2022 Season

[palm14]

First off, thank you to the young men who chose to play at our University and risked their current and future health out on the field this season. Special thanks to the Seniors.

I firmly believe in Coach Brown and a majority of his assistants. The one who MUST go, by Monday, is Casula. He clearly does not have what it takes and his “offense” cost us at least one more win this season. The all-shotgun, all-the-time is horrible to watch. Sometimes you need to go under center. Randomly bringing in Campiotti when everyone with a clue knew he would do a QB keeper was nauseating to watch. He pulled that stunt in multiple games. Inexcusable. Make no mistake, I’m not convinced we even have an FBS-level QB. That hurt Casula I’m sure. But his offense was worse than Bell’s. He’s gotta go ASAP.

Like I said, I firmly believe in DB. He turned around the defense in a big way. If you didn’t see that, I cannot believe you have really watched every game in the FBS era. Or at least the last 5 seasons. Yeah today was bad against Army, but we still made some impressive stops. If that Army offense faced any other FBS UMass defense, we might’ve seen a 70 up on the board. If we had any semblance of an offense, the defensive numbers would be even better (as would the win total). I appreciated his honesty and passion in press conferences. I appreciated that he kept the team in front of the band for the Alma Mater and saluted the band on multiple occasions. That doesn’t create wins but it shows DB “gets” UMass. There’s something weird about us where it’s important for coaches to “get UMass” and DB does.

He was not perfect this season. Too conservative on 4th down. He hired Casula and, as far as I know, didn’t step in and tell him to fix things. He has the reputation both in coaching and at our University that would allow him to step in midseason and say something. Granted I didn’t expect him to fire Casula midseason, but I suspect DB could’ve done something.

For those who don’t believe in DB or the program, I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but maybe just take a break from football. By all means be critical. I ripped Casula all season. But don’t call for the program to be dropped and stuff like that. Brown was the best coach we could’ve possibly hired and he’s going to get time. It’s going to be a bumpy ride as we will likely see a lot of transfers in addition to trying to find a QB and a new OC. We need to keep supporting him and the players because frankly, if DB doesn’t work, I don’t know what we do.

Some would say, “Well, then we drop the program.” Or, “Then we go back to FCS.” We’re not dropping football. I would actually support FCS if it was feasible but I’ve yet to hear from a knowledgeable, reputable football person that the FCS would be feasible for UMass as things stand.

Our best hope, and maybe our only hope, is that DB gets the ship afloat over the next few seasons as an Independent. Then the upper tier of the FBS blows up and we end up with other castoffs in a geographically-sensible conference with some old rivals. I’d love to see the CAA re-assemble as an FBS conference. Bring us and James Madison back. Add Temple and UConn. That would make for some fun games.

To me the end goal for UMass Football is getting in an FBS conference that makes sense. I don’t think that exists right now. A bowl game would be nice the first time, but we’re never going to be in the playoffs or whatever bullshit the “big boys” come up with next. If you offered me a 7-win season and a trip to some obscure bowl or a 4-win season in a conference with games against UConn, Temple, Buffalo, James Madison, Appalachian State, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware, etc., I would honestly take the 4-win season. Ultimately what this program needs is a meaningful conference title to play for. If along the way we happen to crack the Top 25 and make a few bowls, great.

Enjoy basketball (both men AND women’s!). Enjoy hockey. We will fight on, as always. This story is not finished. Go UMass.

[stevemaz]

well said..

[Quann]

God I hate those all red unis

I love them

I am not a fan of the all maroon either
Disclaimer: Pants should be white!!

Color rush football uniforms are terrible no matter who the team. Patriots home all blue unis have been awful since 2020.

[TheInsider]

Great post palm... agree with it all. Yes it's been a tough decade but let's not lump in DB with everyone that has failed. Can we let him get through his first full recruiting before we dismantle the program?? What DB does over the next month or so will say a lot.

[dennisdent]

The one who MUST go, by Monday, is Casula. He clearly does not have what it takes and his “offense” cost us at least one more win this season. The all-shotgun, all-the-time is horrible to watch. Sometimes you need to go under center. Randomly bringing in Campiotti when everyone with a clue knew he would do a QB keeper was nauseating to watch. He pulled that stunt in multiple games. Inexcusable. Make no mistake, I’m not convinced we even have an FBS-level QB. That hurt Casula I’m sure. But his offense was worse than Bell’s. He’s gotta go ASAP.

