UMass Football News--September 8th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command says there is no excuse for the loss to Bryant.

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass drops it's second consecutive game in a loss to Bryant. 

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The Providence Journal says Bryant stuns UMass .

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Hustle Belt reports small issues snowballed into a disastrous loss for the Minutemen.

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DraftKings.com has UMass 33.5 point underdogs to Iowa. 

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Hawk Central.com says Iowa's passing game sucks.

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MISERY LOVES COMPANY DEPT

Eastern Michigan loses to FCS Long Island University.  That was the Sharks first FBS win.

I had been meaning to do a short preview of New England's other two FBS teams UConn and BC, but never got around to it.

Boston College has been a .500 team for a number of years and now with the addition of ex-PAC 10 teams the Eagles seem headed for the bottom third of the expanded ACC. Athlon had them 12th preseason and Lindy's 13th. 

BC blew out Fordham and just lost to Michigan State (they beat the Spartans last year). So now BC needs to go 5-5 in their remaining games to be bowl eligible. They should have a good shot at ACC bottom feeders Stanford and Cal. That would be three wins. However their remaining opponents Pitt, Clemson, UConn, Louisville, Notre Dame, SMU, Georgia Tech and Syracuse all had winning records in 2024. And the Eagles did not play Clemson or Notre Dame in 2024. Could be a long year at the Heights..

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UMass Football News--September 7th, 2025

Well UMass has completely flipped the switch on special teams. Derek Morris executed a perfect program-record pressure should-have-won-the-game-kick. We've never had that kind execution in the kicking game in the FBS era.

Keegan Andrews continued his All-America run with five punts for 44.6 yards/punt and he put all five inside the 20 yard line.

Marcus Lye averaged 64.7 yards/kickoff. 

But the rest of the evening was flat out bad. The UMass offense has had three TD's in two games. A 10.5 points/game will not win many contests. A first down in UMass' last possession would have won the game.

UMass has not been able to run the ball. We had 101 yards and a 2.9 yards/rush against a FCS team.

The Minuteman pass defense was horrid. UMass gave up 318 yards passing and 14.5 yards a completion. The bulldogs easily moved the length of the field in under two minutes to kick the winning field goal.  

I believe the reforms will eventually kick in but, for UMass fans, it appears 2025 will be another season in purgatory.

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UMass write-up here. 

Bryant write-up here. 

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The Minuteman command said it was embarrassing. 

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The Hampshire Gazette said it was rock bottom.

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Ohio knocks off Power Four West Virginia. 

Toledo beat WKU. 

Western Michigan lost in overtime to a field goal. 

Temple won their FCS game 55-7. 

Iowa lost their rivalry game with Iowa State 16-13. 

Missouri rang up nearly 600 yards of offense and beat Kansas 42-31. 

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Game Day Bryant--2025

 

The weather looks bad with possible lighting delays. UMass really needs this game and needs to play well.

A loss to a FCS program would send the program into a major tailspin. Several MAC teams including Kent State and Northern Illinois came close to losing to an FCS team last week.

After cataract operations on both eyes, I do not see well at night and dark wet roads are particularly difficult, so I have to sit this one out and watch it on ESPN+.

 I'll be cheering for the Minutemen. Go UMass!

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The Minuteman Command has an interview with Jacquon Gibson. He was the star of the first game and it would be great for him to have a break out season. Having a WR have a 1,000 yard season would be a real boost for the program.

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Bryant actually has their game notes up.

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The Hampshire Gazette reports UMass remains optimistic despite the opening game drubbing from Temple. 

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Also today on TV :

Click on any image and Blogger displays a larger view. 

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Hustle Belt has a post on the competition for the bottom of the MAC.  The leading contender for position (according the author): UMass.

They also preview all the MAC-FCS games this weekend. 

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Watched NIU lose to Maryland last night in a slow defensive struggle. 

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UMass Football News--September 5th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has a video breakdown of UMass QB Brandon Rose's first game as a Minuteman.

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 Still no game notes from Bryant as of 6:50 am today. They need to pay that intern more..

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MAC teams continue their OOC schedule this week.

Bowling Green plays Cincinnati. 

