First-Year OC Max Warner Focused On What's Next At UMass
It took two questions mentioning last year's 0-12 season for new UMass offensive coordinator Max Warner to make it clear that's not part his mindset.
Max Warner isn’t interested in revisiting 2025’s 0-12 season.
Heck, he wasn’t even part of it.
The new UMass offensive coordinator made that clear the second time it was brought up during his initial press conference with reporters on Tuesday.
“You guys have said 0-12 twice, I don’t even talk like that,” Warner said. “I don’t even know what that is. I wasn’t here for that. A lot of these guys weren’t here for that. This isn’t an 0-12 team.
“This locker room, this group that we have right now, these guys are unbelievable. I just had a recruit this morning and his dad was like, ‘This group is awesome.’
“The buy-in is there, the commitment that these kids have in Year Two in the system with the coaches that have been here, that message has been resonating now for over 365 days.”
That mindset is part of what drew Warner to UMass in the first place along with familiarity with a league he’s spent seven seasons in - six at Bowling Green and one at Toledo - and an immediate connection with head coach Joe Harasymiak.
“As soon as I got connected with Coach H, it was one of those deals, like you look down on the phone and it was a 90-minute phone call,” Warner said. “We’re really aligned in terms of our values, in terms of what he believes in, what I believe in. It was a really, really good first conversation that led to another.
“The next thing you know, I’m getting on an airplane to come out here. Just seeing this facility, I think in this conference with what we have to offer at Massachusetts, they’ve done a great job with the resources and how they’ve prepared themselves to get into this league.
“Obviously there’s a great opportunity to improve and then the opportunity to go do something that’s never been accomplished, I think is kind of a driving force for me”
Warner’s familiarity with the MAC helps shape how he views building a program capable of competing week to week and he’s also aligned with UMass general manager Jared Osumah.
“You want to try to get old in this league,” he said. “You want to try to have a group of veteran players, which is getting harder obviously now in the landscape.
“I think we’ve done that a little bit with the portal and kind of their shift of before I got here with Zoom and the support staff and the personnel people here, trying to switch their focus to guys that have experience, whatever level that comes from, guys who’ve played football.”
The results show that, according to Warner.
“You look at those teams that are there at the end, it’s guys who have played a lot of football, played a lot of snaps,” he said. “You’ve got to still have that belief of recruiting high schools and developing within your program, developing the young kids to believe in what the culture is, to understand what we’re trying to ask them to do with that.”
Warner’s goal is reaching the league championship game.
“I’ve been close, been knocking on the door for the last few years to get to Detroit, haven’t got there,” he said. “So it’s an opportunity to keep fighting for that, some unfinished business there. But just week in, week out, I love the competition in the MAC.”
Warner has also been encouraged by what he’s seen from the group since arriving on campus.
“I’m excited about our players,” Warner said. “It’s been fast and furious for the last 10 weeks. I think we’ve been off to a good start with the guys.
“Great buy-in from the guys who stayed here, great buy-in from the guys we brought in. I feel really good about the room. I feel really good about position by position, what we’ve been able to recruit here.”
Warner noticed that from the start.
“From the first day that I’ve been here, these guys have been fully committed to everything we’ve asked them to do,” he said. “A lot of connection going on in this group, I like our staff.
“The kids are working, doing everything that we’re asking them to do. So I can’t ask for a much better start in terms of spring with the direction that they’re going.”
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