Three quarterbacks have started games for UMass this month, and the Minutemen may not know which one starts Friday night at UConn until shortly before kickoff.
That may be a concern for the fans, and understandably so, but their head coach is projecting confidence regardless of who offensive coordinator Max Warner will be working with.
“I told the team the last two weeks in the Friday night team meeting, I have no concern about who the quarterback is in terms of whether it was going to be Aedan or Logan,” Harasymiak said Monday.
“I have full confidence in Max and his staff to put together a plan.”
Watson is the first choice when healthy, and UMass started 4-1 with him running the show. He has not played since the loss to Eastern Michigan on Oct. 3.
He walked through Monday’s practice with the rest of the Minutemen’s injured regulars, and with only one full-speed practice on a short week, his status may not be finalized until Friday afternoon and pregame warmups.
“I have to listen to the player, but I also have to trust my eyes and see what they do,” Harasymiak said. “Can they do what they need to do to be effective in the game? Can they protect themselves?
“You look in the kid’s eye and he’ll tell you. Eyes don’t lie.”
McCarthy seems Doubtful at this point. The true freshman made his first career start against Miami (Ohio) in place of Watson, finishing 15 of 29 for 171 yards before suffering an ankle injury in the fourth quarter and being helped off the field.
Harasymiak said McCarthy is potentially available Friday, but did not group him with the injured regulars who walked through Monday.
“He’s a little bit probably farther behind those four guys,” Harasymiak said.
The two healthy-ish options have similarities that could make the uncertainty of the week easier for Warner and his staff to game plan around. Harasymiak called McCarthy the big arm who can get the ball over the top. Inagawa, he said, plays the most like Watson.
“Certainly with Aedan, it’s a different type of mentality,” Harasymiak said. “Big arm, strong, able to get the ball over the top.”
Inagawa was the third-stringer when this stretch began. He came off the bench against Miami (Ohio) and completed all six of his passes for 83 yards, including a 21-yard touchdown to Dowling with one second remaining before the Minutemen’s two-point try for the win failed.
He made his first start at Buffalo and finished 14 of 25 for 168 yards with an interception while running 19 times for 66 yards and a touchdown in the 25-18 overtime loss.
“He gave us a chance to win,” Harasymiak said.
Warner has had to build a plan for each of them, sometimes in the same week, and he has had to do it for Buffalo without starting receivers Joseph Griffin Jr., T.Y. Harding and Dallas Elliott. UMass spent the Buffalo game in 13 and 12 personnel, leaning on tight ends and its running game to protect whoever was under center.
“What Max has done and his staff, with a true freshman and a quarterback that was third string at the time, to be able to put us in games,” Harasymiak said.
“A lot of the things that we’ve done well over the last two weeks is, no matter who’s in, we kind of have a plan for what that’s going to be.”
The plan for Friday may come together late, the way everything about this quarterback room has lately. If Watson can go, he goes. If not, it seems like the Minutemen will turn things over to Inagawa again.
“Whoever it is, everyone else has got to step up in a big-time environment.”
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