UMass Football News--September 30th, 2025

 Video of Coach Harasymiak's weekly press conference.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

UMass has their game notes for Western Michigan up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Western Michigan QB Broc Lowry (good name) takes the reins of the Broncos offense. The article has a number of quotes by Western Michigan's OC Walt Bell.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Hustle Belt reviews UMass' loss to Missouri and sees signs of progress.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 The Columbia Tribune has a photo gallery of the UMass-Missouri game that includes a fair number of images featuring UMass.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Missouri moved up one notch to #18 in the AP Top-25 poll after beating the Minutemen. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Hustle Belt has their Monday MAC Musings after Week #5.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

UMass Football News--September 29th, 2025

 

The Minuteman Command has a post on the loss to Missouri.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Daily Collegian reports UMass falls to SEC Missouri.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Missouri Tigers has three takeaways from the Minutemen-Tigers game. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Kansas City Star has the Tiger's grades after the blowout win over UMass. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Western Michigan opens as a 10-point favorite over UMass. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass' offensive woes continued in the Missouri game.

The Minutemen are #133 (one notch above dead last) in scoring at 12.3 points/game. 

UMass IS dead last at #134 in total offense at 224.8 yards/game. 

UMass is #133 in rushing offense at 62.3 yards/game. 

The lack of offense production puts a lot of pressure on the UMass defense. In the Missouri game, the Minutemen defense was on the field for 37 minutes and the Tiger's defense was on the field for 23.. 

UMass Football News--September 28th, 2025

 

UMass played #20 Missouri and the results were pretty much as expected.

The Minutemen defense played pretty decently. UMass had 6 TFL, 1 INT and 4 SACKS. They forced the Tigers to punt 4 times. Missouri's longest pass completion was 20 yards. The UMass defense effort looks better when you consider the defense was on the field for 39 minutes..

The Minuteman offense continued to be horrid. UMass had 124 total yards of offense. We punted 10 times. The Minutemen's longest drive was 35 yards against the Tigers walk-ons and it ended with a drop to stop the drive. AJ Hairston did not look like the solution to UMass' offensive woes. He went 11-31 for 75 yards. Several times he had space in front of him, but chose an incompletion instead of running the ball. 

To me, having seen all three QB's, I think Grant Jordan is the choice. 

There were not a lot things for a UMass fan to get enthused about.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass write-up here. 

Missouri write-up here. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Columbia Tribune reports Missouri wins against an overmatched UMass.

Rock M Nations says the Tigers sleepwalked to an easy win. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Temple had a bye.

Bryant lost to Towson. 

Iowa lost a home game to Indiana. 

Western Michigan clobbered Rhode Island. 

Kent State had a bye.

Buffalo lost to UConn when the Huskies kicked a field goal with six seconds left. 

Central Michigan beat Eastern Michigan 28-13.

 Akron got blasted by Toledo 45-3.

Northern Illinois lost to San Diego State by the baseball score of 6-3.

 Ohio beat Bowling Green 35-20.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Game Day--Missouri 2025

 The Tigers have a better offense than Iowa,  so I would not be surprised at all if Missouri covered the 44.5 point spread and then some.

UMass can use the trip to gain experience for  the many reserves who will be playing today.

Donnie Gray will start for T.Y. Harding at WR. Harding is out for the season.

UMass will start a mostly new defensive backfield.

Malcolm Green moves from the "star" position to starting CB.

Brennen Bailey moves up to starting CB.

 Kendall Bournes moves up to  be starting Safety.

 Jeremiah McGill returns as the other starting safety.

