QB Brandon Rose Is The Guy To Lead UMass
UMass has promised a new era for its football program. It began that promise with the hiring of Joe Harasymiak. Brandon Rose is here to fulfill it.
It’s a scorching hot summer day on the campus of Murrieta Valley High School, nestled 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles and just on the outer edge of a sprawling California mountain range. There, the Nighthawks are in the midst of their summer conditioning, prepping for another season of playing some of the best California has to offer.
Offensive coordinator Alex Rosenblum and quarterbacks coach Sean Sams stride across the field as the team glides a sled across the steaming green turf. Sams notices there’s one kid pushing harder than the rest — he’s letting them know too.
“You’re letting the quarterback beat you!”
That quarterback is Brandon Rose.
“He's just beating everybody,” Sams said. “I mean, he's beating everybody.”
“You hear the cliches, ‘Brandon is the most competitive kid you’ve ever met,’” Rosenblum said. “That dude was winning every single rep. It was like, ‘Holy crap. This kid is just ultra competitive. If there's something you're going to compete in, he's going to go be the best. He's going to drive it into his mind that he's the best, and he's going to go out compete everybody.”
That quarterback is already verbally committed to play at the University of Utah. That quarterback, hypothetically, doesn’t have to push himself to the limits under the intense California sun. He doesn’t have to prove anymore that he’s worthy of playing at the next level.
But that would go against everything Rose stands for. That would go against what many say makes him great. Rose’s inner drive to be the best — and let everyone know — is exactly why he received Division I offers from the likes of Colorado, Kansas and Northwestern.
It’s exactly why UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak and his staff brought him to Amherst this past winter, and it’s exactly why he’s been named the starting quarterback of the Minutemen.
Rose has been pegged as the face of UMass Football in what may be its most important season in decades.
There is a reason for that.
Here’s why.
“Kids Just Don’t Pop Into The World Like That.”
Rose’s development started long before he was pushing sleds in Murrieta, but instead started in the home he was raised in.
“To me it always starts in the house the kid grew up in,” Sams said. “Kids just don’t pop into the world like that.”
Rose grew up in a military household. His father, David, is a combat veteran and a member of the Military Police. His former coaches both agreed — Rose is why he is because of how he was raised.
“He comes from a pretty disciplined background in regard to decision-making,” Rosenblum said. “He knows right from wrong, but he's not going to let his buddies go down. He's going to have his guys’ backs, he’s never going to shy away from a situation.”
It’s not just his father who helped mold UMass’s next quarterback. His mother, Lorilyn, played just as big of a role in Brandon’s upbringing.
During the course of a spring game at Murrieta, Brandon wasn’t wearing a mouthpiece and he paid the price as a handoff with his running back went wrong and he took an elbow to the mouth. Many mothers across America may blame the school and coaches for the injury.
Not Brandon’s.
“His mom got all over him, and I was like, ‘You know what? This is a kid I know I could work with because his parents do the right thing,’” Sams said. “I'm not saying they're hard on him, but she just climbed his behind.”
Once Rose stepped foot on Murrieta Valley’s campus in the fall of 2018 he didn’t even play quarterback. According to Sams, Rose played wide receiver for most of his youth football career. But it didn’t take long for Sams to recognize Rose’s potential under center.
“He was a big kid coming in, and he ended up being our JV starting running back,” Sams said. “He was actually our backup to Hank (Bachmeier) and just in those games, you could see the arm talent. I think he’s an underrated athletic guy. He’s a big guy and he’s tall, but when he takes off he’s faster than he appears to be. He’s a tremendous athlete.”
When Bachmeier left Murrieta to continue his career as a quarterback at Boise State, Rose was handed the reins as the varsity starter and never let them go.
‘He Truly Believes In Himself’
Rose led Murrieta Valley to a 5-0 start in 2019, but he truly started to raise eyebrows against California powerhouse, Oaks Christian. The Westlake Village high school has produced NFL talents including Jimmy Clausen, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Colby Parkinson and Zach Charbonnet.
