Opponent Preview - UMass
Sneaking in one last preview, even though the season has started.
UMass Facts:
Location: Amherst, MA
Stadium: McGuirk Alumni Stadium
Field Type: Turf
Capacity: 17,000
Enrollment: 29,269
2024 Record: 3-9
Last Bowl: 1972 Boardwalk Bowl (35-14 W UC Davis)
All-Time Bowl Record: 1-1
2023 Attendance: 10,581 (129th nationally)
All-Time Series: 37-38-2
Last Meeting: 31-18 W 2023
Returning Starters: 5 Off, 6 Def
Lettermen: 26 Returning, 34 Lost
Schedule:
8/31- Eastern Michigan
9/7- at Toledo
9/14- at Buffalo
9/21- CCSU
9/28- at Miami (OH)
10/5- at Northern Illinois
10/12 - Missouri
10/26- Wagner
11/2- at Mississippi State
11/16- Liberty
11/23- at Georgia
11/30- UConn
Last Meeting/Last Time Here:
Due to a quirk in the scheduling agreement, UConn heads to the Amherst for the second consecutive season, as the 2023 meeting was initially to be held at a neutral site. UMass entered the game at 3-8, and recently had back to back wins for the first time since 2017, against Army and Merrimack. UConn entered at 2-9, having just defeated Sacred Heart 31-3 the week prior on Senior Day. Jim Mora was NOT happy with his Huskies after that game. They showed up to Amherst with just one more game to play, but questions abound. Would they replace Nick Charlton as OC (eventually, yes). How about ST coordinator Doug Shearer (No). Would there be a mass exodus to the portal (surprisingly, no).
It was a cold Saturday in Amherst, with temperatures in the single digits to start the morning in the tailgate lot. UConn got off to a hot start, with two defensive turnovers on as many drives. Jelani Stafford recovered a fumble, then Mumu Bin-Wahad intercepted a Taisun Phommachanh pass a few minutes in for the first score. UConn’s offense was ice cold, going three and out on its first drive, then turning the ball over on downs at the UMass 5, after going 80 yards on 15 plays in 7 game minutes. A third UMass turnover was forced, this time another fumble, recovered by Lee Molette III, and would move just 15 yards to get a FG. After another FG, LB Noah Plack-Tallerico bloked a Minuteman punt, giving the Huskies the ball at the UMass 27, where Victor Rosa hit paydirt from 17 yards out, giving UConn an 18-0 lead at the half.
A Ta’Quan Roberson fumble on the first play of the second half led to the first UMass score, a ten yard pass to former QB turned TE Gino Campiotti, cutting the lead to 12. The Huskies would move the ball again, but a missed 48 yard FG by Joe McFadden gave the Minutemen the ball back, but they would quickly go three and out. A nine play 70 yard drive ended with a Cam Edwards TD run, extending the lead to 25-6.
After a 40 yard pass to Anthony Simpson, UMass got the ball down to the goal line, and Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams punched it in to open the quarter, and cutting the lead to 25-12. The Huskies responded with a 12 play, 77 yard drive that took 8:12 off the clock, that ended with another Cam Edwards TD, giving them a 31-12 lead, and putting the game out of reach. A 27 yard pass, and 34 yard pass to Simpson got the Minutemen a late TD, but the game ended with a Husky victory, 31-18.
2024 UMass:
Phommachanh returns for the Minutemen in 2024 after missing a few games due to injury. He threw for 1,507 yards on 139-227 passing, with six TDs and six INTs. His backup, Ahmad Haston, took over for Phommachanh, threw for 176 yards on 11-17 passing, leading a late drive against New Mexico for a TD and two point conversion to force OT.
The top receiver, Bloomfield’s Anthony Simpson, returns, after catching 57 passes for 792 yards. Everyone else who caught a pass for the Minutemen is gone, forcing wholesale change. They’ve added eight transfers, most notably Miami (FL)’s Frank Ladson, who started nine games in the past two seasons, with 317 receiving yards. They also added Sterling Galban, a Jacksonville State transfer, who made 16 starts with 559 receiving yards the past two seasons. They add a big TE in San Jose State transfer, Dominick Mazotti, who UConn was after in the offseason. Big question marks for the unit outside of Simpson.
A lot of changes abound for the RB room as well, as top rusher Kay’Ron Lynch-Adams heads to East Lansing, and Greg Desroisers is now at Memphis. Simpson, Haston, and Phommachanh all were ahead of their leading returning rusher, Jalen John, another transfer HC Don Brown took with him from Arizona. John carried the ball ten times for 31 yards. They added Western Michigan’s CJ Hester, and Houston’s Brandon Campbell through the portal and will lean on John heavily this season.
OL was an area of relative strength last season, with 87 starts amongst all the starters. They lose some experience this season, but return C Josh Atwood, RG Ethan Mottinger, and add LG Paul Tchio (Georgia Tech), RT Luke Painton (Columbia), and Brayden Rohme (Cal) through the portal. They helped the Minutemen improve to 4.4 rushing yards per carry and allowed 26 sacks last year. They’ll look to improve those numbers, but may be a tall task with their best rushers departing.
The DL loses quite a bit from last year’s team, including Marcus Bradley, Cletus Mathurin, JB Brown, Uchenna Ezewike, and Billy Wooden. They add transfers Etinosa Reeuben (24 tackles in 4 years at Clemson, 8 games and 2 tackles last year at Georgia Tech), Tim Grant-Randall (9 starts, 24 tackles last year at Eastern Michigan), and Jaylen Hudson (37 tackles in 5 years at Wake Forest). Last season, the unit allowed 5.7 yards per carry and had 19 sacks. They’ll look to decrease the YPC, and increase the sacks.
At LB, they lose their top tackler from a year ago, Nahji Logan, but they return Miami (FL) transfer, Jalen Harrell (8 tackles last year), as well as their third leading tackler, Gerrell Johnson. They add 1st team All-Ivy performer Macklin Ayers, who played in 28 games, totaling 165 tackles in the past three seasons at Dartmouth. It’s a good group, and could be improved from a year ago.
In the secondary, second leading tackler Te’Rai Powell returns, as does Penn State transfer, and Windsor native, Tyler Rudolph. Three starters return, including Powell and Rudolph, and Isaiah Rutherford (11 starts, 22 tackles). The unit adds Leonard St Gourdin, who was teammates with Ayers at Dartmouth, where he recorded 69 tackles in 28 games, as well as Bryant transfer, Lake Ellis (11 games, 49 tackles last year). The unit was solid, and statiscally, one of the better pass defense units in terms of yardage allowed (206 yards per game). They held opponents below 200 yards seven times, but of course, the defense still allowed 5.7 yards per carry, and 37.8 points per game.
At kicker, Cameron Carson exits after hitting just 11-20 FGs, including 2-5 from 40-49, and 0-4 at 50+. Riley Moore, who punted three times last year, looks to be his replacement. CJ Kolodziey returns at punter, after punting 51 times for a net of 32.3, landing just ten inside the 20. Both KR and PR exit, and will look to some of the newcomers to shore up a return game that averaged just 6.7 yards per punt, and 19.3 yards per kick.
Prediction:
This game has become must-win for both sides in recent years, as neither team has been especially good, and you only get so many games against other not good teams. UConn has won the last two relatively easily, and will need to win this too, as they may be playing for bowl eligibility. The future of this series is in doubt, with UMass joining the MAC next season, but it would be shocking if it doesn’t continue. It’ll just be another game that needs to get fit in somewhere, part of the challenge of building an independent schedule. UConn needs to take care of business again in Amherst, and I think they do.
UConn 33 UMass 21