UMass could also work on their run game, which has been near the bottom of the FBS in production. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flying out to Missouri.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Minuteman Command reports AJ Hairston gets his shot. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rock "M" nation covers the game and hopes no one on either side gets hurt. Amen to that. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Hampshire Gazette reports UMass heads to #21 Missouri. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Action Network says take the 56.5 Over in the Missouri-UMass game. The Tigers should cover that by themselves..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

UMass Football News--September 26th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command has this week's injury update.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Power Mizzou talks with the Cursive U (?!) about the upcoming Missouri-UMass game. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Missouri Tigers previews the Minutemen-Tigers game. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Columbia Tribune predicts Missouri 56 UMass 0.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Bleachers Nation thinks UMass will cover the spread. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass' next home opponent Western Michigan plays FCS #7 Rhode Island this week.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Tech Radar.com image

College football teams (including the entire MAC) are choosing iPads over Microsoft Surface.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

UMass Football News--September 25th, 2025

 In Episode #23 of the Flagship Podcast, Mike and Rene interview Patrick MacWilliams of the Massachusetts Collective. Interesting episode.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Pick Dawgz says Missouri will win by 45+.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Sports Book Wire points out Missouri has beaten the spread in every game this year and UMass has lost the spread in every game this year. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Daily Collegian reports UMass prepares for Missouri after it's first bye week.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Columbia  Daily Tribune recounts the convoluted history of the Missouri-UMass contract.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Former UMass player Kofe Asare is playing for the Florida Gators.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

UConn plays their second MAC game of the season and former Husky QB Ta'Quan Robinson is "questionable" for Buffalo. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PRIORITIES  

Earlier in the year a Missouri fan had a chance to win $25,000 by kicking a field goal. Instead, he revealed a t-shirt that said F-Kansas and kicked it into the Jayhawks sideline.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

UMass Football News--September 24th, 2025

 UMass vs Missouri will be televised on ESPNU.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sports Chat Place thinks the Tigers will cover the 42.4 point spread. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sports Book Wire thinks Missouri will win 40-17.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

College Football News thinks Missouri will roll over "speed bump"  UMass 56-6.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Hampshire Gazette covers UMass A.D Ryan Bamford's plan to revitalize UMass football.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Kansas City Star reports Missouri RB Ahmad Hardy rushed for more yards in one game than the Minutemen have all season.

The UMass run game has been terrible this year. The Minutemen are #129 in rushing offense with 76.7 yards/game. UMass is averaging 2.54 yards/carry. We rushed for 23 yards against Iowa (mostly by QB Grant Jordan running for his life).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass Football News--September 23rd, 2025

 UMass has their game notes for Missouri up.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass Coach Harasymiak speaks to reporters in the Monday Press conference. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass A.D. Ryan Bamford speaks to reporters about improvements to McGuirk stadium. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Missouri's homecoming game against UMass is sold out. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hustle Belt has MAC Musings after Week #4.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The UMass Daily Collegian has UMass A.D. Ryan Bamford addresses the state of UMass football. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Greenfield Recorder reports Coach Harasymiak names AJ Hairston as starting QB for the Missouri game.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  

UMass Football News--September 22nd, 2025

 UMass opens as a 42.5 underdog to Missouri.

Vegas has UConn to a 3.5 underdog to Buffalo. I think the Huskies could win that one.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass-Missouri will be televised on ESPNU.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

UMass continues to be dead last in Power Rankings after Week #4.

BC is #75, UConn is #91. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 UMass alum Isaiah Rogers had  a great game against Cincinnati.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hustle Belt reports NIU was unable to silence the cowbells at Mississippi State.

I watched much of the Kent State-Florida State game on the treadmill yesterday. As Hustle Belt says, it was a beat down. 

Miami (Ohio) ended up 0-3 after a last-minute loss to UNLV. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

UMass Football News-September 21st, 2025

 With UMass having a bye week, most of the news was results from their opponents.