Ball State gets Auburn. 

Toledo plays Western Kentucky at home. Both teams are slated to be league champion contenders and this could be a very interesting game.

Northern Illinois plays Maryland tonight on the Big Ten network. 

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Weather is not lookin' good for Saturday's game.

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UMass Football News--September 4th, 2025

 

Keegan Andrews is the Ray Guy Punter-of-the-Week. I don't think we've ever had a national player-of-the-week in our FBS era.

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The Minuteman Command has episode #20 of the Flagship Podcast. 

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Still no game notes from Bryant..

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Hustle Belt previews Northern Illinois vs Maryland. 

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Our September 13th opponent Iowa has a big rivalry game with Iowa State Saturday.

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Fox Sports and ESPN/ABC announce record viewing numbers after Week #1 of college football.

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UMass Football News--September 3rd, 2025

 Coach Harasymiak's Monday video press conference.

He said Bryant will be no easy task.

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Still no game notes up at Bryant.

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The UMass Daily Collegian says UMass regroups and readies for Bryant.

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 Keegan Andrews leads FBS football after Saturday's game.

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Profootballnetwork.com has Missouri #24, Iowa #29 and UMass as #134 after the first week of football.

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UMass Football News--September 2nd, 2025

 UMass has their game notes for Bryant up.

No game notes from the Bulldogs yet.

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Dave Beaudin of Minuteman Command breaks does a video breakdown of the Temple loss. 

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Jacquon Gibson

 UMass WR Jacquon Gibson talks about the state of the UMass locker room after the loss to Temple.

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Hustle Belt looks at last week's MAC results including the Minutemen's loss to the Owls. 

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UMass is #134 out of 136 in USA Today's college football rankings after Week #1.

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Week #1 MAC conference players-of-the-week.

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UMass Football News--September 1st, 2025

 The Hampshire Gazette says turnovers were costly in UMass' loss to Temple.

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The UMass Daily Collegian reports UMass drops season opener to the Owls. 

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Temple QB Evan Simon won't say if he knew UMass' defensive calls.

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The Minuteman Command says adversity came early to the Minutemen.

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Kentucky's defense held what is probably the MAC's best team's offense in check. 

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Purdue shut out Ball State 31-0.

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MAC Football Week #1 video plays of the week.

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If you missed it, Kent State broke a 23-game losing streak as they squeaked by Merrimack on a fourth quarter kickoff return. 

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UMass Football News-August 31st, 2025

 Well, reality arrived with a thump yesterday.

First, the good news: our punter and kicker will be playing in the Power Four next year.

Keegan Andrews boomed four punts for 228 yards and dropped three inside the 20. He had the best game by a punter since our start in FBS. 

Derek Morris drilled a 40-yard field goal into a breeze and was one-for-one on PAT's.

However, the rest of the afternoon was not good. The UMass defense gave up 335 yards a few minutes into the second half. Temple threw over the top at will in the opening half. The Minutemen did tighten up in the second half, but the ship had sailed.

On offense, things did not go well. UMass frittered away 14 points after driving inside the Owls 10 yardline. We turned the ball over on downs deep in our own territory near the end of the game. That was a swing of 21 points, but Temple would have won anyway.

Two bright spots on offense were Jacquon Gibson who had 12 receptions for 132 yards. Rocko Griffin just missed a 100 yard day with 94 yards and 1 TD rushing.

Brandon Rose looked rusty. He struggled with his accuracy and, it seemed to me, a number of times chose the wrong receiver to throw to. As UMass fell further behind, Temple dialed up the pass rush and we had no answer for that.

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The Minuteman Command has Temple takes down UMass .

The Minuteman Command also has the UMass game notebook. 

The UMass website game write-up here. 

The Temple website says the Owls secured the first win of the KC Keeler era. 

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The Hampshire Gazette reports UMass opens with a blowout loss to Temple. 

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Bryant lost 19-3 to New Mexico State. 

Iowa rolled over FCS Albany in the second half to win 34-7. 

Missouri ran over FCS Central Arkansas 61-6.

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Game Day--Temple 2025

 Well, once more in the yearly breach my friends. It would be really, really nice to break fourteen years of futility with progress in 2025.

