Video/Transcript | UMass HC Joe Harasymiak

Everything UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak had to say after the first day of preseason camp on Wednesday.

UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak met with reporters following the opening of preseason camp on Wednesday.

Harasymiak Opening Statement

“We were blessed to get some heat, which was awesome. Guys were prepared. We've been working all summer for this, but there's a little bit of a difference between being in weight room shape and football shape, which always happens Day One. We've got to transition better from drill to drill. Our urgency there was poor, but those kinds of things we'll work on. I thought they came out. I'm really proud of the way they practice now. When we got here, there was defining how to practice and take care of each other and doing the right things around the quarterback and keeping guys up. And like I said, we came out of spring in a good way and today, they practice hard and we practice the right way. So it's a step in the right direction and then we've just got to keep getting better”

Are you more eager or anxious as that first game as an FBS head coach approaches or a little bit of both? What's your emotions as the season continues to get closer?

“I think probably in the line of just some different responsibilities. In the past seven years, being in the Big 10 as a co-coordinator and then a coordinator, it's like you're worried about one side of the ball per se, and that's what you're really focused on. And now it's more about watching everything. But in terms of that first game, it's so far away and we're all humans. It's human nature, I catch myself driving in and driving home thinking about the game all the time. And I know that's the wrong mindset. To be focused on the purpose and the process and just stay in that moment. So certainly I think about it, we're all humans, but more importantly, I know if we stay on the right path, we'll be in good shape.”

What kind of timeframe are you having for picking a QB1?

“Don't have one. When it happens, it happens. Splitting the reps evenly. When it happens, I'll know. I've been through it before, did it at Maine. As an assistant, we had several at Minnesota and Rutgers. When it happens, it happens. Not sure if that'll be after a scrimmage or so, or if someone plays lights out first five days, here we go. But we're going to handle that the right way, make sure we're responsible for what we're evaluating. And I'm confident. I mean Coach (Mike) Bajakian with his experience and having been through it before. I don't want those guys thinking about that because I know that's probably all they're thinking about, right. And I talked to them about that. They're just going to keep battling. And if you saw today, we're just rotating who's with the ones, who's with the twos, who's with the threes. It just rotates by period, by team, like seven-on-seven. I'm proud of those guys. Those guys are fighting through it.”

For your guys, what's your schedule as far as pads, no pads, hitting, no hitting? How often are you going to do that as you lead up to game week?

“Coach (George) Greene and I have met a lot about our camp schedule. He's done a great job reaching out to some NFL people. And then my experience with Coach (Greg) Schiano and Coach (PJ) Fleck, the way they run their camps is similar, which is a great learning tool for me. We're going to go, requirement-wise, we'll be in spiders and helmets tomorrow, and then really it's up to us. You get eight fulls, we won't use them all and then we can put on whatever we want after that. Just a little bit of a period there where you've got to be ready. Every fourth day we'll have a double-walkthrough day, so we're not even going to practice every fourth day every week. Give them a break on their legs and that's designed like a game week. We don't practice four days in a row during a game week.

“We'll practice Tuesday, Wednesday, we'll have a walkthrough on Thursday, and we'll have what we call essentially a Fast Friday, which has been really good for gearing up the teams that have been a part of over the last several years. That's kind of the plan and it'll change. It's constantly changing. We'll just make that decision based off the feedback we get from not only the GPS systems and the Catapults and all that technology that we have, but just looking at them. I can see it in their eyes when they'll need one. We're not there yet, though.”

When you're evaluating the QBs during this time, are there certain drills you weigh heavier than others or is it more of a sum?

“Maybe Jake (Mike Bajakian) does, but I look at the operation, but most importantly, taking care of the football. That's number one to me. The ball's the heartbeat. It's outside this wall. If we take care of the ball. If you end up with a turnover margin since 2017 of just even, it's an average of six wins. So the ball is the number one thing here that we talk about. It's the heartbeat of the program and if we take care of that, we'll be all right. That's the number one thing I look at. The ins and outs of the reads and stuff like that, that's why you hire great people. But that's what I'll be looking for is kind of that operation, the body language around the quarterbacks from the other teammates when they get in a huddle. And certainly number one is taking care of the football.”

Initial thoughts on QB Brandon Rose's first practice since arriving?

“It's great to have him back. He was really ready to go at the end of spring. We had to hold him back, which he was angry, which is what you want. Certainly a guy that's been around, experienced. I think he's very comfortable around the pocket. I think he handles the operation extremely well and it was great. It's interesting. They all have different things. They have strengths and weaknesses of and it kind of brings out the best in all of them. I think the one thing I noticed today, it was intense. It's a little bit different feel with him in there because now instead of just going really through two, now there's three of them really fighting it out.”

Why was the new locker room important and what did you think of your players' reactions to it?

“It was actually one of the coolest moments since I've been here. We talk about investing in this program to be where it wants to be at the FBS level and that's what it takes, little things like that. The piece I think about is the recruiting aspect and certainly when alumni come back and they're around here and they see that it. It's unbelievable. The lockers have changed dramatically, but just to see their reaction to it. Ultimately, it shows them, the players, that we're backing up what we say. Everyone's heard stories about, 'We're going to invest. We're going to invest and we're going to invest.' And that you don't see anything. Well, since I've been here for seven months, everything that the administration, Ryan (Bamford), Kirsten (Britton), Chancellor (Javier) Reyes, the trustees, they've said they were going to do, they've done. It gives me great confidence to go out and be the best coach I could be.

