UMass Football News--August 1st, 2026

 Minuteman players report tomorrow and Fall camp starts Monday.

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 The WMUA sports team looks at the 2026 UMass defense.

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Central Michigan adds Tennessee and Michigan to their future schedules. 

UMass' schedule takes a step up in difficulty next year when the Minutemen meet Indiana and in 2028 play both Penn State and Colorado on the road.

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Ohio State will earn $17 million and Notre Dame $20 million for jersey patches. Could UMass sell the rights to a Massachusetts company? It would help if we were not totally hopeless on the field.

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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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