Harasymiak Confident in UMass Recruiting Structure

UMass has 20 verbal commitments in the Class of 2026 and according to head coach Joe Harasymiak, everything that was promised to him in terms of NIL is available.

2026 DL Robert Ekins was the first high school commit of the Joe Harasymiak Era.

Joe Harasymiak and his staff aren’t going and trying to find top high school prospects in the Class of 2026 to come in and help UMass right now as much as they’re trying to hang onto the recruits they’ve already found and who have already committed to the Minutemen.

Thanks to Junior Day visits in the months after Harasymiak’s hiring, spring practice visits, visits by the staff to prospects’ high schools and ultimately, a couple extremely successful official visit weekends back in June, the Minutemen were able to land verbal pledges from 20 high school prospects in the Class of 2026.

UMass identified, pursued and eventually earned commitments from several promising high school prospects.

The Minutemen have a top quarterback in New Jersey’s Tyler Bell, an impressive running back prospect in T.K. Davis from Washington, D.C., along with a pair of receivers, New Jersey’s David Moore and Kai Owens of Illinois. Massachusetts tight end Matthew Tybor was a coveted target the Minutemen landed in June along with a trio of offensive linemen; Connecticut’s Will McNamara, New Jersey’s Cristian Alvarez and Seydina Fall, who comes from Canada.

The group of defensive linemen currently committed represent the biggest position haul at this point and includes Samuel Mulbah, Yendor Mack and CJ Amobi of Pennsylvania, along with Maryland’s Donovan Murphy, Connecticut’s Cooper Long and New Jersey’s Robert Ekins, who was the first commit in the entire class.

UMass has a quartet of defensive back commits including New York’s Terron Johnson, Michigan’s Kareem Pruitt, Kentucky’s Corey Warner and David Chiavegato of Massachusetts.

New Hampshire kicker Seamus McIntyre rounds out the group.

But, until National Signing Day in December, those verbal commitments are non-binding.

“As of right now, we’re working really hard on keeping all those guys,” Harasymiak said during Monday’s press conference. “Certainly from a result standpoint, being where we’re at, I get it, it’s becoming more difficult.”

Harasymiak said between himself, his coordinators and the position coaches, each recruit gets individual attention each week.

“I probably FaceTime almost half the class every week and then the other half is done by our position coaches,” he said. “So we’re hitting everybody up every week, we’re talking to them about it.”

2026 QB Tyler Bell is a key member of UMass’ current recruiting class.

The message to the commits is that they will be a part of the turnaround.

“I think those guys are feeling like they will have a connection to this place to be the group that changes it, and that is a challenge,” Harasymiak said. “I hope they keep feeling that and certainly, we need to do our part here in this next half of the season.”

UMass has also been hosting large numbers of the commits - along with other prospects in the 2026 and 2027 classes and beyond - for home games this fall.

“It’s great to get guys on campus,” Harasymiak said. “I think they can see what we’re doing inside the walls. I think it’s a big part of it. We’ve just got to keep getting better outside of the walls and put a better product out there. But I’m confident where we are right now.”

Every year, colleges around the country look to poach verbal commits from other schools.

“This is the time of year that it starts to happen,” Harasymiak said. “I think you’re kind of seeing it, especially with the new rule changes, with the new difference in everything with dates and dead periods and all that stuff that’s getting approved.”

In-state DB commit David Chiavegato was a coveted UMass target.

National Signing Day is actually a period of time. And these days, there are two; one in early-December and one in early-February, the latter doesn’t really have an end date either.

But what Harasymiak and his staff are focused on is that December Signing Period, which opens on Wed., Dec. 3rd and stretches through Fri., Dec. 5th.

Those dates fall within a recruiting Dead Period, which restricts schools from having any in-person contact with student-athletes.

“We can just keep believing in what we’re doing and keep recruiting them really, really hard,” Harasymiak said.

New rules reshaping the structure of NIL, clearing the way for colleges to make direct NIL payments to players, went into place on July 1st of this year. Harasymiak was asked if he felt the NIL budget for recruiting that he was promised when he was hired was in place.

“Absolutely,” Harasymiak responded. “As of July 1st, everything that they said was going to be there is there.

“I’m confident moving forward that we’re going to be able to put together a really good team.”

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