Good morning!
UMass athletics has awakened from its summer slumber. Walkers and joggers near McGuirk Alumni Stadium hear the whistles blowing and fog horns blaring and know football season is nigh.
The Minutemen will kick off against Temple a week from today to mark the start of the Joe Harasymiak era which follows the Don Brown era, which followed the Walt Bell era, which followed the Mark Whipple era which followed the “Paranoid Charley” Molnar era.
Harasymiak wants to end the school’s reputation as being the Zippy Chippy of college football. The Minutemen are 3 1/2-point underdogs but Harasymiak said on Monday he expects to win. “It’s going to come down to ball (control), explosive plays and penalties,” said the 39-year-old New Jersey native.
The week before last I drove over to watch a practice and parked next to the stadium. Almost immediately I heard a calm but assertive voice say, “Hand the ball to the official. … Hand the ball! …. Play eleven. … Stay off the black. … Stay. Off. The. Black. … Play eleven. … Stand on the perimeter.”
Not God but close enough, team chaplain Jake Whitacre is Harasymiak’s point man on the microphone.
Ninety percent of the coaching staff is new, attested by license plates on vehicles from South Carolina, Michigan, New York, New Hampshire, Florida, New Jersey and Utah. Linebackers coach Garrett Gillick’s plate read “X CHIEF” but not the K.C. Chiefs, I checked.
Football contact Dan Colleran cut me off before I reached the field. Closed practice, he said, but invited me back to watch on Aug. 10, another hot and humid day. Outside the locker room, several 300-gallon tubs were slowly filling with water for players to cool off in after practice.
I climbed the stadium steps to where the season ticket holders have seatbacks. Behind me staffers were videotaping practice for coaches to separate the wheat from the chaff.
New Season, New Roster
Colleran gave me a roster and a press badge — I haven’t had one of those in a while — and I counted 96 names on the page. What jumped out was the number of transfers, 60 players from 50 universities disparate in both location and reputation — Clemson, Fullerton, Kansas, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Grambling, California, Tennessee State, Maricopa Community College, etc.
Four came from Rutgers where Harasymiak was the defensive coordinator, including linebacker Timmy Hinspeter and defensive lineman David Onuoha, both redshirt juniors.
Decked out in a black hoodie, black shorts and black shoes, Harasymiak and his staff are tasked with building a winning culture from scratch. They’ve even devised a touchdown celebration, walking single file from the goal line up the sideline arms up, arms down, hands twirling.
Checking the Boxes
“Know your situation.” said the Voice. “All situational. Know your situation. The situation is constantly changing.”
Helmets weren’t required for the two hour walk through, just jerseys and shoulder pads. Harasymiak spread his arms as if he was giving the safe sign. “No jogging, no running,” he said.
“No jogging,” the Voice reiterated. “True walk. Do not jog. Do not run. Waaalllk.”
On the north side of the gridiron the special teams practiced kickoff coverage; on the south side they practiced punt blocks by rushing two assistants punting white balls the size of cantaloupes. “Eighty-five percent chance to win if we block a punt,” said the Voice.
Texas A&M transfer Keegan Andrews, a 6-foot-3, 250-pound punter from Werribee, Australia, paced up and down the sideline like a caged lion, bouncing a football off the turf and back into his hands. No easy feat, try it sometime.
“Defense away, sideline home!” a coach yelled. “Need sticks and one!”
Players strode to their respective sideline and two interns picked up a down-and-distance marker and set it between the 40 and 30 yard line. “Mayday situation!” the coach yelled. “But we’re not going Mayday if we get the first down.”
Quarterback Grant Jordan completed a soft 10-yard pass to 6-foot-6, 240-pound tight end Max Dowling who caught five TD passes at FCS Tennessee Martin last season. Our Lads reports he’s third on the depth chart behind grad transfer Reece Adkins of Eastern Ky., and returning letterman Owen Anderson.
Anderson played 12 games and caught two passes last season. Go figure. He must be a good blocker.
Donnie Gray is one of the three starting wide receivers. The 6-2, 210-pound Northwestern transfer played prep football at Deerfield.
The offense practiced short yardage and goal line situations and a four-minute drill where the purpose is to run time off the clock. Quarterbacks A.J. Hairston and Jordan took turns handing off to Vanderbilt transfer Rocko Griffin and North Texas transfer Juwaun Price.
“Quick water!” a coach yelled.
On the sideline, 6-3, 295 pound offensive lineman Mike Entwistle grabbed a water bottle, opened his collar and poured the contents down his neck and chest.