The last time UMass played Temple, we forced four turnovers, but lost 28-0 as the offense managed only 258 total yards. 

I'll be there cheering for the Minutemen.

Go UMass!

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The Greenfield Recorder says UMass and Temple clash in a season opener.

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The Hampshire Gazette reports new coach, new players and a new mindset at UMass

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Metro Daily West says UMass OL Sullivan Weidman is proud to represent Massachusetts.

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Doc's Sports says take the Minutemen to beat the spread.

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 Hustle Belt previews the Owls-Minutemen game and predicts Temple 24 UMass 21.

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Fox Sports previews the game and predicts UMass 31 Temple 26.

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Sports Chat Place says take the under in the game as neither team will see 20 points. 

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Owls Daily reports on what you'll see from KC Keeler on the sideline. 

Owls Daily has key metrics and matchups from the UMass Temple game. 

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Western Michigan lost to Michigan State last night 23-6. 

Central Michigan beat San Jose State 16-14 when the Spartans kicker missed two field goals in the last minute and sixteen seconds.

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UMass Football News--August 29th, 2025

 

UMass coach Jimmie Reid retires. Reid is one of the finest men I have ever met. In my old age, my number of heroes has dwindled alarmingly. Coach Reid is one of the few remaining. He is the spirit of the program and will be missed.

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The Daily Collegian reports UMass set to open a new season. 

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The Hampshire Gazette breaks down the UMass season game-by-game.

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Western Mass News says UMass opens with a new coach and a new league. 

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Five MAC were in action last night.

Bowling Green handled FCS Lafayette. 

Ohio put a serious scare into Rutgers falling on a special teams misplay. 

Miami (Ohio) was shut out at Wisconsin. 

 Buffalo's defense lived up to expectations against Minnesota but the offense didn't.

Wyoming edged Akron on the Zips home field 10-0.

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UMass Football News--August 28th, 2025

The Minuteman Command has episode #19 of the Flagship podcast. 

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Sports Book Wire predicts UMass 31-Temple 26.

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Against the Spread thinks UMass 27-Temple 24.

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Single-Digit jerseys are an honor at Temple and they just awarded the first ever single digit jersey to a punter. 

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Hustle Belt has a round table MAC season prediction. 

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Hustle Belt previews Western Michigan vs Michigan State. 

They also preview Akron against Wyoming at home. 

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The Hartford Courant breaks down UConn's schedule. The Huskies went undefeated against Group-of-Five opponents last year and they could do it again this year. Whoever does UConn's scheduling does a great job. They do not meet the Tulane, Liberty, Boise State or other top Group-of-Five teams. 

The Huskies will start seven-year former Maine QB Joe Fagnano. 

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Ohio, Buffalo and Miami (Ohio) all play tonight on various TV networks. 

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UMass Football Blog News

 I received a call from the UMass athletic dept yesterday. They said paper tickets and parking passes will be available in 2026 (with a surcharge) for people who want them.

This seems to be a change from what I understood in my April contact with season ticket intern.

I also had a number of e-mails from blog readers who said they were going to contact the athletic dept about the all-digital policy. It appears it had an effect.

My sincere thanks to all the blog readers for their kind words about the blog. If I can go to the games, I'll keep the blog going.

Let's hope the marketing intern who calls me next April is aware of the change :)

 

UMass Football News--August 27th, 2025

 The UMass Daily Collegian says UMass can reach bowl eligibility in 2025. From their keyboard to God's ear..

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The Temple News has what to know about the Owls' season opener at UMass. 

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Hustle Belt previews Ohio's season opener against Coach Harasymiak's old team Rutgers. 

Ohio is a solid MAC team and they have MAC Offensive Player-of-the-year Parker Navarro at QB. The Scarlet Knights are 14 point favorites, but a Bobcat upset is very possible.

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Bryant does not have their game notes for New Mexico State up yet. However, the Aggies do.  With the  departure into the transfer portal of their star QB Diego Pavia to Vanderbilt, the Aggies went 3-9 in 2024.

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Sports Illustrated has UMass at +4500 odds to win the MAC Conference Championship. 