Rose didn’t bat an eye.
“He was a sophomore, and we're playing Oaks Christian who really puts a lot of guys in the NFL,” Sams said. “This was his coming out party. It was a pass play, we were at the 25-yard-line going in and he just takes off and ends up scoring and wins us the game.”
That same season Rose went head-to-head with CJ Stroud and Rancho Cucamonga High School in the first round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs. While Murrieta fell 49-14, Rose ended the game going 21-38 for 344 yards and two touchdowns.
Despite taking on a nationally-ranked quarterback prospect who was on his way to Ohio State and later the NFL — Rose never hesitated.
It may be his greatest strength.
“He wants to be great,” Sams said. “Half the battle sometimes, in any sport, and especially playing the quarterback position is believing in yourself. He believes in himself, and some might take that as cocky and arrogant, but he truly believes in himself.”
That belief in himself elevated Rose to another tier of high school quarterbacks. The ones who were beginning to receive Division I offers. Following his sophomore season Rose received his first offer from Arizona State.
With the increasing possibility that Rose could play at the next level, Sams didn’t take it easy on the young quarterback.
“I was hard on him, and that guy never took it personal,” Sams said. “If he was ever mad at me, he’d walk away, and the next day, it’d be no big deal.”
As Rose began to develop and truly started to “look like an NFL quarterback,” as Sams put it, another element of his game became abundantly clear.
He’s not afraid to let people know how good he is.
“He just has a lot of moxie and bravado and he’s not afraid to show it,” Sams said. “Sometimes it might rub people the wrong way. But, man, when you have a guy with that much confidence, how can you not want to get in line and go with him.
“He plays with a ton of passion. He's a fiery kid, and he's going to demand a lot from the guys that are around him.”
‘He Doesn’t Flinch’
Rose’s high school career was fleeting. It was late October 2021 as the dry heat of a California summer made way for the cool, windy Friday nights at Murrieta Valley. In just over three months Rose would pick up his life and move to Utah, leaving behind the comfort of being “the guy” that he had grown accustomed to.
But there was still one more thing he hadn’t done. He knew it too.
Across every high school football program in America there is always that one game that means more than the rest. A lost season could be made great with a win, a league title could feel hollow with a loss.
For Rose and Murrieta Valley, that game was the Vista Murrieta game. Heading into their October 22, 2021 matchup — Rose’s last time suiting up against the rival — Murrieta Valley hadn’t come out with a win since 2017.
The emotions surrounding practice that week were tense to say the least. Just not for Brandon.
“I was really uptight that week,” Rosenblum said. “And I'm on Brandon, ‘You need to get to watch film. You need to spend more time watching film.’ And the whole week, he was like, ‘Coach, relax. I'm gonna ball out and we're gonna win. It's gonna be okay.’”
But Rose didn’t want to just win — he wanted to add his own flare on it too. He promised that years of coming up short to their cross-town rival would end with him planting a flag in the middle of their field.
“He told me, ‘Coach, we beat these guys, I'm doing it,’” Rosenblum said.
42-42.
Rose didn’t find himself leading the charge in a blowout win like perhaps he wanted, instead he found himself with the ball in a tied shootout. And there may have been no one happier with that than him.
“I always felt like the moment wasn't ever too big for him,” Sams said. “He's cool and calm, but he has this intensity. He doesn’t flinch”
Rosenblum walked the sideline as Murrieta Valley stood at the 15-yard-line going in. He called the play.
“I said in the headset to our quarterback's guy, ‘This is a terrible call,’” Rosenblum said. “I was kind of beating myself, like, I'm the worst coach in America. What am I calling? Our quarterbacks coach goes, ‘Coach, relax. Brandon's gonna freaking throw a deep ball to Tiger (Bachmeier), and we're gonna be fine.’
“Brandon just reaches back and throws a bomb at Tiger on the outside, from the hash to the opposite sideline. Just lets it rip.”
A last-gasp effort from Vista Murrieta ended in a failed two-point conversion, and Rose’s Nighthawks held on for a dramatic 49-48 victory.
