2023 Season

[minutefanjsf]

I will never leave this ship even if I am the last man standing.. We did close the talent gap a great deal with the past two years of recruiting and should be 3-4 right now so it sucks that they blew the EMICH and New Mex games (shoulda won both easily). shitty officiating hurt in the MIami game (HL blew the non TD call so that game should have come down to the last few minutes and gone either way). 2021 we were utterly pitiful and in 2022 we upgraded to just plain pitiful. 2023 we have upgraded to kind of sort of mildly decent. 2024 we will be decent. Hang in there.

FWIW, this is exactly how I feel. Sadly, I couldn't go to the Toledo game because I had to be out of town, but I followed it as I could online, and I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't get totally blown out. Yeah, third quarter sucked, but if you look at the box score, we stacked up pretty well against Toledo who are a pretty good team, and even got fewer penalties and penalized yards, which pleased me. It breaks my heart about Eastern Michigan and New Mexico, because if we were 3-4 right now, I think the conversation would be very different around here.

I would go full membership in CUSA if MAC doesnt want us. CUSA is still looking for two more schools.

I'd basically go with whoever wanted us at this point, beggars can't really be choosers. From a football perspective, I actually thought the MAC was the perfect spot for us when we moved up, and I agree that the goal should have been to cut our teeth there and get good, then look at upgrading. That almost seems like a joke at this point, but I think that should have been the strategy. There's no question in my mind that we didn't make the move to all-MAC because of basketball and the A-10 revenue, whether we made the tournament or not, and while I didn't like that decision, I could at least understand it. In hindsight, it doesn't look like such a good call anymore. We really have no choice but to continue to try and improve and hope some conference sees enough of a spark to take a chance, and this time we may need to bit the bullet and go all-sports. Wherever we go, I think it will be better than independent, at least for football, and if we aspire to more, prove it on the field and earn it, don't expect it to be dropped in our laps.

Full agreement. The only egg that was laid IMO was Arkansas state. The Toledo game was closer than the score, IMO. 13 points left on the field and maybe more with the no DPI call. The record may be the same as Bell teams. This is not a Bell team. I also think holding out hope that Delaware will move up is a bad idea. The new $5 million price tag to move to FBS may preclude that.

[Floyd]

I'm hanging in until next season. Giving Coach Brown another off-season of talent upgrades and see how it goes. I can see a definite improvement in the talent this season over last, but still need some more, and more depth, and hopefully it translates to some w's.

But the losses definitely are a buzzkill

Floyd you are on a shrinking island for sure. We were told that significant talent upgrades were made to the roster this past year as well.

that's OK, I can swim. Much more talent offensively this season than last

Was Umass THAT bad that the significant talent upgrades merely closed the gap between being the worst by a lot to only worst by just a little now?

Yup, that bad. Injuries have decimated the secondary too.

Depth is a bit of a misnomer as well. If your starters can't win a game, depth is only going to mean you have more players who aren't as good as the ones who already cannot put up any wins.

Talented depth is necessary in the event of injuries, and every team has injuries. And it hit extra hard in the secondary

Listen, I hate the losing as much as anyone, but it wasn't going to flip in 1 off-season. If at the end of next season we have no progress, then we may have a problem. Just can't believe UMass can't have a successful football program




UMass is not serious about FBS.... they just are not. Nobody is taking Bamford's calls and they compound their problems with one bad decision after another starting on day 1.

Eulogy is in the works....

(Sorry, tried to bold my answers but couldn't get it to work)

[ZooMass84]

Does is really matter? We haven’t won more than 1 game since 2018, it’s a pathetic situation that isn’t getting any better anytime soon.

season's not over. Merrimack could/should be a win.

[ZooMass84]

I watched every play of the 3 games on ESPN/ESPNU. Felt awesome vs NMSU and now we're back to Walt Bell shit land...........Hopefully Merrimack is a win if we're not too banged up.

[eldonabe]

Does is really matter? We haven’t won more than 1 game since 2018, it’s a pathetic situation that isn’t getting any better anytime soon.

season's not over. Merrimack could/should be a win.

Sweet an FCS Win.... WE'RE TURNING THE CORNER.

[Quann]

Belichick moves 90 miles west in January of 2024 and is the HC of your UMass Minutemen. Don Brown stays on as DC, Bill O'Brien takes over the offense. You heard it here first.