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UMass Football News--August 26th, 2025

 

UMass has their game notes for Temple up.

Eleven players that were on the depth chart for the UConn game appear on this year's two-deep. The QB's, RB's, defensive secondary and the special teams are all new faces.

T.Y. Harding, Benjamin Roy, Mao Glynn and Ryan Mossesso are returning starters on offense. Tim Grant-Randall is the only starter on defense.

Temple has their game notes here. 

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The Minuteman Command has a video interview with Coach Harasymiak for the Temple game. 

They also have a post on the depth chart. 

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Owls Daily reports both Temple QB's should play against the Minutemen. 

Owls Daily also looks at Temple's two-deep. 

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The UMMB will play at the Patriots opener.

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The Temple student newspaper reports KC Keeler is ready to lead the Owls back to success. 

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Hustle Belt previews Thursday's game between Buffalo and Power Four Minnesota. 

Hustle Belt also previews Miami (Ohio)'s game against Wisconsin. Last year the Badgers were trailing against Western Michigan in the fourth quarter. Miami adds Dequan Finn, former MAC MVP, so it could be a close game.

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UMass Football News--August 25th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has a video interview with starting QB Brandon Rose.

The UMass QB room has three reliable QB's, something we have not had since the second Whipple era. That's one reason why I'm optimistic for this year.

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The Minuteman Command also has an interview with UMass LB Tyler Martin. 

Martin's UMass bio. 

During our previous stint with the MAC Whipple's offense was competitive, but we lost most of those shoot-outs. A lot of pretty average opposing MAC QB's would pull down a pass attempt and run for 20 yards a pop. Coach Harasymiak is a defensive coach and UMass having a front seven that could be equal to the opponent would be a great way to improve. 

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Hustle Belt previews the 2025 Western Michigan Broncos.  Athlon picks Western Michigan 8th in the MAC (they were 5-3 in the league) and Lindy's picks them 6th. The Broncos have been a mostly .500 team for years. The Minutemen get them at McGuirk and if we're going to win other than 1 or 2 league games, the Broncos should be a target.

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Sport Logos.net previews 2025 Big Ten and MAC uniforms. 

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Only nineteen Group-of-Five player (out of 200) are on the Senior Bow watch list. 

Ryan Mosesso from UMass is one of them. 

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Several blog readers e-mailed me to suggest for 2026 I just ditch season tickets and buy a game ticket at the admissions booth. Although I'm old, I could park at the Campus Center garage and hike down to the stadium. I try to do that 10,000-steps-a-day thing, so that would give me a head start on game day.

It would frost my ass to give up my season ticket seats that I've in for so many years, though. 

I don't know why game tickets could not be e-mailed to me and I could print them out. Airlines do that a 100,000 times a day. Every time Mrs Blog and I fly, we print out our tickets and boarding pass the evening before.. 

The end of the UMass Football Blog

 This is to report the UMass Football Blog will cease publication on November 26, 2025.

The reason is I will no longer be attending UMass football games after that date.

The Athletic Dept has gone to a bullshit all-digital ticket marking policy. I don't own a smartphone and I don't want one.

I've had season tickets continuously from 1976. I've been a member of the Gridiron Club and contributed money to UMass football for decades.

I also maintained the Gridiron Club's website for a number of years, for which not a single person ever said "Thanks".

Along with Mrs Blog a friend has joined us for all these years. He does not have a smartphone either and he told me yesterday he's not renewing his season tickets.

 Rene and Mike have been trying to pump attendance on the Flagship Podcast--- brother, I'll tell you this ain't the way to do it.

With a parking pass hanging from your rear view mirror, they just waived you through. Now every car will have to stop and get scanned. How is this better? 

I've got tickets and parking passes for this year and I'll keep the blog going until the end of the season. After that, my nearly 50-year association with UMass football will end since I will no longer be able to go to the games.

Weird ending. 

UMass Football News--August 22nd, 2025

The Minuteman Command talks with UMass kicker Derick Morris on his being named the first-string kicker.

The kicking position has been a thorn in the side of UMass fans since our move to FBS. Hopefully, Morris will break the string of under-performance in the kicking game.

