UMass won’t have to wait long to find out whether the changes made during Joe Harasymiak’s second offseason have moved the Minutemen closer to where he wants the program to be.
They’ll get a Big Ten measuring stick immediately.
UMass opens the 2026 season Thursday night at Rutgers, where Harasymiak spent three seasons as defensive coordinator before taking over in Amherst. The Scarlet Knights are coming off a 5-7 season, but return some of the most accomplished offensive players in the Big Ten while introducing a new quarterback and an almost completely reshaped defense.
Rutgers has won eight consecutive season openers and is 15-0 in regular-season nonconference games since Greg Schiano returned as head coach in 2020. The Scarlet Knights have also won 14 of their last 16 home openers.
Harasymiak knows what that challenge will look like, even if he doesn’t know everything Rutgers will show schematically.
“This is going to be a very physical, violent game,” Harasymiak said. “They’re going to play extremely hard. That’s what Coach Schiano teams do. So I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Here’s a closer look at the Minutemen’s first opponent.
OFFENSE
The most significant question for Rutgers is at quarterback, but just about everything around the new starter should make his transition easier.
Boston College transfer Dylan Lonergan was named Rutgers’ starting quarterback last week after joining the Scarlet Knights following one season with the Eagles.
Lonergan completed 190 of 284 passes, 66.9 percent, for 2,025 yards and 12 touchdowns in nine starts at Boston College last season. His best statistical performance came at Michigan State, where he completed 34 passes for 390 yards and four touchdowns. Lonergan began his college career at Alabama before transferring to BC.
He replaces Athan Kaliakmanis, who threw for 3,124 yards and 20 touchdowns last season before being selected in the NFL Draft.
The larger concern for UMass will be the established weapons surrounding Lonergan.
Running back Antwan Raymond enters the season as the Big Ten’s leading returning rusher after carrying 244 times for 1,241 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2025. He added 18 receptions for 225 yards and two more scores, giving him 1,466 all-purpose yards and 15 total touchdowns.
Raymond has scored 18 rushing touchdowns over his last 14 games and has reached the end zone either rushing or receiving in 12 of those contests. His junior season included four 100-yard rushing games, highlighted by 240 yards on 41 carries against Maryland.
Harasymiak expects offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca to lean on him.
“They’re going to try and run the ball down our face and make us quit,” Harasymiak said. “I think Kirk calls it body blows, like a heavyweight fight, when you drop your hands and you’re standing there late in the round and they go out and get you.”
Ciarrocca has developed a first or second-team All-Big Ten running back in each of the last four seasons, and Rutgers is the only power-conference program to produce a 1,200-yard rusher in each of the last three.
That commitment to the running game also allows Rutgers to control possession. The Scarlet Knights averaged 32:31 of possession last season and held the ball for at least 10 minutes in a quarter seven different times.
“We probably won’t get a ton of possessions,” Harasymiak said. “That’s just kind of the way Kirk is. He runs the ball, check with me, he can go tempo, but they’re the best when they’re grinding you out.”
When Rutgers does put the ball in the air, KJ Duff presents another significant problem.
The 6-foot-6 receiver caught 60 passes for 1,084 yards and seven touchdowns last season, averaging 18.1 yards per reception. His 90.3 receiving yards per game ranked third in the Big Ten and seventh nationally. He had three 100-yard games, including six catches for 241 yards against Purdue.
Duff also led the country with 22 contested catches according to Pro Football Focus and enters 2026 on the Biletnikoff Award and Walter Camp Player of the Year watch lists.
Up front, Rutgers brings back one of the nation’s top guards in Kwabena Asamoah.
The 6-foot-2, 311-pounder has started 25 consecutive games at right guard and earned Second Team All-America honors from ESPN last season. Asamoah joins Raymond and Duff as preseason All-America selections, giving Rutgers three preseason All-Americans for the first time since 2008.
Harasymiak remembers Asamoah from his own time in Piscataway.
“Kobe was there, who’s the strongest guy in the world at the time,” Harasymiak said. “So he’s a big dude.”
Rutgers averaged 407.1 yards per game last season, including 266.1 through the air. Its 28.7 points per game were the second-most of its Big Ten era, and the Scarlet Knights set a school record with 23.2 first downs per game.
The quarterback has changed, but the identity around him hasn’t.
DEFENSE
This is where projecting Rutgers becomes considerably more difficult.
