all-time  against Ohio.

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UMass Football News--July 22nd, 2026

 

The UMass podcast interviews Tyler Martin  and Timmy Hinspeter. Two very well-spoken young men.

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Former UMass QB Brandon Rose signs with Utah. 

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Today is the MAC Media day. It's on ESPN+. You also may be able to see it through your cable TV provider.

Instructions here for a number of providers. 

More information about MAC conference media day here. 

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UMass Football News--July 21st, 2026

 

Riley Bloch, a 6-3 295 pound offensive lineman has been nominated to the Allstate Good works team.

More on the Allstate AFCA good works team here. 

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UMass has a history of finishing last in FBS in various categories, but Phil Steele ranks the Minutemen's 2026 schedule last in difficulty.

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This article written in 2023 ranks college football stadiums from 1 to 108 (he hasn't been to all 138 of them including McGuirk). 

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UMass Football Schedule 2026--Sacremento State

 Sacramento State is the newest member of FBS. UMass and the Hornets never met during the Minutemen's seasons in FCS.

Predicting Sacramento State's first season with the MAC is difficult. First, the Hornets received their invite to the MAC after the transfer portal closed. So this team is configured as an FCS independent.  

That's the good news. The bad news is they are probably a good FCS independent. Last year they played in FCS's top league and went 7-5 total and 5-3 in the Big Sky. They lost by three points to FBS Nevada.

However, nearly that entire team is gone. The Hornets return one starter on offense and two starters on defense. There is no need to quote last year's team stats as that team is no longer there.

Athlon Sports names six Hornets to the MAC's preseason All-league team.

On offense, players to watch include QB Carson Conklin. He finished 3rd in 2024 for the Jerry Rice award (Top player in FCS) for the Hornets. He played six games for Fresno State in 2025 and beat Boise State on their home field. He's back with the Hornets this year.

RB Jamar Curtis was a former FCS All-American at Lafayette. Six-Five 222 pound TE  Jordan Williams started for the Hornets last year. WR Matt Coleman joins Sacramento State after playing in 35 games for San Jose State.

 

On defense, 6-2 252 pound DE Xavier Williams is probably Sacramento's best player.

The Hornets return both inside linebackers from last year. Derek Houston and Alex Rocha should make the middle of Sacramento State's defense tough. 

Athlon Sports picks Sacrament State 12th in MAC (ahead of only UMass). Lindys picks them 8th (ahead of Ball State, Kent State, Bowling Green, Akron and UMass).

 We all believe the Minutemen will be better in 2026. The question is, will UMass be improved enough to beat a good FCS team.  

The AI Grok thinks this will be a close game with the Hornets winning 24-20. Grok also thinks both UMass and Sacramento State win totals will be around 3-9 for both teams.

UMass should beat Sacred Heart and Stonehill, so the Sacramento State game will be a chance for a three-game win streak. Do you remember the Minutemen's last three game win streak? (answer at the end of this post).

We should know a lot more about both teams by the time they meet. UMass will be the Hornets fifth game of the season, which will include a season opener at Eastern Michigan. UMass will be on its fourth game after Rutgers and the two FCS teams.

 My guess is this game will be close. It's a chance for a huge morale boost for UMass fans as a win would mean a four or five win season could be possible. I'll say Pop Watson leads Minutemen to their first big win of the Harasymiak era.

Go UMass!

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Answer to the win-streak question: In 2009 UMass beat Albany, Rhode Island and Stony Brook in a row in Kevin Morris' first season as head coach. The Stony Brook win was 09/26/2009. A win at Sacrament State on 09/26/2026 would be a new three game win streak after..

• 6,209 days
• 17 years (exactly)
• 887 weeks. That's brutal :(

 

UMass Football News--July 18th, 2026

 UMass Athletics dept has a post on the upcoming MAC Conference Media Day.

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The MAC blog "By-the-Belt" looks at the licensing and revenue streams for all the MAC schools and finds UMass near the bottom of the group. 

When UMass was in its glory run in basketball, the athletic dept was selling apparel like T-shirts as far away as South Africa.

If UMass could improve in either basketball or football there are a number of large corporations in Massachusetts that might be interested in partnering with UMass athletics.

Per Grok:

  Top Revenue/Scale LeadersTJX Companies (Framingham) — Off-price retail giant (T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, etc.). One of the largest by revenue (~$60B+). 

bizjournals.com

Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham) — Leading life sciences and biotech tools provider. Very large by revenue and employees. 