[Floyd]

^ and last

[eldonabe]

Belichick moves 90 miles west in January of 2024 and is the HC of your UMass Minutemen. Don Brown stays on as DC, Bill O'Brien takes over the offense. You heard it here first.

WTF??? Did you have a sleepover at Maz's or something?

[Quann]

Belichick moves 90 miles west in January of 2024 and is the HC of your UMass Minutemen. Don Brown stays on as DC, Bill O'Brien takes over the offense. You heard it here first.

WTF??? Did you have a sleepover at Maz's or something?

Maroon footies only at the Maz pad.

[eldonabe]

Belichick moves 90 miles west in January of 2024 and is the HC of your UMass Minutemen. Don Brown stays on as DC, Bill O'Brien takes over the offense. You heard it here first.

WTF??? Did you have a sleepover at Maz's or something?

Maroon footies only at the Maz pad.

Thank you - that made me laugh out loud and I am having a shitty day - I needed that.

[Quann]

WTF??? Did you have a sleepover at Maz's or something?

Maroon footies only at the Maz pad.

Thank you - that made me laugh out loud and I am having a shitty day - I needed that.

You're invited next time Eldon.

[eldonabe]

Maroon footies only at the Maz pad.

Thank you - that made me laugh out loud and I am having a shitty day - I needed that.

You're invited next time Eldon.

I only do the Brown Drink - never Maroon Drink.

[ZooMass84]

Does is really matter? We haven’t won more than 1 game since 2018, it’s a pathetic situation that isn’t getting any better anytime soon.

season's not over. Merrimack could/should be a win.

Sweet an FCS Win.... WE'RE TURNING THE CORNER.

for this program, any win is precious FBS, FCS, D2/D3, NAIA

[ZooMass84]

I will never leave this ship even if I am the last man standing.. We did close the talent gap a great deal with the past two years of recruiting and should be 3-4 right now so it sucks that they blew the EMICH and New Mex games (shoulda won both easily). shitty officiating hurt in the MIami game (HL blew the non TD call so that game should have come down to the last few minutes and gone either way). 2021 we were utterly pitiful and in 2022 we upgraded to just plain pitiful. 2023 we have upgraded to kind of sort of mildly decent. 2024 we will be decent. Hang in there.

FWIW, this is exactly how I feel. Sadly, I couldn't go to the Toledo game because I had to be out of town, but I followed it as I could online, and I was pleasantly surprised that we didn't get totally blown out. Yeah, third quarter sucked, but if you look at the box score, we stacked up pretty well against Toledo who are a pretty good team, and even got fewer penalties and penalized yards, which pleased me. It breaks my heart about Eastern Michigan and New Mexico, because if we were 3-4 right now, I think the conversation would be very different around here.

I would go full membership in CUSA if MAC doesnt want us. CUSA is still looking for two more schools.

I'd basically go with whoever wanted us at this point, beggars can't really be choosers. From a football perspective, I actually thought the MAC was the perfect spot for us when we moved up, and I agree that the goal should have been to cut our teeth there and get good, then look at upgrading. That almost seems like a joke at this point, but I think that should have been the strategy. There's no question in my mind that we didn't make the move to all-MAC because of basketball and the A-10 revenue, whether we made the tournament or not, and while I didn't like that decision, I could at least understand it. In hindsight, it doesn't look like such a good call anymore. We really have no choice but to continue to try and improve and hope some conference sees enough of a spark to take a chance, and this time we may need to bit the bullet and go all-sports. Wherever we go, I think it will be better than independent, at least for football, and if we aspire to more, prove it on the field and earn it, don't expect it to be dropped in our laps.

Full agreement. The only egg that was laid IMO was Arkansas state. The Toledo game was closer than the score, IMO. 13 points left on the field and maybe more with the no DPI call. The record may be the same as Bell teams. This is not a Bell team. I also think holding out hope that Delaware will move up is a bad idea. The new $5 million price tag to move to FBS may preclude that.

Gomer went 1-11, 0-4, 1-8. We will beat Merrimack so 2-10.

[Steve81]

The team is connected. View Army as a close one that we win. Think UConn will be a battle and think a win is possible.
Hoping for 4-8 with the schedule of 2 P5 teams, 2 Top MAC teams. The season will probably be 3-9, which is progress from last season.