UMass Can Make Improvements, But Will They Be Enough?
The players and coaches can be better, but how much better?
AMHERST, Mass. - Joe Harasymiak is correct when the UMass head coach says his team had plenty of opportunities to put Saturday’s game against Bryant away and failed to do so.
The problem is the Bulldogs also had plenty of chances to put themselves in position to win the game before a chip-shot field goal as time expired for the 27-26 victory.
Late in the second quarter, UMass led 20-3 and Bryant faced a 3rd-and-6 from its own 35-yard-line.
A thought struck me as the Bulldogs came to the line of scrimmage.
“If UMass gets a stop here, this game is over…”
But even before I could complete the thought, the alternative jammed its way in.
“But, if it doesn’t…”
It didn’t.
Bryant quarterback Brennan Myer completed a 15-yard pass over the middle to Tristen Riley as the Bulldogs moved to midfield. UMass would have another chance to get to the locker room with a three-score lead when Bryant faced a 4th-and-3, but Myer converted with his legs and connected with Zyheem Collick for a nine-yard touchdown pass four plays later.
Game On and eventually Game Over.
That was one opportunity for the Minutemen to cement a win.
A 38-yard blocked field goal in the third quarter was another, so was the fact that they had to settle for that attempt after losing four yards on 3rd-and-1 from the Bryant 16-yard-line one play earlier. As was settling for a 25-yard field goal, which was good, later in the quarter after having 1st-and-goal from the 7 and failing to gain another yard.
Quarterback Grant Jordan’s miraculous completion late in the fourth quarter to Donnie Gray had UMass set up in the red zone, but they were pushed all the way back to the 35-yard-line when the Minutemen were called for holding and then took a sack.
Of course, the game seemed just about won after Derek Morris’ 53-yard field goal and DD Snyder’s interception of Myer with 2:30 seconds left and UMass leading 26-24.
Credit Bryant with stopping the Minutemen on three straight running plays, but you’d like to think an FBS o-line would be able to push an FCS d-line off the ball when it needed to, although it was pretty much established that wouldn’t happen inside the red zone the previous quarter.
Harasymiak later put the blame on himself for playing conservatively by calling a run on 3rd and 7 instead of passing when a first down would have secured the victory.
“I should have been more aggressive on third down,” Harasymiak said on Monday. “I should have thrown the ball.”
Punter Keegan Andrews certainly did his job, pinning the Bulldogs inside their own 20 with a 64-yard punt, but a 20-yard completion on the first play set the stage for a 13-play, 78-yard game-winning drive where UMass’ defense offered little resistance.
So, there were times when UMass could have salted the game away, sure. But where a handful of plays in the Temple game changed the complexion, the Minutemen were the beneficiaries of some turning-point plays against Bryant and it still wasn’t enough.
Sure, Bryant had explosive touchdown passes of 43 and 72 yards, but those didn’t even seem all that shocking in real-time given the way UMass’ pass defense has performed through two weeks.
Instead, UMass benefitted from Tyler Martin’s 23-yard pick-six to get the scoring started. The Minutemen needed a dazzling run by Jordan on third down to score their second touchdown of the game, the Houdini act by Jordan to stay alive in the fourth quarter and then the record-setting field goal by Morris to take the lead late.
They were also beneficiaries of some missed defensive penalties and a quarterback unable to connect on even more explosive plays despite finishing with over 300 passing yards.
If any of those things don’t go UMass’ way, Bryant may have locked up the win earlier.
Every college football team has weaknesses it needs to work on during the first month of the season. For UMass, the most glaring are its offensive struggles in the red zone and its pass defense.
The problem for the Minutemen at this point is those may be extremely difficult to fix. You can surely make schematic adjustments and technical corrections, but at some point, physical limitations may put a ceiling on exactly how much improvement can be made.
And part of that, is the staff’s responsibility too. UMass took full advantage of the Transfer Portal to reshape its roster since last season.
Whether they brought in the right players in the offseason or misjudged what they were capable of schematically in the preseason doesn’t matter as much as what they can do about it now.
“The biggest thing is we have two games of data with our players,” Harasymiak said. “How do we evaluate that; what they do well, what they don't and how do we put them in positions to be successful?
“We as coaches have to remember, we need to make play calls on three phases that give our guys the best chance to cut it loose and go make a play…I've been there, you get caught up because you want the perfect call. Call what you know they know and put them in a situation that they can just go rip it.
“I think that's the mistake that a lot of coaches make sometimes, myself included. You want to get so caught up in the scheme and having the perfect call that it slows them down and hinders them; pre-snap communication, what I'm looking at. That's something that we've talked about on all three phases of how we can be better with that.”
UMass has to get better at that; how much better will dictate what this season looks like moving forward.
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