Good morning!
The day broke sunny and the UMass fight song echoed around McGuirk Alumni Stadium on Saturday, but as opening acts go the season opener was less than cathartic. It was more like Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate and Roy Brown Jr.’s Edsel; it was Rocky the Musical, Reagan vs. Mondale and Yankees vs. Twins.
Only seven games in Week 1 resulted in bigger blowouts than Temple’s 42-10 dismantling of UMass. Georgia State was shellacked by Ole Miss, 63-7, but the Panthers have been to six bowl games since 2010 and UMass has been to the Nothing Bowl.
The Owls left Philly by bus on Friday and stayed overnight at the Springfield Sheraton. Asked about dealing with the holiday weekend traffic, one of the drivers smiled and said, “We had a state police escort. They met us at every border except New York. Four states. I’d never had that.”
The game matched veteran coach KC Keeler against FBS newbie Joe Harasymiak, and experienced quarterback Evan Simon against untested transfer Brandon Rose.
Shortly before kickoff the 24-year-old Simon showed he was ready by playfully slapping a teammate’s helmet. He threw six touchdown passes and nobody laid a hand on him. His performance garnered him American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honors.
Rose meanwhile probably wished he was back on the bench in Salt Lake City watching Utah clobber UCLA, 43-10. After Rocko Griffin’s 18-yard run capped a 75-yard scoring drive for UMass on the opening series, Rose hit the self-destruct button. He was sacked twice, fumbled once, failed to score on 1st-and-goal from the 3, and threw an interception on 1st-and-goal from the 6.
“If I had a penny for every time [offensive coordinator] Mike Bajakian talked about ball control I could buy Massachusetts,” lamented one insider.
Rose had to be helped off the field in the fourth quarter after he was flattened by 230-pound linebacker Tyrese Whitaker, a gratifying moment for linebacker coach Keith Dudzinski who was the defensive coordinator at UMass under Don Brown.
The day’s events reminded me of Walt Bell’s inaugural game when the Minutemen led Rutgers 21-7 and wound up losing, 48-21. Harasymiak’s better than Bell but needs to show it. Everyone likes him. He’s reserved and organized and when asked, told Hustle Belt if he had to be an animal he’d be a Lab. “Eat, get up, nap, walk around. You know, just a chilled out dog, just chilling.”
And who doesn’t love Labs?
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UM Briefs: The Minutemen host FCS Bryant University this afternoon and are favored by 15 points according to picksandparlays.net. … Insiders say if Rose doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to play smashmouth football, Harasymiak might go to a two-back option offense with A.J. Hastings or use fleet-footed Grant Jordan who rushed for 377 yards and five touchdowns at Yale last season. … The Athletic dropped UMass to 135th in its weekly rankings, one spot ahead of anchor team Middle Tennessee State, Walt Bell’s alma mater. … UMass was flagged five times for 32 yards, an improvement compared to last year against Eastern Michigan when the Minutemen were penalized ten times for 99 yards. … MAC members Kent State, Ball State, and Akron are cumulative 124.5 underdogs Saturday against Texas Tech, Auburn and Nebraska, respectively. … Ohio is a three-point underdog Saturday at home against West Virginia. The Bobcats are the class of the conference, losing to Rutgers 34-31 despite 333 yards of total offense from quarterback Parker Navarro. … Bogged by injuries and TV timeouts, the game took three hours and 24 minutes. They can at least play some decent music and change the kickoff time so families can be home in time for dinner.
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Talk Talk: Shelburne native Jay Burnham will have the radio call of Saturday’s game with sidekick Matt Goldstein, and Cooper Boardman will do the TV play-by-play on ESPN-Plus with analyst Tre Watson. This season’s sideline reporters are Adam Frenier (home) and Nathan Strauss (road).
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The 31st annual Don Maynard Memorial 5K Road Race & Walk will be Sept. 20 at the Greenfield Municipal Swimming Pool. Sign up online at RunSignup.
“We’ve changed the distance from five miles to the 5K to see if it draws more runners,” said race director Chuck Adams. “We need volunteers,” he added. “They can call me at 413-522-6688.”
The registration fee is $30 for the run and $25 for the walk with a $5 discount for seniors. The first 50 to register will receive T-shirts. Proceeds will benefit high school seniors from Franklin County. “This year’s recipients were Kylee Gamache of Franklin County Tech and Amelia Fowler-Shaw of Pioneer,” said Adams.
The course starts on Plain Road and goes north to Meadow Lane across to Colrain Road south to Nash’s Mill Road over to the bike path where it will end at the bike path bridge.
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Deerfield’s Jamin Hemenway is in Pullman, Washington, Saturday for a football doubleheader. Idaho plays St. Thomas in Moscow at 1 p.m. and Washington State hosts San Diego State in Pullman at 7 p.m.
“It’s only a 20-minute drive between stadiums,” said Hemenway. “I’ve been waiting a decade for the stars to align on this one.”
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SQUIBBERS: Formers Owls running back and ’86 Heisman runnerup Paul Palmer is Temple’s radio analyst. … ’95 Heisman winner Eddie George is the first-year coach at Bowling Green and will be in Amherst when the Falcons play UMass on Tuesday, Nov. 25. … WFAN’s Joe Benigno on Mets reliever Ryan Helsley: “His walkup music is Flirting with Disaster.” …. NFL podcaster Ross Tucker’s top five teams in descending order are Green Bay, Buffalo, Baltimore, K.C. and the Eagles. Tucker puts the Pats 18th in his Week 1 rankings. … Tarleton State not only shocked Army in double OT last week, but the Texans took home a $250,000 payout for playing at West Point. … Nats outfielder James Wood is on track to strike out 200 times this season. At this writing he led both leagues with 185 whiffs. … Springfield Central’s Pop Watson will back up QB Kyrone Drones Saturday in Blacksburg where Va. Tech is favored by a point to beat Vanderbilt. … At this writing Francisco Lindor led the majors with 632 plate appearances. Take away Lindor’s 0-for-30 and 0-for-21 slumps in 562 ABs and he’d be hitting .292. … Chris Russo gave his son Colin the facts of radio life after young Colin used his show to about Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open. “Colin you’re not your old man who people will listen to if he reads the phone book. Do what we tell you to do.” … Longtime Amherst High School volleyball coach Kacey Schmitt has come out of retirement at the behest of AD Victoria Dawson after the new JV coach quit on the first day of practice. … Greenfield’s Matt Bete played in this summer’s annual Snoopy Seniors World Hockey Tournament in Santa Rosa, Cal. Teams were divided by age groups from youthful 50s to spry 70s and had catchy names like Old Puckers, Pylons and Hackers Hockey Club.
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.