Awesome! We need to spam Bamford with this paragraph to his twitter and email accounts!!!

[TheInsider]

I'd have to look up what we are paying the OC position, but it's probably safe to say we need to up that number to have a pool of candidates that's not an inch deep.

** I looked it up.. it's right around 250k.. I guess you get what you pay for. Going to have to probably double that.

[ZooMass84]

I'd have to look up what we are paying the OC position, but it's probably safe to say we need to up that number to have a pool of candidates that's not an inch deep.

** I looked it up.. it's right around 250k.. I guess you get what you pay for. Going to have to probably double that.

You're putting me on.......NO WAY casula made 250k!!!!!! he wasn't worth 250,000 pennies.

[69MG]

I said I wouldn't post about FB until we won another game. Oh well, there's always next year. To be serious, everyone has already stated what needs to be done and I agree. OC, QB and a beefed up O line are the main needs. I really like the Haston kid from Florida but I think a QB from the portal, if only for a year, is the way to go. I can see Haston taking over in year 2.

That's it for me for this year. At least we have 2 basketball teams and a hockey team to root for.

[inthescoop]

Big respect to New Mexico State - once ranked in the bottom 2 with us, they’ve made tremendous improvement and beat Liberty 49-14 this week.

[eldonabe]

Big respect to New Mexico State - once ranked in the bottom 2 with us, they’ve made tremendous improvement and beat Liberty 49-14 this week.

Tremendous Improvement must be A LOT more than Marked Improvement I guess....

[kdogg8173]

Looks like the defense just ran out of gas in the last 3 games. They were holding on for most of the season but the numbers for the last 3 weren't pretty. Initially thought they've just been burned out from a long season matched up with a bad offense but then I was pretty shocked to see that Umass was somehow 25th in offesnive time of possession and the defense didn't actually face that many plays on a national level, 16th lowest number of plays.

For the offense, I was for having Olson playing out the season to see what they have but it was just real bad and got worse not better. Although they did climb out to 2nd to last in yards per play for the season! In the end though, to put up terrible numbers against this schedule is quite scary and I don't see many (any?) positives on the offensive side.

Gotta say, i'm a lot more pessimistic about the team than I was yesterday.

[TheInsider]

If your going to move on from Casula, you gotta do it soon. Have to get the new guy in first before you can really start going after players in the portal.

[eldonabe]

I posted this elsewhere earlier, but it is more appropriate here:



I think most know (whether they agree or not is an entirely different question) that Umass is not dumping FBS unless the NCAA makes that decision for them. I will continue to root for this team and school - but I will also continue to criticize as I feel necessary.

That said, I do not have unreasonable expectations. If this team can win between 3-7 games a year consistently, that is plenty and arguably over achieving. In the current landscape, Umass is not going to be able to attract game changing talent to elevate them more than that. Between the NIL deals and the lack of conference affiliation (among other things) expecting more than that 3-7 win total is simply out of reach as they stand today.



I can already see the "I told you so" posters prepping for next year. 2 or 3 wins is an obvious improvement, but that in no way allows for an "I told you so" in and of itself.

- They MUST beat Merrimack (1 win)
- They have 2 body bag games (Penn St and Auburn). They need a respectable performance in those (but 0 Wins)
- They have 4 games against the bottom 30 (NM, NM st, Ark St, E Mich) (need 2 of these)
- They have 3 games against 75-100 (Toledo, Uconn and Army) (they need to win 1 of these)
- Remaining 2 games are not likely to be a win (Liberty, Miami) But both are at home....


Given that schedule and the expectation of a similar defense as this year and virtually ANY improvements on offense they need to win more than 3 games next year for anyone to crow about "improvements". Otherwise it is more making chicken salad out of chicken shit.

Winning only 3 games with one being an FCS school and the other 2 against the bottom 25, would still leave them around 125-128 in the country.

[Jack]

It's not more appropriate here. This is a thread about the 2022 season not the 2023 season.

If you wish to start a thread in order to establish your personal aspirations/requirements/predictions for what you wish to see in terms of improvement for the 2023 season then it would be appropriate in a thread for the 2023 season.

[LS71]

God I hate those all red unis

I hate ‘em too.

I also hate that our school’s colors are now cranberry and white…along with gray and/or black, instead of maroon and white.