Game 1, 2025: Temple (H, 8/30)

[TruBluMaroon]

Attendance 11,565

[Jack]

Good thing we fired Don Brown to pay his $1.4M buyout and hired Coach H to pay him $1.4M per yr for 5 seasons so that we could get pasted in the home opener…. Bamford’s masterplan is clearly moving swiftly towards fruition.

[jjmc85]

UMass football has a big problem. When they went down two scores, there was exactly one person in my section who was livid. If anyone else gave a shit, they didn’t let it show. I was not the person who was livid. The fact I really honestly didn’t care-nor was I surprised- should be very concerning.

I also didn’t bother to read through this thread. Not cause I think it will upset me to relive that. But because the program and this game are honestly not interesting enough for me to care enough to read through.

I used to really care about this program. It was my favorite team out of any sport in any league in any level for a very long time. I used to regularly (once a year) get on a plane and fly to see this team play on the road. I still have a season ticket, but I’m not gonna go out again this season. The round trip is about the time I would have spent in the airport waiting for a flight back in those days, but It’s just not worth my time anymore.

[inthescoop]

Ty was one of the few bright spots on our team today, we cannot lose him

[kd68]

I remember going to games at Army and Boston College years ago. They were always competitive and exciting in those days. I always looked forward to football season. Hardly pay attention to them anymore since they are so dismal. I still hope they show some life.

[Worcester_To_Amherst]

Scary how much they looked like every other UMass team since Whipple left. Nice start, momentum on your side, then an inexcusable turnover leads to complete collapse. Terrible defense from the head coach with defensive pedigree. 0 pass rush. If protecting the ball is the priority, Rose should be on a very short leash moving forward.

Was never going to be an instant turnaround, but I saw 0 reason for new optimism. Injury bug already hitting is a foreboding sign.

[Juice Stand]

Need another game to know if they are truly rotten or not.

I'm with you. It certainly looked like same old same old, but I'll give them one more game before I'm out. The problem with that is the next three games are completely meaningless, so you have to wait for homecoming against Western Michigan. Up next are FCS Bryant and the two SEC games, which won't tell me anything. I'll marginally pay attention to these next 3 and then tune in for Western Mich to see if they've pulled their heads out of their asses.

[photoman]

^^
The two SEC games will tell you that we shouldn't have SEC games on the schedule. If the Bryant game is close it tells you things are worse than we think they are

[minutefanjsf]

I am still confused by what everyone has been saying about a culture shift from DBs tenure. The passion and buy in of the players was evident under DB. This one game did not show any new/better culture, and I don’t know why one would want a change from DBs team culture. I thought for sure the new culture under coach Joe would’ve resulted in the player who committed the personal foul being yanked. Coach Joe was demonstrative for sure, but the player was back in right away. They got beat in every facet of the game. The only bright spots were Rocko Griffin, the punter, and the place kicker. Gibson had some good yards, but he was the only receiver the QB was looking for. The percent of passes he caught was not that great.

[minutefanjsf]

^^
The two SEC games will tell you that we shouldn't have SEC games on the schedule. If the Bryant game is close it tells you things are worse than we think they are

Bryant shouldn’t be close. Bryant played NMSU close. There have been multiple FCS/FBS upsets and a lot of headscratching close calls for some supposedly stronger teams as well. Week 2 needs to show that these coaches can fix things. No idea why Rocko only got the ball 10 times. The RB room had fewer than 20 carries. No draws. No screens that worked. Horrible offensive scheme. The defense couldn’t fill holes on the runs and absolutely no pressure on pass plays. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bryant were closer than what it “should be”. Hope to hell it is a blow out for Umass, but sadly don’t expect it.

[stevemaz]

the game should have been much closer but the QB had a terrible day.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Always a bad sign when your punter is the mvp of the game

Except for 2006.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

The end result was what I expected. The lack of competitiveness was not what I expected though.



Game 1 of a new HC, new system, new players... I'm not going to lose it quite yet, long way to go.

[minutefanjsf]

The end result was what I expected. The lack of competitiveness was not what I expected though.



Game 1 of a new HC, new system, new players... I'm not going to lose it quite yet, long way to go.

The QB play led to us scoring 17-21 fewer points. Offense moved the ball equally to Temple, but couldn’t score. Stopped on the one and INT in endzone. I assume that without that fumble we would’ve been in a position to score on that drive. Defense not being able to stop anything or apply pressure was a surprise for sure. Coach has said winning the TO battle is his goal every game. Hope he gets involved with the D and they figure out how to hold onto the ball and not throw into triple coverage. Rose threw to the wrong wr more than a few times. He didn’t feel pressure until it was clear UMass wasn’t going to run it at all. No idea why they abandoned the run so early in the second half.

[DougW]

Ty was one of the few bright spots on our team today, we cannot lose him

Fingers crossed!