JUCO CB Target Visiting UMass This Weekend
JUCO cornerback target Chris Stanley has a strong interest in the Minutemen and they in him, which is why he'll be in Amherst this weekend.
Chris Stanley will get his first in-person look at UMass this weekend, and the opportunity has already caught the junior college cornerback’s attention.
“Everything’s great,” Stanley told Minuteman Command.
The 6-0, 180-pounder said the visit came together quickly after conversations with the Minutemen staff.
“I talked to the coaches,” Stanley said. “Coach (Joe) Harasymiak saw me and reached out to me, and we just got the dates set up.”
Stanley enters the visit with plenty of options. He said he currently holds around 18 offers, with additional programs continuing to reach out, but UMass stood out enough to warrant an early trip to Amherst.
“Really just because I have former high school teammates that are there right now,” said Stanley, who played high school ball at Desert Edge in Arizona, the same school that produced current UMass receiver Kez Dia-Johnson and defensive end Jerry Washington.
“I really wanted to go see what the campus was all about.”
Those early relationships helped open the door, but conversations with head coach Joe Harasymiak solidified his interest.
“He sounded real genuine,” Stanley said. “His plan that he had for me just sounded real nice. It sounded like a great opportunity, so I just wanted to really see what he was talking about.”
The message from UMass has been direct. Stanley said the staff has told him they see him as someone who could step in and contribute right away.
“That’s what they told me,” Stanley said. “They said I could come in and start from day one.”
For a junior college prospect, that opportunity carries added weight.
“I’d get the chance to play FBS ball and start and just play on the big stage,” he said. “That’s really a good opportunity for someone coming from JUCO.”
Stanley said consistent communication helped separate UMass from the pack early in the process. He pointed to defensive backs coach Donald Celiscar as one of the staff members who made that clear.
“They just hit me all the time, stayed in contact with me, checked up on me, made sure I was good,” Stanley said. “It just seemed like they really wanted me.”
That sense of priority is good, but Stanley plans to explore other aspects during his visit as well.
“I really want to see how my living situation is going to be, get to meet a lot of the coaching staff and see how that is,” he said. “Just see how it feels when I get there, see the environment and the culture.”
The Goodyear, Ariz., native also has a visit lined up to Kent State and said he is working to get additional trips scheduled, but his timeline is beginning to take shape.
“Hopefully my decision will be made by the end of the first week of the portal,” Stanley said. “So after this next weekend coming up.”
For now, the focus is on seeing if what he’s heard matches what he feels once he arrives in Amherst.
We expect a host of visitors on campus this weekend as UMass attacks the transfer portal process.
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