Hyacinth has a Power Four offer from Syracuse. Delaware, East Carolina and Temple have offered from the Group-of-Five. Coach Harasymiak is a defensive guy and Chase could find a home and some early playing time with the Minutemen.
Fry has FBS offers from Army and Navy. Buffalo and Eastern Michigan have offered from the MAC. He also has offers from several Ivies and Fordham. He could play FBS-level football and also get a high quality education in Amherst with the UMass Minutemen.
Rotondo has FBS offers from all three Service Academies. Harvard, Penn, Yale, Dartmouth and Colgate have offered from FCS. He could get an excellent education and play FBS-level football with the Minutemen in Amherst.
UMass is the first offer for Hinspeter. He's drawing interest from Delaware and JMU. Coach Harasymiak is a defensive guy. Hinspeter could thrive in his system.
The Minuteman run game was a train wreck last year. UMass was #131 out of #134 teams in rushing offense. The Minutemen averaged only 82.4 yards/game. 127 of the 134 FBS teams averaged 100 yards or better. Kimmonds has good size at 220 pounds and hopefully he will be part of a much improved UMass rushing attack.
At 6-1 Johnson has the frame to grow. In college, he could play either way. He could find a home and play FBS-level football in the reviving Minuteman program.
As a Freshman, Chevalier already has Power Four offers from Michigan, Maryland and Missouri. UMass, UConn, Colorado State and UNLV have offered from the Group-of-Five. In Amherst, he would have the chance to be the featured RB and receive an excellent education.
New OC Max Warner talks about Spring practice. I think he'll have more talent to work with than in 2025. The QB room and the WR's look to be much improved. I think the jury is still out on running backs and offensive line.
Charles is an up-and-coming athlete who is likely to be a talented recruit by the time he's a senior. UMass is his first offer. He could keep the Springfield-to-UMass pipeline going and play in front of friends and family in Amherst.
Last year went 56-805 14 TD's and 1,400 all-purpose yards.
He has good size for a skills player and could play either side of the ball. Brady has an offer from Georgetown and is receiving interest from most of the Ivies. He could play FBS-level football in Amherst and get an excellent education too.
Tripp has a big frame and could play on either side of the ball. He can develop his craft, earn a scholarship and play FBS football with the Minutemen.
Don't think the courts are going to go along with this one.
Now that there is NIL, the players are basically employees of the school. Suppose a player in is an educational program at a university and is playing on the team. The player wants to continue to play and the coaching staff wants to keep him on the roster. Can the NCAA (or anyone else) tell him he cannot continue to use his skills? Isn't that restraint of free trade or something? Five years of eligibility is totally arbitrary..
UMass DC Jared Keyes gives an update on the UMass defense at the start of Spring Ball. I recently re-watched the Missouri and Iowa games from last year. We were actually pretty competitive on defense. The downfall was being run over by the bottom of the MAC. The Minuteman defense was not FBS level in any unit. With a lot of new transfers, I hope we can improve.
New UMass QB Pop Watson talks about joining the Minutemen. We all hope Watson takes the reins of the program and absolutely runs away with it. Another year of swapping out three QB's would be very discouraging.
Hardy has a Power Four offer from Syracuse. Temple, UConn and Kent State have offered from Group-of-Five. Hardy would be a good fit in the new UMass offense and get an excellent East-Coast education to boot.
Harris is an agile big man in the middle and could be a valuable addition to the rebuilding UMass defense. He could find a home with the Minutemen in Amherst.
Besides UMass, Rust has offers from Appalachian State, Florida Atlantic and Georgia State. He could get an excellent East Coast education and join a resurgent Minuteman team in Amherst.
Martin appears in a post-practice video press meeting.
The center of the UMass defense was almost decent last year before Timmy Hinspeter went down. He was leading the MAC in tackles at that time.
I'm optimistic about the LB room for 2026. Besides the returning veterans Martin and Hinspeter UMass added Khari Bendolph, Joshua Iseah and Kendric Council. The last two were productive players at their previous schools.
STAR Michael Robinson II is a senior transfer from Rutgers and will probably function as a Safety/OLB.
Redshirt Freshman Dinos Drossos is one of the highest rated recruits UMass has signed. He should see some playing time is 2026. All-in-all, I think the 2026 LB room is maybe the deepest unit on the team.
Defensive coordinator Jared Keyte should have enough talent to play some defensive packages and have a more aggressive defense this year. The middle of the defense could be a strength in 2026.
Harding's injury last year caused the wheels to come off the Minutemen's passing game.
The stats from the WR room were brutal.
Opponents had 29 passing TD's. UMass had 8.
Five of the eights TD's were by UMass TE's (as was the season's longest reception)
Our leading receivers last year:
Jacquon Gibson 63-616 ZERO TD'S
Donnie Gray 27-260 ZERO TD'S
This year Harding, plus Wisconsin transfer Joe Griffin and Devin Matthews should give us far more offensive firepower. I also like true freshman Kai Owens. He's one of the highest rated recruits ever to sign with UMass. He may be too good to redshirt.