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2025 opponent Kent State names former Fordham  QB CJ Montes starting QB for the Golden Flashes.

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Kentucky vows not to overlook opening opponent Toledo.

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USA Today predicts a 2-10 season for UMass. 

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The SEC officially goes to a nine-game league schedule. That's 16 less money games for Group-of-Six or FCS teams.

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UMass Football News--August 21st, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has episode #18 of the UMass podcast. Rene and Mike interview UMass AD Ryan Bamford.

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 UMass OL Ryan Mosesso has been named to the Panini Senior Bowl Top 300.

As I have said several times before, in our previous four years in the MAC, UMass had one (third-string) All-MAC offensive lineman. Hopefully, that will change in 2025..

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Haven't had time to listen to it yet, but Owl Be Back has a podcast  interviewing Temple HC KC Keeler.

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Haven't listened to this one either (yet), but the MAC Sports Connection previews the 2025 Minutemen.

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The AP and the Fiesta Sports Foundation has named two MAC players in consideration for the 2025 Comeback-Player-of-the-Year.  Kent State's CJ Montes and Toledo RB Chip Trayanum are the MAC's entries.

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UMass Football News--August 20th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has a post on coach Harasymiak's comments on naming Brandon Rose the starting QB.

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The Greenfield Recorder talks about coach Harasymiak and coach Castellitto's focus on special teams. 

SI.com image

The article relates Derek Morris has won the kicking competition and will be the starting kicker. 

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 Sports Illustrated has an article on every Group-of-Five QB named to the preseason Manning Award list.  UMass misses Toledo's Tucker Gleason and Ohio's Parker Navarro.

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2025 opponent Kent State finally names Cherokee Valema (good name) as their defensive coordinator.  

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UMass Football News--August 19th, 2025

 Hustle Belt reports UMass names Brandon Rose starting QB.

From Hustle Belt's article " UMass ranked 114th or below in FBS passing yards game every year from 2019-24, with the exception of 2023 when it finished 81st. The program has not produced a 2,000-yard passer since Andrew Ford in 2017, and the only quarterback to clear the 3,000-yard threshold since the Minutemen joined the FBS is Blake Frohnapfel in 2014."

Rose had six offers, all but one from Power Four schools, coming out to HS. The one Group-of-Five offer was from Boise State..

It would a balm to the battered egos of UMass fans if Rose could move the UMass offense into the top half of the MAC. 

Rose's UMass bio. 

The Minuteman says Brandon Rose is the guy to  lead UMass. 

The Hampshire Gazette reports UMass chooses Brandon Rose to be starting QB. 

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Meanwhile, Temple coach K.C. Keeler says he has "No idea who's starting for the Owls" 

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Hustle Belt previews Ohio University. 

UMass misses Toledo and Miami (Ohio) in this year's MAC rotation. The November 18th game at Ohio could be the Minutemen's toughest MAC contest of 2025.

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Sports Illustrated says Toledo and Ohio are the odds favorites to win the MAC championship.

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UMass Football News--August 18th, 2025

 

Tyler Martin and Ryan Mosesso have been selected for the Michael Boland Inspirational Award.

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Hustle Belt previews the 2025 Ball State Cardinals. Ball State went 3-9 in 2024 and really, really got hammered in the transfer portal. UMass and Ball State do not meet in 2025.

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Sports Illustrated reports on the return of Dequan Finn to the MAC. Finn was the 2023 MAC MVP and Offensive Player-of-the-Year. He should provide an instant boost to Miami (Ohio). UMass and the Redhawks do not play in 2025.

BTW, the Redhawks open on Thursday, August 28th against Wisconsin. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. 

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Alabama's $19.9 million NIL roster takes a significant injury hit.

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UMass Football News--August 16th, 2025

 

The Minuteman Command has video of UMass punter Keegan Andrews and safety Zeraun Daniel talking to reporters after Thursday's practice.

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Temple continues to update their training camp blog through this past week. 

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The NY Post's headline writers are not in sync with the people who write the sports stories. 

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Owls Daily has a number of articles about Temple (requires 247Sports subscription). 

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The Coastal (ex-Colonial) Conference previews Bryant football.  The Bulldogs are in their second year in the CAA.