Temple was competitive early with #18 Georgia Tech, but faded in the second half and lost 45-24. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bryant lost a two-overtime thriller to Campbell 50-48.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Iowa beat Rutgers Friday night. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Missouri rallied to beat South Carolina as the Tigers dominated in the fourth quarter. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Western Michigan threw the MAC championship into turmoil by upsetting Toledo.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Florida State scored 35 points in the first quarter and drubbed Kent State 66-10. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffalo, another MAC Conference Championship favorite, was upset by Troy. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Central Michigan blasted FCS Wagner 49-10.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Akron rang up over 500 yards of offense to dominated FCS Duquesne  51-7.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Mississippi State pulled away in the second half and beat Northern Illinois 38-10.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Ohio handled FCS Gardner-Webb 53-35.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Bowling Green lost to Power Four Louisville 40-17.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

UMass Football News--September 20th, 2025

 UMass is off this week, but plenty of past and future opponents are playing.

Rutgers gave Iowa all they could handle, but faded late and the Hawkeyes pulled away late to win 38-28. 

The Iowa kid who ran one back against UMass, Kaiden Wetjen, did the same thing to Rutgers on the opening play of the game. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Temple plays #18 Georgia Tech on TV at 4:30 today.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Bryant plays Campbell at 6:30 today to open CAA play.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Missouri plays a tough South Carolina team.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

UMass' next home opponent Western Michigan plays Toledo.

SB Nation previews the game. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

UMass Football News--September 19th,2025

 

The Minuteman Command has a post titled "Is it time to give AJ Hairston his shot?"

Since we're not going to beat Missouri anyway, we might want to give Hairston more than one or two series. Better OL play would also be a big help. I thought Grant Jordan did a creditable job while facing pressure nearly every time he dropped back. 

We might want to alos try some new OL combinations as the Minuteman offensive line really got crushed by Iowa. 

UMass could also work on their run game as it has been nearly nonexistent so far. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass remains last in the Hustle Belt MAC power rankings.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Hustle Belt also previews this week's interesting game between UConn and Ball State. The Huskies lost two overtime games to Syracuse and Delaware.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Missouri has had 31 fans ejected from their games this season. That's an average of 10 fans/game.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Temple is +23.5 against Georgia Tech, Iowa -3 against Rutgers and Missouri is -3 against South Carolina.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

 

 

UMass Football News--September 18th, 2025

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Iowa QB Mark Gronowski discusses the UMass win.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass is #3 in CBS Sports Bottom 25 rankings. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

College football is still having a huge TV ratings success.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hustle Belt has week #3 MAC Musings.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Iowa lost some players too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

UMass Football News--September 15th, 2025

 

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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz supports injured UMass DB TJ Magee.

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UMass write-up here. 

Iowa write-up here. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

The Minuteman Command said the offense went nowhere.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 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. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

 

 

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! 

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three offensive keys for Iowa against UMass.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Pick Dogs says take UMass and the points. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

UMass Football News--September 12th, 2025

 The Minuteman Command reports injuries hamper the struggling UMass defense.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hawk Central predicts Iowa 41 UMass 7.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

247Sports predicts Iowa 48 UMass 7.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

UMass Football News--September 11th, 2025

Mike and Rene do Episode #21 of  the Flagship Podcast.

Some epic rants by Rene and Mike, but last Saturday's results cannot be changed, so it's no use being upset. To me, it seems for whatever reasons, injuries, inexperience, or not the right personnel, we do not have the horses to play man coverage. We need a different defensive plan.

On offense, we flat need to score more. Three TD's in two games will not win many contests.

Since Iowa appears to want to work on their passing in this game, we too could experiment with some different  coverages since we are unlikely to win anyway. UMass needs to find some things (and players) that are effective and ignore the score in this game.

Go UMass.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Iowa will be without some key offensive players for the UMass game. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hawkeye coach Kirk  Ferentz talks about the state of Iowa football.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

The Gazette says UMass-Iowa is the definition of mismatch. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hawkeye QB Mark Gronowski thinks Iowa should throw deep more often. Against the Minuteman defense that'll probably work..

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

College Football News predicts Iowa 41 UMass 3.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Missouri's starting QB is out for the season with a broken leg. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------