Harasymiak: QB Decision Needed To Be Made
UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak talks about naming Brandon Rose the starter.
Joe Harasymiak isn’t afraid to make a tough decision and he also isn’t afraid to make that decision public, which is why the first-year UMass head coach announced his team’s starting quarterback on Monday, almost two weeks before the Minutemen’s opener against Temple.
“We're going to name Brandon Rose our starting quarterback,” Harasymiak said. “I thought it was time.”
Harsymiak said the decision to anoint Rose over fellow quarterbacks Grant Jordan and AJ Hairston was influenced by his discussions with offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian and quarterbacks coach Drew Belcher.
“It's certainly a hard decision,” the coach said. “Grant and AJ have done a great job. I love the way they came out here and practiced today and responded and now we've got to go. Now we've got to go. (The announcement) gets that settled, gets everyone around, start working with the same people, but I thought it was time to do it.
“It was a hard decision, but we feel like Brandon right now gives us the best opportunity to operate what we want to do and take the next step forward as an offense.”
And taking that next step will allow the Minutemen offense to progress even before the season-opener arrives.
“I think it kind of lets the whole entire offense kind of settle down,” he said of the competition being over. “The even reps were great throughout the competition, but that also doesn't allow for guys to work together and keep going.
“But listen, I am confident in all three. It's just at the end of the day, these are the hard decisions that we have to make. Only one guy, there's only 11 guys on the field, there can only be one quarterback, so that's how we're going to progress right now.”
Harasymiak pointed to Rose’s poise, his decision-making and the overall confidence he steps on the field with.
Harasymiak declined to name either Jordan and Hairston as the backup, at least for now.
“Those guys will compete,” he said. “We'll see how that pans out. I think that's the best way to move forward. We're not going to delineate two and three right now. We want those guys to keep competing.
“It's interesting, all three of them, like we said, they're a little different. They have strengths and weaknesses, so putting together that whole thing come gameplan time, I'm excited to see what the next guy is going to do.”
Harasymiak said neither Jordan or Hairston were pleased with the decision, which he finds encouraging.
“They should be angry, they should be pissed, which I'm happy that they are,” he said. “They should be. And I wouldn't want it any other way.
“If a guy just accepts it, that actually worries me a little bit. But I think now it's about their response. I just talked to the team about everybody in here, when you get ready to play, you're either prepared or you're surprised. And if you're at two on the depth charts now you're one play away. I mean it's literally one play away and if you go in surprised, it never works out good. So we've got to prepare the right way and that's about taking the next step.”
Meanwhile, Temple has a similar competition at quarterback between transfer Gevani McCoy and incumbent Evan Simon. But the only announcement Owls head coach K.C. Keeler has made is that there will be no announcement prior to gameday.
“UMass will have no idea who’s starting,” Keeler said on Monday. “We’ll probably announce K.C. Keeler and they probably will figure that’s not going to happen.”
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