UMass Football News--August 15th, 2025

 

UMass Special Teams coordinator Joe Castellitto talks to reports after Thursday's practice.

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Hustle Belt previews the 2025 Akron Zips. Akron went 4-8 (3-5 in the MAC in 2025 . Athlon picks Akron 10th in the preseason MAC ranking. Lindy's picked them 9th.

One UMass-Akron connection is Minuteman DL line coach Nyeem Wartman, who joined UMass after three seasons with the Zips. 

Again, Akron is a mid-level MAC team that we should be competitive with. UMass needs a road win against the Zips.

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Hustle Belt also previews Miami (Ohio). Athlon picks the Red Hawks 3rd in preseason rankings and Lindys picks them fourth. Miami (Ohio) went 9-5 (7-1 in the MAC) in 2024. UMass gets a break in 2025 as the Minutemen do not play Toledo or the Red Hawks.

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Fox Sports reports the MAC conference heads into the 2025 season with a number of experienced quarterbacks  playing for the conference's top teams.

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UMass Football News--August 14th, 2025

 The Flagship Podcast interviews UMass Strength and Conditions coach George Greene.

Back before the 1970's college football teams did not do much in the way of strength training preferring to do on-the-field running around  conditioning. Nebraska was the first major program to really emphasize lifting and for a period of about four years (until everyone caught up) the Huskers just crushed opponents.

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Hustle Belt previews the 2025 Central Michigan team. Lindy's picks Central Michigan 5th in their preseason rankings and Athlon picks them 6th. The Chippewas went 4-8 (2-6 in the MAC) in 2024. They should be the caliber of team we would be shooting to be competitive with.

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The Amherst Bulletin reports the Minuteman defense is showing promise. 

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OT but UMass' women's soccer is ranked high in the MAC preseason poll.

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The NY Post on why Toledo will win the MAC championship in 2025. 

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UMass Football News--August 13th, 2025

 

The Minuteman Command has an interview with OL Ryan Mosesso.

Unless injuries happen, I would think the starting OL would be Benjamin Roy at center. The two All-Ivy transfers Kyle Brown and Michael Entwhistle (probably at guards) and Ryan Mosesso and maybe Luke Painton or Zachary Franks at the remaining spot.

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Hustle Belt previews the 2025 Bowling Green Falcons. UMass and Bowling Green meet in the last game of the season. For the Minutemen, there could be a lot riding on that game. Lindy's picks the Falcons 11th in preseason and Athlon picks them 7th. They should be a mid-level MAC team that we should be able to compete with. 

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Hustle Belt also previews the Buffalo Bulls. Buffalo returns 14 starters, which is almost unheard of in the portal era for Group-of-Five teams. They add former UConn starting QB Ta'Quan Robinson. The Bulls should contend for the MAC championship again this year.

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UMass Football News--August 12th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command talks with UMass OC Mike Bajakian.

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The Democrat looks back at Bishop Kearney football and has extensive coverage of Rene Ingoglia.

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Hustle Belt previews  2025 opponent Kent State. The Golden Flashes do not have a permanent head coach or defensive coordinator..

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Toledo receives 13 votes in the AP preseason Top-25 voting. The Rockets went 4-4 in the MAC last year but beat two Power Four teams, both on the road.

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Sports Information Services places UMass' Benjamin Roy on the 1st team preseason offensive All-MAC team.

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UMass Football News--August 11th, 2025

 Hustle Belt previews the UMass Minutemen. Mercifully, it does not appear to have been AI written, but they did miss Brandon Rose.

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Fox Sports writer RJ Young has a minimal-effort ranking of UMass. 

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Andrew Baughs visits McGuirk for his 118th stadium visit---and likes it. 

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 MAC conference 2025 hype video.

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Ty Harding and Grant Jordan make this article's top 2025 Fantasy picks.

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UMass Football News--August 9th, 2025

 Catching up.

The Minuteman Command previews the 2025 UMass offensive line. During the previous stint in the MAC the Minutemen went 7-25 in league play. We had one third-string All-MAC offensive lineman during the same period. And that was it. An FBS-competative OL would be a big step in success.

