The Minutemen are down two quarterbacks and three receivers in the middle of a three-game losing streak, and their head coach’s message has not changed.
Lou Holtz has a famous quote for just about every situation a football coach can find himself in. Joe Harasymiak is living one of them right now.
“Don’t tell your problems to people; 80 percent don’t care and the other 20 percent are glad you have them.”
Harasymiak did not quote Holtz after Saturday’s 25-18 overtime loss at Buffalo, but he can certainly relate.
“No one cares,” Harasymiak said of the rash of injuries his team is dealing with. “No one cares right now.”
The problems are real, and they are not small.
Pop Watson and Aedan McCarthy, the Minutemen’s top two quarterbacks, were both out with injuries, leaving third-stringer Logan Inagawa to make his first start. Joseph Griffin Jr., T.Y. Harding and Dallas Elliott, three of the team’s top receivers, were out too.
Inagawa did enough to win. He threw for 168 yards, ran for 66 and a touchdown, and had UMass in front by a field goal with under two minutes to play.
“He gave us a chance to win,” Harasymiak said.
The receivers who were left standing did their part too, according to their coach.
“Kez (Dia-Johnson) had a couple big catches, I thought,” Harasymiak said. “Jabari (Lewis) had the one at the end there.”
None of it changes the math.
UMass has lost three straight games, and the last two came down to the final play.
The Minutemen lost by a point at home to Miami (Ohio) last week. On Saturday, Derek Morris made a 53-yard field goal for an 18-15 lead with 1:57 left, and Buffalo drove 63 yards to tie the game at the gun and won it in overtime.
“We had every opportunity to win the game and we did not do that,” Harasymiak said. “When you let someone hang around, you don’t make plays, that’s what’s going to happen.”
Buffalo’s drive in the final minutes to force overtime is the part that stuck with him. The Bulls went 63 yards in the final 1:57 against a defense that has carried this team all season.
“If you want to be the number one defense in the league, that doesn’t happen,” Harasymiak said. “You don’t allow that to happen. That’s where this program’s got to go.
“When you have someone down and you’ve got the number one defense in a two-minute drill, you can’t give it up, bottom line. And we did that.”
The offense had its own moment that set him off. UMass has struggled in short yardage all season, and it happened again Saturday.
“Division-I football, you’ve got to get a yard when you need a yard,” Harasymiak said. “We’ve had a problem in short yardage. We haven’t gotten it fixed.
“That was why the emotion came out, because we’ve got to nut up. I get it. We’re down. I don’t care. Go get a yard. Go get a yard. Go make the play. It’s college football.”
It does not get any easier next week. UMass has a short week, playing at UConn on Friday night, against a good Husky team that has had plenty of rest after a bye this weekend.
“We’ve got to step up,” Harasymiak reiterated. “Our whole program just has to nut up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Go out there and do it. Go win the game. No one cares.
“I’ll have to make sure I get that message across very sternly (Sunday).”
Three straight losses have not changed his read on where this program is headed. Maybe the Minutemen haven’t reached the point some dreamed of reaching when they started 4-0, but they’ve certainly progressed noticeably from last year’s disastrous results.
“I don’t think this team is anything like last year’s team or any of the teams before it,” Harasymiak said. “So keep putting yourselves there, but I ain’t going anywhere. We’re not going anywhere and we’ve just got to rally back and get it done.
“That’s what has to happen now. Instead of talking about it, we’ve got to go do it.”
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Great article …I think coach and his staff are doing a great job! The university will need to step up its NIL .The competition does not sit still. We need more depth.