If you are looking for something to watch, some sports networks replay the NCAA tournament basketball games. I think the game of the playoffs so far is the St. John's-Kansas game.
The first half was ragged, but the second half was magic. It's worth watching. Far better than Celebrity Survivor Chef or the other crap the networks are turning out..
Well Saturday was the Vernal Equinox. Each Spring is a new beginning. UMass football starts the 2026 season tomorrow. The Minutemen return 50 players from last year and 29 new players join the roster. This should give the coaches a good knowledge of the talent level at the end of Spring practice.
Wagner is drawing interest from a number of New England schools. The offensive line leads the way and Wagner could be a valuable addition to the UMass roster.
UMass is the first offer for Muldoon. He should be drawing quite a bit of recruiting interest over the next three years. He could play in front of friends and family in Amherst and play FBS football to boot.
MaxPreps has some impressive stats. In 15 games Sweeney threw for over 4,000 yards and rushed for 1,000 more.
Sweeney has offers from North Texas, UTSA, Colorado State, San Diego State, UNLV and UTEP. He could get a high-quality education and play for the resurgent UMass offense in Amherst.
Frederick has 11 total offers including Buffalo and Toledo from the MAC. Most of the Ivies have offered from FCS. He could play FBS football and get Ivy equivalent education with Massachusetts Flagship university.
This is an excellent addition for UMass. Dalessandro has played in 31 games and started 17. He should compete for one of the starting guard positions right away. If not, he would probably be the #1 backup for all three interior line positions.
Santibanez has 16 offers fairly evenly split between Power Four and Group-of-Five. Boston College, Cincinnati, Maryland and North Carolina have offered. Coastal Carolina, Charlotte, Delaware and Liberty have offered from the Group-of-Five. He could get and excellent East Coast education and play in the MAC with the Minutemen.
Anderson has offers from Syracuse, Toledo, Temple, UTSA and Colorado State. He could play close to home and be part of the new UMass offense in Amherst, MA
UMass is the first D1 offer for Johnstone. He put up some serious stats as a sophomore. Johnstone has a high potential and he could reach it with the Minutemen in Amherst.
UMass is the first D1 offer for Wise. He has drawn interest from Syracuse and Temple. He could join the resurgent Minuteman program and get an excellent education in Amherst.
The Power Four conferences want more of their teams in the playoffs, but a 24 team playoff should have ALL THE CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS, including the Group-of-Five. That would still give the Power Four fifteen additional slots.
LaRosa has 22 offers pretty evenly split between Power Four schools and Group-of-Five. UCLA, Tennessee, Georgia Tech and Kansas are some of his Power Four offers. Appalachian State, Liberty, Western Kentucky and JMU are representative of Group-of-Five. UMass is his only offer from the MAC. He could get an excellent education and a chance to start early in Amherst.
He had 15 career starts and 32 games played for Colgate. Gave up zero sacks on 457 passing plays in 2025. The UMass offensive line is one unit that could use some additional players from the transfer portal. Dalessandro could be an instant starter and potentially play in 11 FBS games (counting the extra game against Hawaii).
This article from December of 2024 features Martin.
Martin has offers from most of the Ivies. He has FBS offers from Army, Navy and UMass. He could play FBS-level football and get an Ivy-equivalent education in Amherst.
Rawls has a pro-sized frame and UMass appears to be his first FBS offer. He could hone his talent and get an excellent education with the Minutemen in Amherst.
MaxPreps has stats. In 2025 Davis went 145-674 4.6 AVE 41 LONG 21 TD's.
Besides UMass, Davis has offers from Kent State, Miami (Ohio) and Toledo. He could find a home in Amherst and get a great East Coast education as well.
Except for 2025, kicking has been a thorn in the side of UMass football fans since the move to FBS. We wish Bemant a highly productive career--and a scholarship with the Minutemen!
There are some interesting names in the article: UConn and Liberty are powerhouse athletic programs. South Dakota State has a flood of Permian Basin oil money. Western Kentucky has a basketball program all UMass fans could envy.
Barnes had multiple offers back in 2024 including MAC teams Kent State and Akron. The Minutemen need defensive improvement and Barnes should have a wide open chance to earn a scholarship and make an impact in Amherst.
MaxPreps has stats. In his senior season Simmonds went 27-427 17.1 AVE 5 TD's receiving. Also rushed for 24-388 16.2 AVE and 2 TD's.
UMass needs offensive talent and Simmonds should be in a place where he can develop and earn a scholarship. It will be interesting to follow his career with the Minutemen.
UMass needs offensive linemen and has an excellent weight-training and performance facility. McGrath has a pro-sized frame and should have a great opportunity to develop a and earn a scholarship.