AMHERST — The UMass football team lost 45-14 to Bowling Green on Tuesday night in its final game of the 2025 season. The loss caps off a season to forget for the Minutemen, who end their first season back in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) without a win at 0-12.
Defensively, UMass struggled to limit the Falcons all game long. Bowling Green was extremely efficient offensively, only needing 17 plays to score the first 28 points of the game.
Hunter Najm finished the night with three touchdowns and 128 yards on just seven completions through the air, never really needing to push the ball downfield into harm’s way.
The Falcons’ first two scores came off screen passes, getting started with an 11-yard slip screen to Austyn Dendy. Just two offensive snaps later, Brennan Ridley took a wide receiver screen 87 yards to the end zone.
Tackling was a major problem for the Minutemen Tuesday night, something UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak explained was a focal point coming into the game.
“I think we knew exactly what [Bowling Green was] doing,” Harasymiak said. “We just didn’t play physical enough, we didn’t have a great pad level and we didn’t tackle. Tackling was really bad … we just didn’t execute.”
One of the lone bright spots for the Minutemen was the play of Grant Jordan, making his second start of the season at quarterback.
Jordan dealt with constant pressure from the Falcons’ defensive line, getting in his face more often than not without the need to blitz much.
Down by 28 points with time dwindling in the first half, the graduate led back-to-back impressive scoring drives. His first touchdown came on a decoy formation that confused the defense, finding Reece Adkins wide open up the seam for the first score of his collegiate career.
Getting the ball back with less than two minutes left in the second quarter, Jordan launched a deep ball up the left sideline to Jacquon Gibson, dropping it in the bucket for a huge gain. Just a few plays later, Jordan faked a designed run, pulling up and floating a ball to Max Dowling, standing by himself in the back right corner of the end zone.
Gibson was another bright spot for UMass, finishing the game with a career-high 138 receiving yards on 10 catches, with most of his production coming before the half.
“It was just about the execution on those two drives, [there weren’t] a lot of different play calls on all the other drives,” Harasymiak said. “I thought we had some opportunities early on a couple of those as well. But I think just overall execution of those plays, and [the] play makers, they showed up on those two drives.”
Early deficits have been a common occurrence this season for the Minutemen, never finding a way to surmount them and complete comeback attempts.
The same was true Tuesday night, with the hope gained before the half being eliminated by a quick three-and-out.
Injuries haven’t helped UMass in that aspect, with players across all positions missing time. Wide receiver has been one of the most impacted groups, with the team only having three healthy wideouts by the end of the night.
“You work so hard during the week, [the players] do, we do, and we come out and again, in a lot of the games this year, we just don’t start the game the right way, and it’s too much for us right now, the way we’re built to come from behind,” Harasymiak said.
As the second half got underway, the Minutemen’s offense completely stalled out. Bowling Green continued to play its game, adding two touchdowns and a field goal to put the nail in the coffin.
Battling for the last time this season, UMass showed heart, but just didn’t have enough in the tank to compete.
“They did everything we asked them to do in terms of the preparation,” Harasymiak said. “It wasn’t perfect from an execution standpoint, but I think that’s where we’re at. They went out there and fought… it just wasn’t good enough.”
Coming in at 0-11, there wasn’t much positivity surrounding the UMass football program, and Tuesday was a continuation of what has plagued the team all year long.
With National Signing Day coming up soon on Wednesday, Dec. 3, Harasymiak is hoping to quickly move on from a rough first season at the helm, and get to work on his 2026 squad.
“The record is the record,” Harasymiak said. “It’s crappy, it’s not acceptable. I’m here to win games, but I think we’ve just got to stay on the path. Can’t panic, can’t give up. Just [got to] keep going.”