AMHERST – The UMass football program announced six student-athletes signed National Letters of Intent on Wednesday.
It’s a smaller recruiting class than normal, but the recruitment stage is far from over for head coach Don Brown and his coaching staff, who expect to pluck a number of players from the transfer portal.
“We were a very young football team a year ago, maybe one of the five youngest football teams in college football itself. We did not have a host of upperclassmen at any position. We’re talking five or six seniors in terms of the entire group,” Brown said. “The reason… we attacked the portal is just to get older and get veteran players that provide us with leadership, strength, development guys [who] have been in the weight room and working hard on college campuses.”
Brown wasn’t able to comment further on specific players in the portal that UMass was recruiting, but he did speak to the class of six high-school commits, highlighted by three-star prospect quarterback Ahmad Haston of Palm Beach Central (Fla.).
“We got a guy that (is a) dual threat, as they say in modern day college football. Six-two, 195 pounds, he had 2,100-plus yards passing, 500 yards rushing. The number that jumps out at me is the 50 touchdowns,” Brown said. “He carries a 4.7 GPA with him through high school so he’s really kind of the complete package and very excited about having him join our class and really lead our offense in the future.”
Besides Haston, UMass signed two offensive linemen, Peyton Miller and Zachary Anderson, as well as linebackers Donovan Dyson and Jyree Roberts and defensive back Christian LeBrun. Brown emphasized that the team was looking for players who fit in well with UMass’ style of football.
“We’re looking for the athletic part,” Brown began. “Guys that can run, regardless of position. Guys that are athletic, we’ll sacrifice a little bit of size for movement skills. That’s just the style that we play. I think all six of these guys do that.”
Miller is a three-star recruit who made 25 solo tackles for Mountain Ridge H.S. (Md.) on defense and picked up two sacks, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble, as well as a pair of interceptions.
Anderson is also a three-star prospect from Quince Orchard H.S. who was the 31st ranked football player in the state of Maryland. Anderson helped his team to a 28-0 record and two state championships over the past two seasons and was named one of the Washington Post’s Top 5 offensive linesmen in the DMV.
Roberts led his Cathedral Prep (Pa.) team with 53 solo tackles and also had 21 assisted tackles. He finished the season with three sacks. Roberts is also a familiar name for Brown – he’s the younger brother of Jerry Roberts, a linebacker for Arizona who played for Don Brown while he was there.
Dyson helped lead St. Frances Academy (Md.) to a 9-1 record this season with 7.5 sacks, 7 TFLs and over 25 quarterback hurries. The three-star prospect propelled his team to the No. 8 ranking nationally from MaxPreps.
LeBrun played in the secondary and as a wide receiver and running back at Avon Old Farms in Conn., finishing his career with 113 tackles, five sacks, 13 pass breakups, 21 TFLs, an interception and two forced fumbles. LeBrun was the No. 8-rated prospect in Connecticut according to MaxPreps.
While the i’s have been dotted and the t’s crossed in the initial wave of recruiting, the process is far from over for Brown & Co. Things will slow down slightly over Christmas and New Years, but they’ll pick right back up in January as the staff looks to fill out the rest of the UMass roster.
“Recruiting will be the No. 1 piece that we’ll continue to work on, and really selective. We’ve kind of addressed some needs. Now the big thing is really be selective about the guys that we’re recruiting because it’ll be real positional,” Brown said. “Then once we get everybody back here, winter workouts will start, mat room will start and that’s my favorite time of the year… so the big thing will be, with the new guys that are here, the mid-year guys, get them integrated with the guys that we have in our program and get those guys learning at the speed of light so that we can get them ready for highly competitive spring practice.”