UMass Football News--September 18th, 2025

 Rene and Mike are back with Episode #22 of the Flagship Podcast.

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Iowa QB Mark Gronowski discusses the UMass win.

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Alex Buchanan image

The UMass-Missouri game will start at 7:30 East Caost time. BTW, the Tigers are averaging just under 52 points/game..

Missouri is  8th in the nation in scoring.UMass is #124 averaging 14.3.

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Hawk Central has a post with a section on the struggles of UMass' offensive line in  the Iowa game. The Minutemen passed 28 times and Missouri got pressure on 23 of them.

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CBS Sports has a story on how the new single transfer portal will impact college football. As the article points out, it may help Group-of-Five schools as their roster can only be raided once a year.

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UMass Football News--September 17th, 2025

 UMass A.D. Ryan Bamford says coach Harasymiak is the answer.

I think the new coaching staff and the other reforms will kick in. Everybody (including me) got way ahead of themselves on optimism.  This is UMass. Nothing is easy. We still have a chance  to win a couple of MAC games. Contending for the MAC championship and a bowl game is going to be another year though.

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College Sports Wire has UMass-Missouri game time, TV coverage and other game details. 

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UMass is #3 in CBS Sports Bottom 25 rankings. 

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MISERY LOVES COMPANY PART II

UConn is 1-2 and "beat up" after an overtime loss to Delaware 

Boston College is 1-2 after their second overtime loss in a row. 

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College football is still having a huge TV ratings success.

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UMass Football News--September 16th, 2025

 A transcript of Coach Harasymiak's remarks after the Iowa game. An off week is coming up and it's a good time to heal as the Minutemen are pretty beat up.

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Hustle Belt has week #3 MAC Musings.

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Iowa lost some players too.

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 Missouri announces the kickoff time between the Tigers and the Minutemen.

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Hawkeye QB Mark Gronowski broke the Division I QB career wins record.

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UCLA fires coach DeShaun Foster after an 0-3 start.

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UMass Football News--September 15th, 2025

 

Hawkeye Report has a photo gallery from the UMass-Iowa game.

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Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz supports injured UMass DB TJ Magee.

Update on Magee. Hope he is OK and can return to the team.

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Hustle Belt reviews UMass' loss to Iowa and sees some positives.

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Western Michigan, the Minutemen's next home opponent,  fell to 0-3 as they were shutout by Illinois.

The Broncos next two opponents are Toledo and Rhode Island.

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UMass Football News--September 14th, 2025

 I didn't think UMass played that badly. Against a powerful Iowa team playing on their home field, the Minutemen's defense battled all day. The defense stopped three Hawkeye drives and was generally competitive all  night. With no offense production, the score was going to lopsided.

I agree with Coach Harasymiak's first go-for-it on fourth down. The play was there, we just didn't complete the pass.

The offense didn't do much against a very strong Iowa defense, but defense is the Hawkeyes trademark. Getting throttled by Iowa is no disgrace, scoring two TD's against Bryant is. 

All in all, I thought the Minutemen hustled and played hard. The loss was foreordained, but I believe UMass showed some spirit.

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UMass write-up here. 

Iowa write-up here. 

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The UMass Daily Collegian said it was one step forward, two steps back. 

The Minuteman Command said the offense went nowhere.

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 Temple lost to Oklahoma 42-3.

Bryant beat Bentley 42-6. 

Missouri beat Louisiana 52-10. 

Central Michigan lost to Michigan 63-3. 

Ball State squeaked by New Hampshire. 

Buffalo escaped Kent State. 

Ohio lost to Ohio State 37-9. 

Northern Illinois had a bye.

Bowling Green beat Liberty. 

Akron lost a close game to UAB. 

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Game Day -- Iowa 2025

After two bad losses there probably not much upside for UMass fans in a game against a Power Four team like Iowa. The goals for the Minutemen would be to play hard, be competitive, and try some new combinations.

We ran the ball on Georgia.  Working on the UMass run game would be an excellent goal. If you can run the ball, you generally have a good lookin' QB and a good looking offense.

Implementing a zone defense could be another goal. Man coverage has not worked (which is a massive understatement) so far this year. Since we are not going to win the game anyway, working the kinks out of a zone defense could help the rest of the season.

Whatever the score, I'll be cheering for the Minutemen.

Go UMass! 

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 The Hampshire Gazette reports UMass is battling injuries and odds as they visit Iowa.

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Hustle Belt previews the Hawkeyes-Minutemen game and predicts Iowa 27-UMass 10

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Action Network says take the over in the Iowa-UMass game. 

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Four Sports Illustrated writers predict the score of the UMass-Iowa game. 

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Five Black Heart Gold Pants writers have a consensus score of Iowa 34-UMass 3.

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The weather in Iowa is going to be great. Tailgating should be a good time for Hawkeye fans.

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Three offensive keys for Iowa against UMass.

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Pick Dogs says take UMass and the points. 

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Hawkeye Insider has three focal points for Iowa in the UMass game.

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UMass Football News--September 12th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command reports injuries hamper the struggling UMass defense.

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The Hampshire Gazette says UMass will get better ----eventually.

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Hawk Central predicts Iowa 41 UMass 7.

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The Daily Iowan has five things to watch for in the Hawkeyes-Minuteman game. 

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247Sports predicts Iowa 48 UMass 7.

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Sports Illustrated points out first-meeting-ever-games are getting rare.

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The MAC game-of-the-week is probably Ohio (the MAC's  best team) going into the lion's den at Ohio State.

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