UMass Football News--April 4th, 2026

 The new MAC blog "By the Belt" has a report from UMass' Pro Day.

UMass LS Jovani Borbon 5-8 220 , on the NFL bench press standard did 26 reps! That's better than a lot of 300 pound linemen.

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Pop Watson says he thrives on pressure. 

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 TJ Magee speaks to the press after last week's practice.

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An Executive order limits college football players to five years of eligibility and one transfer. 

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..

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UMass Football News--April 3rd, 2026

 

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.

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 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.

The Greenfield Recorder says Pop Watson seeks to transform the UMass program. 

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 Myles Donato of the Daily Collegian reflects on the opening week of Spring camp. 

The Collegian looks at 10 transfer additions to the UMass offense.

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If you missed it, UConn brought in 56 transfers, 35 of them three stars. 

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UMass Football Recruiting 2028--Brandon Hardy

Daniel Mears image

 Brandon Hardy, a 6-1 180 pound WR/Athlete from Orchard Lake, MI has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

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. 

UMass Football Recruiting 2026--Jaylen Harris

 Jaylen Harris, a 6-3 315 pound NT transfer portal recruit has a UMass offer.

Central Missouri State bio here. 

Video highlights here. 

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. 

UMass Football Recruiting 2026--Logan Inagawa transfers to UMass

 

Logan Inagawa, a 5-10 205 pound dual-threat QB transfer from Drake University has committed to UMass.

Bulldogs bio here. 

In 2025 Inagawa went 11 GP 129-190- 1393 4 INT  9 TD 68% passing. Rushing 11 GP 127-398 9 TD 37 LONG. 1796 total yards.

He should be a solid addition to the QB room and I hope he has a great career at UMass. 

UMass Football Recruiting 2027--Kingston Rust

 

"X" image

 

Kingston Rust, a 6-2 205 pound QB from Hialeah, FL has a UMass offer.

247Sports page here. 

Hudl.com has video highlights. 

This article from April 2025 features Rust. 

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. 

UMass Football News--March 28th, 2026

 The Minuteman Command has a post on senior LB Tyler Martin.

 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.

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Former UMass players Ta'Rei Powell, Ellis Merryweather and Macklin Ayers will suit up for the UFL. 

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