AMHERST — When UMass went up by 20 points midway through the third quarter Saturday, the sideline started to feel like the Minutemen were well on their way to sealing their first win of the season.
No one took anything for granted and everyone knew there was still more than 20 minutes of football still to play. Yet at that point in the game, the UMass offense was rolling and its defense was shutting down Akron in every facet. If the Minutemen continued to play up to that potential, the Zips weren’t going to have a chance.
Just 16 minutes of game action later, Akron capped off a 97-yard drive with a touchdown and UMass’ lead was down to a single score. That’s when UMass coach Walt Bell turned to Bilal Ally and his patchwork offensive line to seal the game and run down the final 5:24 of clock. Eight rushes and 73 yards later, redshirt senior quarterback Michael Curtis lined up in victory formation and took a knee to finish off the Minutemen’s 37-29 win over the Zips at McGuirk Alumni Stadium.
“It’s a testament to this whole week,” Curtis said. “We’ve talked about since Sunday, ‘Break the Rock,’ and everybody was very bought in and we knew we were going to face some adversity and we have been facing some adversity. Those (linemen) locked in and they realized what was at stake and what they needed to do. We talk about it all the time and say it every day, just do your job, and those guys just did their job at a very high level.”
Friday was full of adversity for UMass (1-4) when the team found out Bell had suspended six players for the game for missing curfew on Thursday, a group that included three offensive starters. The suspensions forced Curtis into action as the starting quarterback and redshirt freshman Michael Sullivan moved inside to start at right guard. Those moves were on top of the other changes on the offensive line that were made the previous week with sophomore Dalton Tomlinson taking over at center for an injured Jaylen Larry and freshman Helber Fagundes playing left guard in place of Ray Thomas-Ishman, who has been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules.
That offensive line, which had a combined 23 starts – 17 of which were from left tackle Larnel Coleman – entering Saturday’s contest, was all of a sudden tasked with preserving UMass’ first win of the season. All that group did was open holes for Ally to move the ball from the Minutemen’s 25-yard line down to the Akron 2 on eight carries, three of which went for more than 10 yards. They paved the way for Ally’s 26-yard run on third-and-3 to prevent a three-and-out then sealed it by blocking for Ally’s 6-yard run on third-and-6 with just over a minute left.
“That’s a great finish,” Bell said. “In the 15 years (or so) that I’ve been coaching, how many times have we been in that situation and not gotten the job done. That just makes it even more satisfying knowing that we had a walk-on right guard Michael Sullivan in there, a brand new freshman (HelberFagundes) and Dalton Tomlinson, you have a bunch of young guys without a lot of experience. I’m just proud of those guys for finding a way.”
For the first 55 minutes, though, it was Curtis who made things happen for the Minutemen. He showed a willingness to push the field and take some risks in the passing game, but also wisely used his legs to keep drives alive as well. He threw for 173 yards, the most by a UMass quarterback this season, and tossed a pair of touchdowns. But at his best, he allowed his receivers to make plays in tight situations.
On the opening drive of the game, Curtis threw a high pass toward Samuel Emilus along the UMass sideline in a spot where only the sophomore could go up and grab it. He put similar faith in Sadiq Palmer for his second touchdown throw, putting the ball in the perfect spot on a fade route for the senior to turn around and catch it while tip-toeing the right sideline of the end zone.
In all, eight different UMass receivers and tight ends made catches, led by Emilus’ six for 70 yards.
“I’ve said it since fall camp, I’m just so excited to go out and see those guys ball and I just can’t wait,” Curtis said. “I felt like the ball was thrown around to a lot of different guys, and that also makes me really happy.”
The success of the offense gave its much-maligned defense plenty of rest between drives, and it showed in the unit’s play. The Minutemen limited the Zips (0-5) to just 2.6 yards per carry and harassed each of the three quarterbacks Akron paraded into the game. UMass finished with seven tackles-for-loss, one fewer than it had in each of its previous three games against FBS foes combined.
Defensive coordinator Aazaar Abdul-Rahim “had a really good game plan going into it and we were repping it pretty well,” lineman Jake Byczko said. “We were just getting after the quarterback pretty hard. We had a young group in there, but we did pretty well and they all played pretty hard.”
The key came on first down, an area where UMass had struggled to contain teams through the first four weeks. The Minutemen did a much better job at preventing Akron from putting itself in favorable situations on second and third downs, opening up UMass to rush the passer more. The pressure got home as well with a pair of sacks and several incompletions that could have been credited as quarterback hurries.
Those defensive calls led to two of UMass’ biggest plays of the game defensively as Abdul-Rahim was able to disguise his pressure on first down. Early in the second quarter, the blitz package forced Zips quarterback Kato Nelson to throw the ball quickly and senior Isaiah Rodgers stepped in front of the pass and returned it 58 yards for a touchdown – his record-setting third pick-six of his career. Midway through the third, a similar situation befell Akron backup Robbie Kelley, whose pass was intercepted by Jordan Adams this time and returned down to the 4 where he was tackled from behind and drew a personal foul penalty.
“We were able to stop the run a little bit early in (drives) where we could create some situations to rush the passer,” Bell said. “Coach Rahim did a great job at creating some zone pressure and the illusion of some five-man pressure to create some matchups that were favorable for us. But more than anything else, the kids are the ones who make all the plays. Our kids did a great job at making plays, and that’s the biggest thing moving forward.”