Before UMass opened the season as massive underdogs at Rutgers, Joe Harasymiak borrowed a lesson from “Hoosiers,” reminding his players that the field in Piscataway would measure the same 100 x 53.5 yards as every other football field.
Two wins later, Harasymiak is moving the goal posts.
UMass is 2-0 for the first time in its FBS era, but its head coach isn’t interested in allowing wins alone to define success anymore. He’s challenging the Minutemen to continually chase more.
Reflecting on Saturday’s 37-10 home-opening win over Sacred Heart, a final score that may have actually short-changed the Minutemen’s dominance, Harasymiak said there were stretches that fell well short of what he wants his program to become.
“I think we handled the week right last week,” he said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “I thought we practiced really well. Our practice standard can never waver. I thought they handled it well”
It showed from the start.
Quarterback Pop Watson hit T.Y. Harding for a 49-yard touchdown pass on the second play from scrimmage and minutes later Harding returned a punt 82 yards to put UMass up 14-0 barely three minutes into the game.
“Obviously, the beginning of the game couldn’t have started any better,” Harasymiak said before acknowledging his dissatisfaction with the fact that UMass could only muster nine more points the rest of the half.
“I kind of feel like that range of emotion kind of overtook us and we got a little sloppy,” he said. “I wasn’t really happy with that.
“The next step for us in those games, now as we get into them, we got to step on people’s throats. Like you got to put the game away when the game can be put away.”
That demand is part of a larger message Harasymiak is delivering to a team experiencing a dramatically different start than it did a year ago.
“We’re talking to the team about you always have to chase the next best version of you,” he said. “That’s what being great is, right? Not being satisfied, not being complacent with where you’re at.”
After a dominating performance up front against the Scarlet Knights, Harasymiak wasn’t particularly pleased with either side’s performance against Sacred Heart.
“Credit to Sacred Heart in terms of just watching the tape again, I thought they got after us up front,” he said. “I wasn’t very happy with our o-line/d-line at points. Our goal in this game was to dominate the line of scrimmage and we did not do that.
“We’re going to get after our o-line/d-line this week and get back to who we believe we are.”
The offensive line provides a good example of the difference between results and the standard Harasymiak is trying to establish.
UMass hasn’t allowed a sack through its first two games, but he credited Watson with some of that and also said sacks allowed isn’t the only thing they measure.
“Our standard’s got to be we’re going to dominate the line of scrimmage,” he said. “We want to move people off the line. We want to be great in pass protection and we want to dictate the terms.
“It’s not the stats. It’s, ‘What does it look like when you turn on the tape? Are you gaining respect from the way you play?’ That’s what I just felt like we lacked a little bit.”
Through two weeks, UMass is obviously one of the most improved teams in the country and by the end of the year, they very well may be THE most improved team in the country.
But they aren’t there yet…and even if they were, that wouldn’t be good enough for Harasymiak.
And even if UMass registers a dominant win over Stonehill on Saturday, Harasymiak is going to continue to challenge his squad.
“We’re always chasing, right? We’re always trying to chase the next best version of us. And that’s going to be the main message this week.”
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