Game Day--Stonehill 2026

 The Minuteman Command has "know your opponent --StoneHill".

The Skyhawks are a decent FCS team with an outstanding QB. Jack O'Connell is a fifth-year senior from North Andover, MA. In Stonehill's last game he accounted for 433 yards of offense and 4 TD's all by himself.

I'm sure controlling O'Connell will be a top priority for the Minutemen. Stonehill's defense is only average (they gave up 5.5 yards/rush against New Haven). The best defense against O'Connell is having him on the sidelines watching the UMass offense.

The projected return of RB Jordan Washington for UMass should make a good Minuteman offense even better. I'm excited to watch him run.

This is a game UMass should win. Today they have to go out and do it.

I'll be there cheering for the Minutemen.

Go UMass!

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UMass will have some coveted recruits visiting for the game.

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The MAC blog "By-the-Belt" has UMass ranked fourth in their Week #3 power rankings. 

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MAC Reporter Online previews all of today's MAC conference games including UMass-Stonehill.

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Also we should enjoy the beautiful Fall season..

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UMass Football News--September 18th, 2026

 Christian and Rene reunite over at the Flagship podcast.

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CBS News has Pop Watson in their "Top-20" college football quarterbacks.

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A Wisconsin blog reports the Badgers may be replacing Colorado State with UMass in the 2027 season.  The Minutemen's 2027 schedule is already filled with Stony Brook, @Indiana, @Temple and UConn, so one of those would have to go.

Visiting Camp Randall would be fun! 

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The MAC Blog By-the-Belt previews the UMass-Stonehill game and predicts UMass 42 Stonehill 14.

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The Athletic reports UMass fans are giddy.

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The Daily Collegian says UMass prepares for its second straight FCS opponent.

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UMass game against Sacramento State will start at 6:00 pm local time, so I think that will be 9:00pm EDT..

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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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