The Minuteman Command also has a transcript of Coach Harasymiak's remarks after the second week of Fall practice. 

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The Greenfield Recorder reports on the Minutemen's focus on red zone efficiency.  

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The Hampshire Gazette reports the UMass defense is ramping up. 

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Former UMass RB CJ Hester leaves the Michigan training camp. 

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UMass adds FCS opponents Stony Brook and Bryant to the 2027 schedule (Sea Wolves) and 2029 (Bulldogs).

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2025's opening opponent Temple has a detailed Fall camp Blog. 

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UMass Football Blog News--August 5th, 2025

 As I stated before, there will be no blog updates until Saturday as there is very limited internet on Monhegan Island.

See you then. 

UMass Football News--August 5th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has an interview with RB Justin Lewis on his choosing UMass

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Sports Illustrated has five MAC players looking to have a breakout season. Ta'Quan Robinson, who is now at Buffalo, was a starter for UConn in 2023.

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Opta Analyst looks at the MAC and predicts between 5 and 6 UMass wins!

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The NY Times wonders if the tradition of MAC upsets over Power Four teams can continue.

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UMass Football News--August 4th, 2025

 Coach Harasymiak talks about the QB battle. We have some depth this year and I'm hoping for some positive production from the QB position.

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New strength coach George Green is praised for having a impact on player performance. 

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UMass offensive linemen having some fun for the camera. 

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NCAA.com picks Buffalo as a "dark horse" contender for the MAC conference title.

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UMass Football Blog News--August 3rd, 2025

 Mrs Blog and I will be traveling this coming week. I will try to post on Monday.

Tuesday through Friday we will be on an island off the coast of Maine and internet service is described as "spotty".

The Blog should be back up to normal by Saturday. 

UMass Football Recruiting 2025--Justin Lewis commits to UMass

Orange County Register image

 Justin Lewis, a 5-10 195 pound RB from Santa Ana, CA has committed to UMass.

247Sports page here. 

YouTube has video highlights.

Rushed for 1,306 yards-15 TD's plus 24 REC 324 yards. 

LA Times one of the top Southern Californian RB's for 2025. 

Lewis had 13 offers including all three Service Academies, FCS power Montana and most of the Ivies. He will get an excellent education and a chance to play FBS football with the Minutemen.  

UMass Football News--August 1st, 2025

 

Ty Harding nominated to the 2025 Paul Hornung Watch list.

The Minuteman Command has an interview with Harding. 

Hustle Belt has a post on the three MAC conference players in the Hornung Watch list. 

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Brock Taylor has been placed on the 2025 Allstate Wuerffel Throphy Watch list. 

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Hawkeyes Wire previews Iowa's game with UMass.

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The Hampshire Gazette has a story on the QB competition between Grant Jordan,  AJ Hairston and Brandon Rose.

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UMass Football News--July 31st 2025

 

Yesterday was the first day of Fall Camp. 

Video of Coach Harasymiak taking questions after the first practice. 

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The Hampshire Gazette has a post on the opening of Fall camp. 

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Mike Corey and Rene Ingoglia have  Episode #15 of the Flagship Podcast.

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The UMass at Iowa game on September 6th is sold out. 

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Temple, UMass' opening opponent, also started Fall camp yesterday. 

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UMass Football News--July 30th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has a Fall Camp Preview: Running backs.

With Jalen John, CJ Hester, Brandon Campbell (transferred after the Spring game) and Jackson Paradis (medical retirement) gone, only Cookie Desidero (2 GP 8-20 2.5 AVE) returns from the UMass RB's.

Da'Marion Alberic a redshirt freshman (actually had one carry in 2024) returns. Also returning is Godson Ofonagono, another redshirt freshman.

Elijah Falkner is a true freshman.

Rocko Griffin/National Football Post image

Looking to be the featured RB is Rocko Griffin. Brandon Hood, a transfer from Colorado was a top-100 RB out of HS.

Graduate student Juwuan Price has spent time at North Texas, Syracuse and New Mexico State.

The Minutemen have a number of prospects at RB, but not a lot of actual production. We'll have to see how they do against MAC competition. 

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College Football News ranks all 136 teams 2025 strength of schedule.

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