GE Vernova (Cambridge) — Energy company (spun off from GE; power, wind, electrification). Significant revenue and market presence. 

BJ's Wholesale Club (Marlborough) — Warehouse club retailer. 

Boston Scientific (Marlborough) — Medical devices. 

Other Major CorporationsLiberty Mutual Insurance (Boston) — One of the largest insurers in the U.S.
MassMutual (Springfield) — Major financial services and insurance company.
Fidelity Investments (Boston) — Huge asset manager and financial services firm.
State Street Corporation (Boston) — Global financial services and custody bank.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Boston) — Biotech leader focused on cystic fibrosis and other therapies.
Moderna (Cambridge) — mRNA technology and vaccines.
Biogen (Cambridge) — Biotechnology, neurology-focused.
Keurig Dr Pepper (Burlington) — Beverages.
American Tower (Boston) — Real estate investment trust (cell towers).
Eversource Energy (various, incl. Boston/Springfield) — Utility.
Analog Devices (Wilmington) — Semiconductors.

Notable MentionsThe Kraft Group (Foxborough) — Private; owns New England Patriots, manufacturing/packaging businesses; major local employer. 

Healthcare systems like Mass General Brigham (Somerville) are among the state's largest employers but are nonprofits.

Many companies are concentrated in the Greater Boston area (Boston, Cambridge, Waltham, Framingham, Marlborough), which benefits from proximity to universities, talent, and innovation hubs. Biotech/life sciences and finance are especially strong sectors. 

axios.com

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UMass Football Recruiting 2028--Jayden Bell

 

Jayden Bell, a 6-4 210 pound Edge from Bloomfield Hills, Mi has a UMass offer.

247Sports four-star player. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

This article covers his offer from Michigan. 

Bell has 39 total offers including a Who's Who of Power Four schools. Notre Dame, Alabama, Oregon, Michigan and more have offered. Central Michigan, Bowling Green, Toledo and Miami (Ohio) have offered from the MAC. UMass was one of the first to offer Bell and he would be a featured player and play early with the Minutemen. 

UMass Football News--July 16th, 2026

 The Minuteman Command has an interview with 2027 recruit Charles Turgeon.

Turgeon is being converted to an offensive tackle. He has NFL size and should be a valuable addition to to the O-line room. In the pros, the left OT is often the best paid player on the team. The left offensive tackle is usually on the  quarterback's  blind side and he's charged with keeping the fan-favorite quarterback upright.

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Western Michigan and Delaware schedule a home-and-home series. UMass and Delaware had a long running series from 1958 to 2011. The Blue Hens had a lopsided win total of 25 wins to UMass' 7.

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UMass has announced the 2026 Minuteman Hall-of-Fame class. From football, retired UMass coach Jim Reid and the DiTomasso brothers were honored.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2028--Jayden Evans

 Jayden Evans, a 6-1 170 pound Safety from Hayden Woods, MI has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

This article covers his visit to Michigan State. 

Evans has multiple Power Four offers including Ohio State, Missouri, Washington and Oregon to name a few. Toledo, Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan have offered from the MAC. UConn recently offered. UMass was among his early offers  and he would have a chance to play early with the Minutemen.

UMass Football Recruiting 2028--Deondre Hill

 Deondre Hill, a 6-3 220 pound LB from Bloomfield Hills, MI has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

MaxPreps has some stats (offense only) 

Hill has 18 offers including multiple Power Four schools. Wisconsin, Indiana and Kansas are among those offered. From the MAC,  UMass, Bowling Green and Central Michigan have offered. UConn has recently joined the group interested in Hill. He could get an excellent East Coast education and join the resurgent UMass defense with the Minutemen. 

UMass Football Recruiting 2027--Sa'Nir Brooks

 

Sa''Nir Brooks a 5-11 195 pound RB/Athlete from Baltimore, MD has a UMass offer.

247sports page here. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

Recently de-committed from Syracuse. 

Brooks has 16 offers including multiple Power Four schools. Rutgers and Syracuse have offered from the Northeast. Toledo, Miami (Ohio) and Akron have offered from the MAC. UConn also has offered. Brooks could have a chance for early playing time with the Minutemen in Amherst. 

UMass Football News--July 11th, 2026

 Yahoo Sports has a post on what happens the year after you go 0-12.