Rose the Chosen One
Harasymiak is all about percentages and analytics. Monday he announced Brandon Rose was QB1 off “sixteen practices of data.”
A pro-style signal caller from the same California hometown as NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Davis, Rose’s one start in three years was against BYU. He rushed for 66 yards, threw two TD passes and two interceptions and tore a foot ligament that required season-ending surgery and kept him out of the spring game.
Meanwhile Grant Jordan’s Ivy League eligibility ended last season at Yale. He enrolled at UMass on Jan. 7 thinking he’d be the starter, unaware Rose was en route from Utah.
Rose must’ve shown a lot of “data” to have beaten out Hairston, a redshirt freshman who threw three touchdown passes in last year’s season finale against UConn.
Neither took the news well. “They should be angry,” said Harasymiak. “They should be pissed. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
One thing I’ve learned from watching preseason practices is that you never know how good a team will be until it butts heads with another team. First-year coach K.C. Keeler is saying the same good stuff about his Temple team as Harasymiak is about UMass. This is Keeler’s fourth head coaching job after stints at Rowan, Delaware and Sam Houston. He’s 2-1 in his first game as head coach.
Colleran saw the Minutemen practice last summer under coach Don Brown.
“You notice a difference?” I asked.
He looked at me and smiled. I took it to be a good sign.
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The Keene SwampBats won the New England College Baseball League title by sweeping Martha’s Vineyard two weeks ago. Most of the 2,640 at Alumni Field had gone home on Aug. 7 thinking Keene had lost, but Ripken Reese hit a walk-off grand slam with the bases loaded to cap a 10-run comeback, 13-12.
The next night the ‘Bats rallied from a 7-0 deficit by scoring 16 unanswered runs including a pair of three-run blasts by Reese.
A Maryland native named for Ironman Cal Ripken, Reese plays second base at Kent State. UMass fans will see him next spring when the Golden Flashes come to town.
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Sovereignty is the 2-5 favorite from the one post under Junior Alvarado in today’s Travers Stakes at Saratoga. Magnitude, trained by Steve Asmussen and ridden by Ben Curtis, is the 2/1 second choice in the field of five. “The only thing Sovereignty hasn’t done is take on a talented speed-type horse,” said NYRA handicapper Andy Serling. “I think Magnitude presents a new challenge for him.”
Post time for the Travers is 6:14 p.m.
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SQUIBBERS: The Gregory Belanger benefit starts at 2 p.m. today at Camp Apex. The food is free but bring gift cards to distribute to homeless vets and cash for dozens of raffle prizes. … During the Dodgers series a few weeks ago, Fenway Park vendors picketed for a pay raise. After she was told Fenway’s vendors make $18 an hour, a longtime UMass Dining employee said, “We pay our dishwashers $18 an hour.” … Red Sox fans might get a look at MLB’s top-rated pitching prospect Bubba Chandler when the Pirates are in town next week. Chandler was called up on Wednesday to work on his pitching command at the big league level. … Over half of Juan Soto’s home runs have come with the bases empty. “That’s what we oughta call him, Juan Solo,” said WFAN’s Joe Benigno. “The guy never gets a big hit. He’s got great exit velo though. That double play he hit into, he hit the ball 130 mph.” … Paul Lo Duca drove from the Spa to Fenway Park to interview Alex Bregman before his filly Totally Justified raced in the Saratoga Oaks. “I’m way more nervous when my horse goes into the gate than I am at the plate,” said Bregman. “I can control what happens at the plate but not at the track.” Bregman’s horse finished out of the money at 8-1 odds. … Roger Clemens is a sensitive guy and he doesn’t like playing in an “oldtimers game.” Clemens said on YES last week that he wants it called the “alumni game.” … Quote of the Week: “Pressure is a privilege,” by Miguel Clement who took over the family’s racing stable after his popular father Christophe died in May. … Twins manager Rocco Baldelli penciled in N.H. native Mickey Gasper to catch against KC on Aug. 10, ending a stretch of 440 consecutive games caught by either Christian Vazquez or Ryan Jeffers. The Red Sox traded Vazquez to the Astros three years ago for Wilyer Abreu. … According to numbers-cruncher Keith Olberman, 1,423 umpires made it to the big leagues before Jen Pawol became the first woman to ump an MLB game. …. Hunch plays can pay. Still a Soldier won the fifth race at the Spa on Military Appreciation Day. … The N.Y. Post’s Phil Mushnick calls that godawful noise you hear over the loudspeakers at Yankee Stadium the “moose-in-labor sound.”
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com.