The Stonehill Skyhawks went 4-8 in the Northeast Conference last year. They won three conference games. Their best victory was 13-10 win over Maine.
The Skyhawks did it with defense in 2025. In their four wins they held the opposing team to 15 points or less. Stone hill finished 43rd in FCS in total defense. They were 89th in rushing defense, but were 14th in FCS in pass defense.
Stonehill's problem was offense. They finished 124th (out of 126) in total offense and averaged just 15.1 points/game.
Lindy's Football Magazine picks the 2026 Skyhawks last in the Northeast conference. Stonehill is likely to continue to be stout defensively in their league. In 2025 they played Yale (who made a run in the FCS playoffs) and Penn. Yale scored 47 points, but the Skyhawks held Penn to 24.
Jordan Irvine is a 6-0 190 pound DB. He's one of this year's captains. He went 9 GP 7 GS 36 TT 2 FF and 2 BKUP.
The Skyhawks lost their leading tackler to graduation, this year's captain Ma'Hkai Wilson had 33 TT 1 INT 1 PD.
On offense, Stonehill did not do well.
Rushing offense was a problem. Stonehill had 1,138 total yards rushing and only 6 rushing TD's (Note: UMass had 989 total yards rushing and also had 6 rushing TD's).
Joshua Robinson, a 5-8 185 pound senior is probably the best returning running back. He rushed for 237 yards 1 TD and a 5.6 yards/carry average.
Quarterback Jack O'Connell 6-2 190 (from North Andover, MA) makes the Skyhawks go. In 2025 he went 12 GP 194-318 61.0% 6 INTS 15 TD's and a 122.36 EFF.
Torance Washington, Jr is the top returning WR. He played in 11 games and went 33-248 2 TD's.
With no offense intended, this is a team that nearly every FBS-level roster should substantially outgun. This game should be an indicator of how much we have improved from 2025. Have we improved from cosmically awful to MAC competitive or just to bad (i.e. something like 2-10)?
I think UMass gets its second win in a row on September 19th, hopefully by a substantial margin.
Go UMass!
