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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