BOSTON — There were plenty of UMass fans among the 30,000 at Alumni Stadium on Saturday, and none expected the butt-whipping that was administered by Boston College, 55-21.
The UMass faithful had reason to believe that after beating Duquesne, 63-15, the previous week, the new-and-improved Minutemen would finally end a losing streak to their cross-state nemesis that had reached 10 games and 40 years.
It didn’t happen. Indeed, the 34-point disparity didn’t reflect the Eagles’ dominance. The final two UMass touchdowns came in the final six minutes, long after the stadium was empty and BC was playing its third string defense.
The Eagles recorded six sacks, recovered a fumble and picked off two passes, returning one for a touchdown. Their offense rolled up over 600 yards and scored the most points in a home opener since 1941 against St. Anselm College.
My seat was 11 rows behind the UMass bench next to Bob Tousignant of Stowe, his wife Laurie and their two young daughters Charlotte and Lizzie. A 1988 grad, Tousignant uses UMass football to stay connected with his friends. One of them, Deerfield’s Kevin Pelosky, is Gus Peabody’s son-in-law. Peabody grew up in South Deerfield and was the athletic director at Hopkins Academy.
“We’ve gone to Michigan, Penn State, Florida, Notre Dame. … We’re going to Georgia this year,” said Tousignant. “Three of us fly and Kevin drives. He’s our chuck wagon, he brings the grill for the tailgating.”
After UMass tied the score 7-7 on Marquis Young’s 3-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter it was all Eagles. The offensive line opened holes for stud running back AJ Dillon who dragged tacklers en route to 98 yards on 20 carries, together with springing free for his first career touchdown catch.
Eagles’ quarterback Anthony Brown shredded the UMass secondary, completing five passes for 100 yards to his big tight ends Jake Burt and Ray Marten. The ease that they got open on the sidelines prompted a UMass fan to say sarcastically, “I’m certain they don’t have defenses where they don’t cover the tight end.”
With nine minutes left in second quarter and the score about to get ugly, Whipple went for it on fourth-and-short at midfield. Marquis Young was stuffed for no gain and the turnover on downs resulted in another BC touchdown and a 28-7 lead.
Meanwhile, Ford was throwing incompletions and running for his life. When nose tackle Ray Smith came around from the blind side and drove him into the turf, he wobbled to the sideline like it was last call at McMurphys .
Whipple had been stoic, good posture, staring at the field or down at his play chart, anywhere but behind him. Finally he turned, ripped off his earphones and started yelling. “Whipple’s dropping f-bombs!” exclaimed Tousignant.
So were the fans. A few rows behind us someone yelled, “Twenty-four, wake the hell up!”
That was followed by several more f-bombs from the crowd.
Ugly indeed.
Backup quarterback Ross Comis stood with his helmet off and a white bandana around his head.
“He looks like Johnny Manziel,” I said to Tousignant.
“Yeah he does,” he replied. “I think they should go to him. I don’t think Ford’s having a good day here.”
By the time Whipple mercifully benched him in the third quarter, Ford’s quarterback rating was a pitiable 7.6. Comis passed for 145 yards to Ford’s 78 and had a 94.1 QB rating, albeit against the third-team defense.
What’s sure to spark a quarterback controversy was the last play of the first half when Ford heaved a Hail Mary that was picked off by Lukas Denis and returned 59 yards through a maze of Minutemen for a touchdown and 48-7 lead.
“This is Division I, you just don’t give it the old college try,” said one UMass booster, referring to Ford’s interception.
We were walking up Reservation Road back to our cars and the booster said he was one of the “500 to 1,000” UMass fans who travel with the team on the road. When I mentioned UConn being crushed by UCF on Thursday night, he gave me a fist bump.
He cited three key plays in the first half — a pass interference call that sustained a BC scoring drive, Ford’s pass that was returned for the touchdown and the failure to convert on the fourth-and-short. “That’s 20 points,” he said. “They’ve got a kid on the offensive line who’s supposed to be an NFL stud and he couldn’t budge his guy six inches off the line.”
When we reached the T Station and I asked him, “What’s your takeaway from this game?”
“They got 20 guys who can play. That means they’ve got 60 who can’t, but they’re getting better. They have an investment approaching $50 million and the final analysis is sooner or later they’re getting into the AAC (American Athletic Conference).”
Flush this one down the toilet and move on. The saying it doesn’t get easier isn’t true, the schedule is peppered with circuit breakers. They play a weak Georgia Southern team on Saturday, a possible tough opponent at FIU, and will gobble up Charlotte in Amherst on Sept. 22.
The Minutemen will win at least six games, and these days six wins is all $50 million can buy.