AMHERST — Rutgers defensive coordinator Joe Harasymiak spent most of Thanksgiving Day watching film and planning an effective scheme to use against Michigan State. When he finally got home that night, he bypassed turkey and gravy and reached for his computer instead. He had more business to tend to.

Harasymiak hopped on a Zoom call with UMass Chancellor Javier Reyes, Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford, Trustee and Chair of the Athletics Committee David Brunelle as well as alumnus Martin Jacobson to discuss Harasymiak’s interest in the Minutemen football head coaching vacancy. The 38-year old left the meeting thrilled, and it led to an in-person visit between the two parties in Hartford, Conn. shortly after.

Once Harasymiak saw the confidence each UMass representative showed in person matched what he saw over Zoom, he was all in.

“From the first moment that I sat down, there was passion, there was a vision that had intent and that’s what got me excited – people that care about this place,” Harasymiak said. “That’s eventually why I go up to Hartford and sit down with them face-to-face. When you meet people, people can always lie with their mouth, but they can never lie with their eyes. I could tell in their eyes there was nothing gonna get in the way from myself being here, and ultimately us doing what we need to do.”

It does, however, take two sides to reach a deal, and Bamford quickly zeroed in on Harasymiak following that first meeting. Having played his collegiate football in the northeast at Springfield College and having coached in the region for most of his career, including winning an FCS Coach of the Year Award in 2018 at Maine, Harasymiak was a good fit for the UMass position. A young, hungry, energetic candidate with a proven track record at his previous stops – all of which aren’t considered football powerhouses by any stretch.

Harasymiak earned two Broyles Award nominees for his work as a DC at Rutgers in 2022 and 2023, and followed that up by leading the Scarlet Knights’ defense to a top 20 finish. He brought Maine to a 10-win season and an FCS semifinal in 2018 before heading to Minnesota – where he helped the Gophers rank third in the country in total defense in 2021.

Based on his past, and all signs pointing to a successful future, Bamford felt like Harasymiak was the perfect fit.

“We had a really great search, really quality pool of candidates,” Bamford said. “I had one agent very early in the process, a really significant person in college football, say, ‘this isn’t the same old UMass.’ We focused in on Joe pretty quickly. Joe said it, he is committed to where his feet are… He was so focused on who his next opponent was at Rutgers and wanted to make sure he was doing things the right way. We worked pretty quickly from there, after they had beat Michigan State, making sure we were organized going into this week… I think we landed in a tremendous place with Coach Harasymiak.”

The new head coach of the Minutemen – who had a business-like expression plastered on his face for most of Friday’s press conference – will make $1.3 million over the course of his first season in Amherst. That number will gradually increase to a little more than $1.4 million as his five-year contract plays out, according to Bamford. The average annual value is just shy of $1.4 million over the half decade.

Bamford said he and his search team talked to over 20 candidates over the past several weeks, some of them several times. When UMass was hiring back in 2018, and again in 2021, Harasymiak’s name was in the mix each instance. But now, after several years serving as a Power 4 coordinator, the time felt right for both parties.

“Usually you gotta lose some to eventually win,” Harasymiak said. “The experience of being part of [the previous UMass coaching searches] and suffering some heartbreak at times, I think that just hardens you. It makes you who you are. Certainly what I’ve learned most from the process is don’t ever not be yourself. If it aligns, it aligns. And this time it did. I was myself, and that’s why I believe I connected with everybody that was a part of that.”

After arriving in Amherst on Wednesday, Harasymiak met with the current UMass players and coaching staff. He mentioned Friday he met with the team once more, and also said he hasn’t solidified his assistant coaches – which he will get a $2.7 million staff pool to play with to do so. When Harasymiak was a head coach in Maine, it came after being an assistant on the Black Bears staff for five years prior to that.

Now, he comes into a program he has no familiarity with. Earning the respect of players as the new sheriff in town isn’t something Harasymiak has had to do before. He admitted he’s been open and honest with the team, and understands that in this era of the sport, players come and go.

Either way, Harasymiak guaranteed things are going to change.

“I think it starts off with being real, showing them who I am and how we’re gonna run the program,” Harasymiak said. “Anybody that believes in that and wants to be a part of that will be here. And that’s OK, college football is great now. You don’t like it, you wanna go somewhere else, that’s awesome. If you wanna be here and change something that’s hard, and be part of something that’s gonna be special, stick around. That’s my message to them the first two team meetings. A lot of things are gonna change. A lot. That’s evident. That needs to happen.”

Based on the buzz around UMass on Friday, the athletic department believes they have finally found their guy.