Good morning!
Today is a day of reckoning at McGuirk Alumni Stadium, a day UMass football fans have waited for since early December when Joe Harasymiak was named the fifth head coach of the FBS era.
Mentioning his predecessors’ cumulative win-loss record would be like waving one of those “1918” signs from back in the day, so we just won’t do it.
Suffice to say today’s game against Temple is the Credibility Bowl. A victory would be a foundational building block; a loss portends another groundhog year.
The boys on the balcony expect great things from Harasymiak, specifically 60 minutes of clean, tough football. A year ago on opening day in Amherst, UMass was favored by 2 1/2 points against Eastern Michigan and lost, 28-14.
This was the postmortem:
The Minutemen were flagged for ten penalties, quarterback Taisun Phommachanh was sacked six times and field goal kicker Jacob Lurie missed two field goals from the same spot he was making them in practice. Befuddled by EMU’s no-huddle offense, the inability to get on and off the field or line up in time for the snap was almost comical.
The bar has been set low. The Athletic ranks UMass 134th of 136 teams in the FBS, ahead of Kennesaw State and anchor team Kent State. Temple is ranked nearly 30 spots higher at 106.
Marketing-wise the attendance number to beat will be 12,810 — last year’s draw. In pursuit of that goal UMass lowered ticket prices this week to $17
Temple is a 2 1/2-point favorite and has never lost to UMass. In 2015, the Owls followed up a defensive 2-point conversion with a 32-yard field goal with 12 seconds left to win 25-23 in front of 10,141 fans at Gillette Stadium.
UMass loyalists have seen enough of those defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory games.
Seeking a Rose in Bloom
‘Let’s go Brandon’ will be the rallying cry with Brandon Rose starting under center. “It starts with my trust in Coach [Mike] Bajakian,” Harasymiak said of choosing the Utah transfer over heir apparent AJ Hairston and Yale transfer Grant Jordan.
Bajakian was named UMass offensive coordinator two weeks after Harasymiak came to Amherst. Prior to that he’d been the interim offensive coordinator at Utah after Andy Ludwig resigned in midseason. When he took the UMass job, he brought Rose with him.
Rose was a third stringer at Utah until QBs Cam Rising and Sam Huard were both hurt. His big moment came on Nov. 9 in the “Holy War” against undefeated and seventh-ranked BYU in front of 54,383 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.
If Rose can play like he did in the first half against BYU, UMass will win a lot of games. He ran the ball effectively, passed into tight coverages and drove the Utes downfield for three touchdowns and a 21-10 lead.
Just before halftime he tore a Lisfranc ligament — a “complex structure, not a single ligament” according to AI — that supports the midfoot. He stayed in the game but was ineffective, completing just four passes for 25 yards and threw an interception in what for Utah was a heartbreaking 22-21 loss.
Dreading Deja Vu
According to two orthopedic surgeons, a torn Lisfranc can take up to a year to heal and is susceptible to re-injury. Two years ago, UMass quarterback Taisun Phommachanh was brilliant in the season opening win against New Mexico State. The following week he injured his knee against Auburn and was never the same player. UMass fans will be watching Rose and hoping he’s returned to the first half form he showed against BYU.
Rose’s ascension has resulted in two disgrunted quarterbacks thinking they didn’t get a fair shake. Hairston threw three TD passes with no interceptions in last year’s season finale against UConn and assumed he was the heir apparent. Meanwhile Grant Jordan arrived after four seasons at Yale thinking he was first on the depth chart. He didn’t choose UMass just to spend his final year of eligibility holding a clipboard.
Projecting beyond 2025
This is a foundational year, says Harasymiak. Referencing UMass hockey he said, “Coach Carvel went from five wins to 17 wins his second year. PJ Fleck at Western Michigan won one game, Greg Schiano at Rutgers, they all had to put in the foundation.”
UMass fans don’t want to be told to wait till next year before this season has even begun but that’s what they heard when Harasymiak said, “In our ’26 class we have 20 verbal commitments, 20 players we’ve gotta fight for.”
These days a verbal commitment means as much as a Vladimir Putin peace promise.
“The adversity is coming,” said Harasymiak, and about that there’s no denying.
Notes: Temple’s senior-laden defensive front four averages 6-3, 270 pounds. … Owls punter Dante Atton booted 75 punts last season which led the AAC. … Quarterback Gevani McCoy landed at Temple after stints at Oregon State and Idaho but won’t be the starter according to reports out of Philadelphia. … QB Evan Simon is a sixth-year senior who started nine games last season, passed for over 2,000 yards, threw 15 TD passes with nine picks and was sacked 28 times. … Simon wears No. 6. Keep an eye on those single-digit players — wideout Colin Chase (#1), DTs Allan Haye (#8) and Sekou Kromah (#0) — Temple has a tradition of awarding single digits to the toughest players on the field.
****
Bring the Atlas: Don’t plan on making any day trips to watch conference opponents unless you have air miles. The closest MAC venue Buffalo is 390 miles from Amherst. The next-closest are Akron and Kent State, both 590 miles from campus. The closest road route to Central Michigan goes through Canada, so be sure to bring your passport.
****
SQUIBBERS: After 50 years of reffing schoolboy and college football, Amherst’s Tim Schmitt has called it a career. “I had a good run. I did a Division III national championship and a Harvard-Yale game,” said Schmitt who waved the white hat for the final time at last Thanksgiving’s tilt between South Hadley and Holyoke. … Right-hander Nolan McLean has won three straight games with a 0.89 ERA for the Mets since being called up from Double-A Binghamton. The 23-year-old North Carolinian’s next start is Tuesday at Detroit. … In case you missed it, Alex Verdugo was released by the Braves on July 5 after batting .239 with no home runs and 12 RBIs in 197 ABs. … Ceddanne Rafaela was wired for sound during Sunday’s game at Yankee Stadium, enabling ESPN’s Eduardo Perez to ask thought provoking questions like, “Who was your favorite player growing up?” …. Rob Manfred’s such an innovator he’ll probably introduce aluminum bats at next year’s All Star game. … Mike Trout is two home runs shy of 400, but you’d never know it. … Jockey Ron Turcotte who died this week said of riding Secretariat to a 31-length win in the Belmont Stakes: “I knew I was quite a way in front because I couldn’t hear any of the other horses hitting the ground behind me.” … South Boston native Matt Reynolds has left UMass for Wesleyan where he’ll be the school’s fourth baseball coach in 84 years. … UMass-Lowell has recognized John Kennedy’s financial support by renaming its athletic center the Kennedy Family Athletic Complex. The dedication will be on October 25. … BSJ’s Greg Bedard on Mike Vrabel’s “rats” reference to anonymous team sources leaking to the press: “Mike’s really gotta watch that. In Nashville nobody notices. In Boston everybody notices, and it’s just chum in the water.”
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.