A Quick Look At UMass' Non-Conference Slate
The Minutemen will play two Power-4 opponents in 2025.
The image of the 2025 UMass Football season got a little bit clearer on Tuesday when the University announced its non-conference schedule.
The Minutemen will open the season at home against Temple on Aug. 30th.
They will follow that up with a home game against Bryant a week later, on Sept. 6th.
Then, UMass will go on the road for the first time, to Iowa, for a game on Sept. 13th.
On Sept. 27th, the Minutemen will be back on the road as they’ll travel to Missouri.
The conference portion of UMass’ inaugural season in the MAC has yet to be announced.
One source told Minuteman Command the expectation is that UMass will play Buffalo, its closest geographical conference foe, each season. But beyond that, the remainder of the 2025 slate remains unknown.
It is worth noting that 2025 will be a bit of a one-off as Northern Illinois will be a member and the league will have 13 teams before the conference will drop down to 12 when the Huskies depart for the Mountain West in 2026.
Temple struggled in 2024, going 3-9 overall and 2-6 in the American Athletic Conference. The Owls’ wins came over Utah State (4-8), Tulsa (3-9) and Florida Atlantic (3-9). Temple does return quarterback Evan Simon, who threw for over 2,000 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2024, although it loses leading receiver Dante Wright.
FCS Bryant had a tough debut in a new conference in 2024, finishing 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the Coastal Athletic Conference.
Iowa had a respectable 8-5 campaign in 2024, including a 6-3 mark in the Big Ten. Long known for having a stingy defense, the Hawkeyes will look to jumpstart their offense with the addition of transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski (not Gronkowski) from South Dakota State, where he accounted for over 10,000 all-purpose yards and 100 touchdowns over four years. Iowa will need to replace Kaleb Johnson at running back though.
The Hawkeyes will need to replace some starters from last year on defense as well, but they have plenty of standouts remaining, including star safety Xavier Nwankpa.
Missouri is the only non-conference team the Minutemen played in 2024, a 45-3 loss to the Tigers at McGuirk Alumni Stadium in October.
Missouri was impressive last season, going 10-3 overall and 5-3 in the SEC. The Tigers capped their season with a 27-24 win over Iowa in the Music City Bowl. They lost the vast majority of their offensive production from a year ago, including quarterback Brady Cook, leading rushers Nate Noel and Marcus Carroll as well as standout receivers Theo Wease Jr. and Luther Burden III.
The Tigers did tap into the Transfer Portal, grabbing quarterback Beau Pribula from Penn State prior to the Nittany Lions’ College Football Playoff run.
The success of Joe Harasymiak’s tenure in Amherst will largely be measured by performance in conference play, which is why the Minutemen moved to the MAC in the first place. But the non-conference slate will always provide opportunities and 2025 will be no different.
Winnable games offer the chance to demonstrate progress in a meaningful way while tough matchups against legitimate Power-4 foes will be opportunities for the Minutemen to find out - and ultimately show - where they stack up nationally.
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