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 Most of the pundits are picking Western Michigan to win the MAC. As above, the ESPN FPI thinks Toledo.

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SBN Nation previews the Ball State Cardinals. UMass plays Ball State at home on Nov 4th. 

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EA Sports does a U-turn on College Football 27. 

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Athlon Sports predicts the teams in all of the 2026-27 college football Bowls. UMass is not one of the MAC teams.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2027--Abdul Turay

Bob Adders image

 Abdul Turay, a 5-11 180 pound RB from Jersey City, NJ has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

Turay has Power Four offers from BC, Pitt and Syracuse. Temple, Buffalo, Northern Illinois and UConn have offered from UMass' peer group. He could find a home and early playing time in Amherst with the Minutemen. 

UMass Football News--July 9th, 2026

 Rutgers fan site "On the Banks" previews the Scarlet Knights opener against UMass.

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Another web-based college football site "Walk-On Redshirts" previews the MAC conference. 

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Central Michigan has a post on the MAC conference's July 22nd Media Day at Ford Field. 

ESPN+ will live cover the event 11:00 am to 1:30 pm. 

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Thanks to the blog reader who sent me the heads-up about Jeremiah Telander, who is a senior LB for Tennessee. 

His father Steve Telander was a four-year letter winner for  UMass 1974,1975, 1978, 1979. He was All-Yankee Conference in 1975.

Steve Telander also coached at UMass 1981-85.

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UMass Football News--July 8th, 2026

 

UMass' own Christian McCullum gets interviewed by a Rutgers video podcast.

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The 247Sports Rutgers fan site "Scarlet Nation" has a preview of the Rutgers-UMass season opener.

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Rutgers flips a four-star RB from Penn State to the Scarlet Knights.

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ESPN's Bill Connelly has a capsule comment on each conference including the MAC and a link to a detailed article on each FBS conference.

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UMass Football Recruiting 2027--Charles Turgeon

 

Charles Turgeon a 6-7 255 pound TE from Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, QC, Canada has announced on his Instagram account he's committed to UMass.

I could not find any video or recruiting capsules on the interweb  for Turgeon. He has prototype FBS TE size and should be a great addition to the UMass offense.

UMass 2026 Football Schedule --Stonehill

 The Stonehill Skyhawks went 4-8 in the Northeast Conference last year. They won three conference games. Their best victory was 13-10 win over Maine.

The Skyhawks did it with defense in 2025. In their four wins they held the opposing team to 15 points or less. Stone hill finished 43rd in FCS in total defense. They were 89th in rushing defense, but were 14th in FCS in pass defense.

Stonehill's problem was offense. They finished 124th (out of 126) in total offense and averaged just 15.1 points/game.

Lindy's Football Magazine picks the 2026 Skyhawks last in the Northeast conference. Stonehill is likely to continue to be stout defensively in their league. In 2025 they played Yale (who made a run in the FCS playoffs) and Penn. Yale scored 47 points, but the Skyhawks held Penn to 24. 

 

 Jordan Irvine is a 6-0 190 pound DB. He's one of this year's captains. He went 9 GP 7 GS 36 TT 2 FF and 2 BKUP.

 

The Skyhawks lost their leading tackler to graduation, this year's captain Ma'Hkai Wilson  had 33 TT 1 INT 1 PD. 

 On offense, Stonehill did not do well.

Rushing offense was a problem. Stonehill had 1,138 total yards rushing and only 6 rushing TD's (Note: UMass had 989 total yards rushing and also had 6 rushing TD's).

 

 

Joshua Robinson, a 5-8 185 pound senior is probably the best returning running back. He rushed for 237 yards 1 TD and a 5.6 yards/carry average.

 

Quarterback Jack O'Connell 6-2 190 (from North Andover, MA) makes the Skyhawks go. In 2025 he went 12 GP 194-318 61.0% 6 INTS 15 TD's and a 122.36 EFF.

 Torance Washington, Jr is the top returning WR. He played in 11 games and went 33-248 2 TD's.

 With no offense intended, this is a team that nearly every FBS-level roster should substantially outgun. This game should be an indicator of how much we have improved from 2025. Have we improved from cosmically awful to MAC competitive or just to bad (i.e. something like 2-10)?

I think UMass gets its second win in a row on September 19th, hopefully by a substantial margin.