“And it shows the players that, 'Wow, what they're saying, they're backing up and there's weight to it.' That's what I think was the biggest impact from my standpoint. And then certainly for them, just the excitement of having all new stuff. Now, we've got to keep it nice and neat.”

What was it like for you this morning, driving it in? Were you real excited, real nervous, first day of practice and all that?

“With more experience, certainly the excitement is always there because I like getting into practice. I know it's just going to move now. It's just going to roll. The worst days are probably the last week of your vacation where you're just looking at the calendar and waiting to be back. But for me it's just gratefulness to be in this spot, to be trusted, to have this position. That's really what I was thinking about. You could be doing a lot of different things, maybe something you don't want to do. But I've been blessed and grateful enough that I was given this opportunity by the leadership at this university. That was actually a lot of my thought and then a little bit about getting the right tunes on, figuring that out. But other than that, I was just ready to go.”

Were the players really amped up when they started this morning as the first day?

“I think that's something that as we get closer to game day, which I noticed in our scrimmages last year, we have a very anxious group and anxiety and all those things that lead to that can mess you up. Not only the mental aspect, but it can fatigue you, makes you do things that you don't want to do. We talked after practice about there's two types of battles in football, right? The physical battle, which we're going to lose them at times, right? There's guys on scholarship on the other team, there's Division-I coaches on the other team. So those physical battles, you might lose some, right? But that mental battle, there's only one person that's with and that's yourself. Today was a great example of that because some guys lost that battle to the heat. Some guys lost that battle early from being too amped up and just too crazy.

“You've got to control that. And as we get closer to these scrimmages and ultimately game day, there's a real science behind controlling that. We talk a lot about it. Adversity is something that I believe in that is always there and you can't react to it. You've got to be prepared and you've got to manage for it. We openly talk about that and being ready for that. And ultimately, what it comes down to is really those three letters over there (BOS); believing in yourself, taking ownership for your actions and sacrificing for each other. I'm proud of the way that they're handling that. But certainly we've got a little bit to go.”

What do you like about transfer running backs Juwaun Price and Brandon Hood?

“It's interesting. Obviously you've seen them, but they're three different kind of body types. Rocko (Griffin) is just this guy that probably, well not probably, he practices the hardest out of that group. Ball's always pinned, he's taking care of the football. Juwaun is a bigger back. He is thick down below and he's going to be someone that can really take strides - he is coming off an injury coming in here. I think he's getting back to himself. He looked like himself a little bit more today, what we saw on tape. And then certainly Brandon's got that burst, that foot in the ground and go, that's a little different. I thought guys in the spring like Da'Da (Da'Marion Alberic), he's probably the fastest one. He's got that. And then I saw some good things from our young guy Elijah (Faulkner) today, who's just got to get just more reps and get going. But I'm excited about the group because it's all a little bit different. They're all a little bit different. It's kind of like that quarterback thing I just talked about. But I'm excited about that room with Coach Larkin. It should be great. I'm excited about that room. That room is probably the most changed over room that we have.”

How do you kind of keep tabs on the progress of Special Teams?

“The same way we talked about one of the questions in the beginning, just that day-to-day mindset. What Coach Cas (Joe Castellitto) has brought in here from a culture standpoint, just that mindset. Every day we're going to win games on teams. It's a third of the game. And as a coordinator on defense and me with the defensive background, I used to tell the guys, 'Stop complaining about special teams because you're all on of them. So you're actually complaining about yourself.' You guys were here in the spring, the way we can kick and punt the ball now, we're going to flip fields and on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, hopefully in November, when that matters, when we get it to that point, it's going to be huge. We emphasize it. We special teams meet probably two, three times a day. And Coach Cas and what his operation has produced, the guys know that it's important and now we've got to go out and do it. We win games. We can win games with that.”

How do you feel about the physical nature of the team in terms of size and strength at this point?

“I feel great. I was actually joking with Coach (Drew) Belcher that our quarterbacks have arms now. AJ's going to love this, he can do push-ups now, which is great. But just what Coach Greene has done and Coach (Ibn) Foster and Coach (Jeff) Stern down there. It's evidence, we used it in recruiting, the before and after pictures. A lot of that also comes to with the nutrition change that we've made here. And again, credit to the administration and all those people that allowed us to go ahead and do that. They were eating on their own here. They were going out to campus to eat. That's just not Division-I Football. Now we have two meals in here every day. It just shows you, when you invest in something and they see the results.

“And back to, he asked me about special teams, you guys asked me how are we looking, if you go in the weight room for one day and you look yourself in the mirror, there's no change. And a lot of people at that point, Week One/Day One, they give up because they want immediate results. That's just not how life works. From that standpoint, we've actually talked about how the weight room is just like your ability as a player. Day One, you probably won't notice a lot. But since February 1st, whenever that date that we started, there's a lot of change. The speeds are probably the thing that I'm impressed with the most just from the data that we get. And ultimately what Coach Greene has done over summer has been really impressive. He's the mechanic, right? Your body's your car. He's the mechanic and take care of your body.”

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