Just one last thing to do.
“We won that rivalry game, that dude went and grabbed the flag and planted it in the middle of their field,” Rosenblum said. “He didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk.”
‘He's Going To Bring The Intensity Level Up’
It hasn’t been a straight ascension to the top of college football for Rose. It’s not for most. Many high school football stars fail to live up to the pressure and the standards set by themselves and those around them.
Rose is still fighting that. Rose is trying to be different.
“His time at Utah, for everyone that knows him, we’re all disappointed,” Sams said. “He feels like he’s getting there, getting there, and then he’s had some freak injuries. I’m glad he’s finally going to get the opportunity because he’s just a heck of a character.”
During his early years in Salt Lake City, Rose battled a crowded quarterback room with the likes of Cam Rising as well as his own fair share of injuries. A freak accident during training camp in 2023 derailed his ability to climb up the depth chart.
In 2024, he battled Isaac Wilson for the starting job before ultimately becoming the backup. Three seasons at Utah and Rose had yet to take a meaningful snap. In today’s world of the transfer portal, some athletes will flock to two or even three schools during their career in the hopes of receiving meaningful playing time.
But Rose stayed — that’s rare.
“He’s stuck it out,” Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said on May 20, 2024. “It speaks to his character and his drive and his confidence in himself. It’s refreshing to see that happen, especially at that position.”
Last October he finally got his chance, and it couldn’t have come in a much bigger spot. The Holy War. Rose’s first collegiate start came against rival and #9 BYU.
The way Rose started that game, you would’ve thought he was right back in southern California playing Vista Murrieta.
“If you watch the BYU-Utah game last year to start the game, he’s fiery and he plays with a ton of passion,” Sams said.
Rose and the Utes jumped out on BYU 21-10 with the quarterback slinging two touchdowns to end his first half as a starter.
That’s when things went downhill. During the second quarter, Rose tore his Lisfranc ligament in his left foot. In the locker room, he received pain medication and a steel-plated insole to finish out the game.
“I know people that had the Lisfranc,” Sams said. “They were like, ‘Coach. I don't even know how he did it. I mean, how did he go back out there?’”
Utah ultimately fell 22-21 following a last second field goal from BYU, and with that Rose’s season and Utah career were over. Shortly following the season, Rose entered the transfer portal in search of a fresh start.
On Jan. 8, Rose announced that fresh start would be in Amherst under Harasymiak and the new look Minutemen.
After spending the winter and spring recovering, Rose was inserted into the quarterback competition to begin fall camp. It only took one practice for Harasymiak to feel a change in the air.
“The one thing I noticed today was it was intense,” Harasymiak said after Day One. “It’s a little bit of a different feel with him in there.”
Those who knew Rose before his arrival to Amherst weren’t surprised in the least that Rose is bringing a new level of intensity and competition to the practice field in Amherst.
It’s exactly what he’s been doing since he was 15 years old.
But winning the starting job was just the first step in Rose’s climb in college football. That climb is about to get a whole lot more difficult. Now, the junior is tasked with bringing one of the nation’s lowliest programs back to relevance.
But he may just be the perfect guy for the job.
Sure, there will be a ton of pressure — maybe more than Rose has ever faced before. Because the truth is there is a lot more at stake for Rose, and his future, than coming out on the winning side of a high school rivalry game.
On the other hand, Rose seems to thrive in these moments. He went head-to-head with a future NFL quarterback. He was a handful of seconds away from knocking down a Top 10 team in the country — in his first career start. It seems Rose likes his back against the wall — he probably prefers it that way.
“If you're really trying to rebrand it and try to build a program, why would you not want to build it behind a kid like that?” Sams said. “He's a great talent, he's a hard worker, he's a blue-collar type kid. He's gonna grind his butt off. He's going to bring the intensity level up.”
Now Rose is back to being the guy, just like he was four years ago at Murrieta.
To bring the Minutemen back to relevancy in college football — he’s going to have to push the sled a whole lot harder than he ever has before.
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