Go UMass! 

UMass Football Blog -- Fourth of July 2026

 

Mrs Blog and I would like to wish all UMass fans, players and staff a peaceful (and cool) 4th of July.

Today is a day to celibate America. 

I'll be back Monday with a look at Stonehill, who will be UMass' third opponent of the 2026. 

UPDATE: 

 This jpeg is awesome! From Coach Bobby Acosta's "X" feed.

UMass Football News--July 3rd, 2026

 Athlon Sports names nine Minutemen to their preseason All-MAC team

Five UMass defensive players made the team:

• Tyler Martin (1st Team)
•  Joshua Nobles (3rd team)
• Timmy Hinspeter (3rd team)
• Zeraun Daniel (3rd team) 
• Kendall Bournes (4th team)

Four Minuteman offensive players on the team :

• Joseph Griffin Jr (3rd team)
• T.Y. Harding (4th team)
• Max Dowling (4th team)
• Aitor Urionabarrenechea (4th team)

In five seasons with the MAC UMass has had only one third team offensive lineman on the All-MAC team. The Minuteman offensive line was a major issue last year and if Urionabarrenechea and company can make the UMass running game viable, it would be a huge improvement for the offense. 

The tandem of Joseph Griffin and T.Y. Harding should make a significant improvement in the Minuteman passing offense, which was essentially nonexistent last year. Two WR's for Akron (Marcel Williams and Kyan Mason) were major reasons why the Zips went from 2-10 in 2023 to 5-7 in 2025.

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The MAC Blog "By the Belt" has three reasons why Western Michigan could make the college football playoffs. 

The 2026 schedule is somewhat favorable to UMass as we avoid two of the predicted top four teams in the MAC. UMass does not play Western Michigan or run-heavy Central Michigan.

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UMass 2026 Football Schedule--Sacred Heart

 The Sacred Heart Pioneers went 8-4 playing an independent schedule in 2025. They were undefeated at home. They played and lost to FCS powers Montana and Villanova. Sacred Hear beat Norfolk State 31-28.  Rutgers, UMass' first 2026 opponent, beat Norfolk State 60-10.

This year. the Pioneers join the much-changed CAA (now Coastal Conference). JMU, UMass and Delaware have gone FBS, with notable success by Delaware and JMU. Villanova, Richmond and William & Mary left for now more academic-oriented Patriot League. Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire remain from the northern section of the old CAA.

Lindy's picks Sacred Heart 11th in the thirteen team CAA.  

 The Pioneers return 6-0 177 pound Jack Snyder as their QB. He had a good year in 2025 going 11 GP 166-233-1,867 71% 3 INT's 11 TD's. 

 Offensively, Sacred Heart is led by 5-7 155 pound RB Mitchell Summers. He was a 1,000 yard rusher in 2025 going 11 GP 197-1,061 12 TD's. Summers can also catch the ball. He had 9 receptions for 119 yards to go with his running.

Defensively the  Pioneers were 75th in total defense in FCS in 2025. They were 104th in rushing defense. 

 The Pioneer defense was led by the wonderfully-named Maximus Mongelli, a 6-1 195 pound DB. He had 61 TT and 7 BKUP. He was listed as a graduate student on the 2025 roster, but had a redshirt year. Sacred Heart has not posted their 2026 roster yet, so I don't know if he returns.

UMass should be riding a 17 game losing streak when the Minutemen play the Pioneers. This game should be a good indication on the trend of UMass football in 2026.  Last year the Minutemen managed only a meager 101 net yards rushing against Bryant. If UMass wins handily, such as 35-7 then the omens should be positive for 2026. If the Minutemen need some late-game heroics to win 24-21, then it could be another long year in the MAC.

The UMass defense needs to corral the speedy Sacred Heart RB Summers.  QB Snyder's 71% completion average could be trouble if the rebuilt Minutemen defensive line does not develop some pressure.

 I think UMass breaks its loss streak on September 12th. The margin of victory should tell us quite a bit.

Go UMass! 

UMass Football Recruiting 2029--Jacob Reed

 Jacob Reed, a 6-3 300 pound IOL from Wallingford, CT has a UMass offer.

247Sport page here. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

The above video is from the Minuteman Command.

Reed has offers from Duke, Syracuse, Wake Forest, UConn and Rhode Island. He could play close to home and be part of the new UMass offense in Amherst.