The Scarlet Knights struggled defensively last season, allowing 432.8 yards per game, including 209.9 on the ground. Opponents averaged 6.8 yards per rushing attempt and scored 25 rushing touchdowns. Rutgers also allowed 23 passing touchdowns while intercepting only five passes.
Schiano responded with significant changes.
Travis Johansen takes over as defensive coordinator after spending last season as the head coach at South Dakota. Johansen went 10-5 in his lone season leading the Coyotes, reaching the FCS quarterfinals after six previous seasons as South Dakota’s defensive coordinator. Rutgers credits Johansen with directing six top-10 defenses during his career.
For UMass, that means preparing for a defense that doesn’t have much 2026 Rutgers tape to study.
“Certainly their whole defense is brand new,” Harasymiak said. “So that’ll be kind of the unknown we have to handle. I think in first games, regardless of what you think you know, there’s a level of unknown that comes out of that and you’ve got to be able to handle.”
Rutgers also attacked the transfer portal to reshape the personnel Johansen will have available.
Defensive lineman J’Dan Burnett arrives from Tulsa with 42 games of FBS experience, 82 career tackles, 19 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks. He had 6.5 sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss last season while earning Second Team All-American Athletic Conference honors.
Malachi Davis comes from Toledo with 57 career tackles, 14 tackles for loss and eight sacks, while Ty Morris arrives from Rice after accumulating 153 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks over the last three seasons.
Linebacker Sean Allison brings even more production from the FCS level. The Drake transfer has 289 career tackles, including more than 100 in each of the last two seasons, and was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award as one of the top defensive players in the FCS last year.
The secondary has also been supplemented by experienced transfers.
Zahmir Dawud arrives from Villanova with 93 tackles, 13 pass breakups and four interceptions over three seasons. Mikey Munn followed Johansen from South Dakota after intercepting five passes and breaking up 10 more last season, when he earned FCS All-America recognition.
Rutgers does have some returning production, most notably safety Kaj Sanders. He finished third on the team with 65 tackles last season while also blocking two punts. Abram Wright returns after making 58 tackles in 2025, while Moses Walker is back after being limited to four games last fall.
The result is a defense with plenty of experience, but much of that experience was accumulated somewhere other than Rutgers.
That may give UMass opportunities early if the Minutemen can handle the uncertainty without hurting themselves.
“We’ve got to execute at a high level,” Harasymiak said. “And then ultimately we have to handle the unknown because there’s going to be some unknown of what their defense gives us.”
SPECIAL TEAMS
There may not be another area where Rutgers’ identity under Schiano is more obvious.
The Scarlet Knights have blocked 76 kicks during Schiano’s tenure, including 46 punts, 17 field goals and 13 extra points. Those blocks have produced 18 touchdowns.
Rutgers has blocked 13 punts since 2022, the most in the country over that span. Three blocked punts resulted in touchdowns last season alone.
Sanders was responsible for two of those blocks and scored on one of them.
Rutgers is also experienced in the more conventional areas of the kicking game.
Punter Jakob Anderson averaged 44.2 yards per punt last season while allowing only five returns. Seventeen of his 33 punts resulted in fair catches and 10 were downed inside the 20.
Kicker Jai Patel has made 43 of 55 career field-goal attempts, including three from at least 50 yards. He went 13 of 18 last season with a long of 51 and kicked the game-winner as time expired at Purdue. His 78.2-percent career conversion rate is the best in Rutgers history among kickers with at least 30 attempts.
For UMass, avoiding the kind of catastrophic special-teams mistake Rutgers has built a reputation for creating will be a significant part of staying in the game.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR UMASS
Rutgers isn’t without questions.
The Scarlet Knights are replacing their starting quarterback. They’re installing a new defense after allowing more than 430 yards per game last season. Much of that defensive roster has been rebuilt with transfers, meaning Rutgers will be working through some of the same early-season cohesion questions as UMass.
But the known quantities are significant.
Raymond gives Rutgers a proven Big Ten running back capable of carrying the offense. Duff provides Lonergan with one of the league’s premier receivers. Asamoah anchors the line. And Schiano’s special teams have consistently created the kind of game-changing plays that can turn a competitive road game into something else quickly.
For UMass, the formula begins with surviving what Harasymiak already knows is coming.
“I’m focusing on trying to get our team ready for what the mentality will be to have a chance, the physicality, the grind, the strength of their team, how big they’re going to be upfront especially, and how strong they are,” he said.
The Minutemen won’t know exactly what Rutgers will show Thursday night.
They know exactly how the Scarlet Knights intend to play.
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