UMass WR Jacquon Gibson Has Been One Steady Constant
Amongst a dark cloud of losing, Gibson has provided some light
Fayetteville, N.C. native Jacquon Gibson entered his fourth year with UMass Football in 2025 with a lot of promise and potential. He has more than delivered on that in the first four games of the season.
The redshirt junior came into the year with one goal in mind: to win. As much as his team hasn’t done that, he has been the light in what seems like the never-ending tornado that is Minutemen Football.
Gibson has 30 receptions on the campaign, with 12 coming in the season-opener against Temple. This number destroys his previous career-high of 23, and flies by his career total of 27.
The 5-foot-11, 195-pounder, works as hard as you would want a player to, ultimately leading to head coach Joe Harasymiak giving him the captaincy.
When Temple came to town, and the Minutemen lost 42-10 in a disappointing opener, Gibson was angry. He wasn’t angry with himself, but felt bad about how much the fans have suffered through the 26-126 record since UMass entered FBS in 2012.
Through it all, he was still a steady leader. His partner in crime TY Harding went down, but it didn’t alter his effort. Instead, he put the offense on his back, making incredible spin moves and breaking tackles to conjure up extra yardage against Temple.
The next week against Bryant, he started off hot, but once again, he saw a key partner in his success go down, this time it was starting quarterback Brandon Rose. Still, Gibson was making big catches downfield to get UMass into the red zone on multiple occasions.
However, in the same contest, the third starting receiver on the depth chart, Jake McConnachie, went down. Gibson was always the one to steady the ship for offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian’s offense.
Next, it was time for Gibson to face NFL-level talent and the Iowa Hawkeyes defense. He went up against TJ Hall and Deshaun Lee, both ready-made prospects in Kirk Ferentz’s defense. Gibson struggled at the start, still adjusting to the amount of attention he was getting without Harding and McConnachie. Then, he made some big catches, totaling five receptions for 37 yards on the day.
While that didn’t seem like much, it was the timeliness of the catches which mattered. Yes, Missouri battered the Minutemen in the overall grand scheme of things, but Gibson remained the consistent positive. Harasymiak was finding his answer: Get Jacquon the ball, and good things will happen.
Missouri, the following week, was more of the same story. UMass struggled mightily at the start of drives, and the third starting quarterback of the season, AJ Hairston, was struggling to find Gibson early.
The two adjusted and got Gibson five receptions for 30 yards total, including a 24-yard long reception. This brought his season total up to 288 receiving yards, more than doubling Donnie Gray in second with 115.
If it wasn’t obvious by now, Gibson led all UMass receivers in yards and receptions in all four games this year.
Last offseason, the Minutemen lost arguably their best player in wide receiver Jakobie Keeney-James, who is currently on the Green Bay Packers practice squad.
Keeney-James owned the position for UMass with 50 receptions and 839 receiving yards. Gibson still has some work to do in the yardage total, but he is ahead of schedule in the reception number.
Gibson will lead his team into conference play for the first time in his Minutemen career. On Saturday, he and the rest of his teammates take on Western Michigan in search of their first win of the 2025 season.
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