Coach Joe Harasymiak

[eldonabe]

This year sucked but Carvy only won 5 games in his first year and Cal struggled in his first year as well.

DO NOT use them in the same sentence at this time. Until he has earned the right, he hasn't.

[e_parade]

I almost always give a pass to a new coach. However this team was so extraordinarily terrible that it is tough to have any confidence in Joe. Losing badly all year. Sadly this team could be under consideration for the worst FBS team ever.

Under consideration? No, it has to be the literal worst FBS season ever. There has to be accountability. I’m willing to give Coach H one more year on a short leash, but I want to see new coordinators and definitely a new AD.

"Under consideration for" is much more accurate. Don't even need to go back all that far to find a team that had a worse season:

Kent State last year was 0-12, lower rated in Sagarin, and had a larger point spread on the season. Even though we think this year our defense was abysmal, we only gave up ~38 PPG, Kent State last year gave up almost a full TD more at ~44 PPG. They only scored 13 PPG on offense to our 11. And their one close game was against the second to last place team in the MAC (Ball State), whereas our close game was to a Buffalo team that can still end the season bowl eligible.


So yes. We're likely in the top 5 worst all time, but there's certainly been at least one or two worst seasons, including in extremely recent memory.

[bottom line]

I have never seen so many bad players on one team. If I asked coach Joe why it happened, and why it won't happen again, what would he say?

[jjmc85]

This year sucked but Carvy only won 5 games in his first year

This comparison was brought up in the football broadcast, but I really don’t get it. Hockey has a great facility, in an area that cares about hockey, in the second best conference in the sport, with plenty of local talent to try to recruit, plays local rivals that make sense, and the proof of concept existed-both by looking at other flagship New England campuses that had success (Maine had titles, UNH and Vermont both went to Frozen Fours) plus a head coach that was successful at the ECAC level-while not quite hockey east-still highest level of division 1. In addition there are many local small schools that had success and went to frozen fours like UML and Quinnipiac. If we want to stretch local a bit throw in Union. Plus there are way less schools competing and the “smaller” schools typically do better. Only the B1G is a power conference in hockey and objectively speaking, they’re battling with ECAC for third best conference, and I’d give the edge to the ECAC for actually winning titles. I don’t think a P4 school has won a hockey title since BC in 2012. Unless I guess you count big east as a power conference and then it’s PC in 2015.

So everything was aligned for a school like UMass to be able to compete in hockey. And they went out and did it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think UMass can compete at the MAC football level, but the comparison to hockey IMO makes no sense.

[eldonabe]

This year sucked but Carvy only won 5 games in his first year

This comparison was brought up in the football broadcast, but I really don’t get it. Hockey has a great facility, in an area that cares about hockey, in the second best conference in the sport, with plenty of local talent to try to recruit, plays local rivals that make sense, and the proof of concept existed-both by looking at other flagship New England campuses that had success (Maine had titles, UNH and Vermont both went to Frozen Fours) plus a head coach that was successful at the ECAC level-while not quite hockey east-still highest level of division 1. In addition there are many local small schools that had success and went to frozen fours like UML and Quinnipiac. If we want to stretch local a bit throw in Union. Plus there are way less schools competing and the “smaller” schools typically do better. Only the B1G is a power conference in hockey and objectively speaking, they’re battling with ECAC for third best conference, and I’d give the edge to the ECAC for actually winning titles. I don’t think a P4 school has won a hockey title since BC in 2012. Unless I guess you count big east as a power conference and then it’s PC in 2015.

So everything was aligned for a school like UMass to be able to compete in hockey. And they went out and did it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think UMass can compete at the MAC football level, but the comparison to hockey IMO makes no sense.

Stop using logic and common sense - you may have to forfeit your UMass fan card.

[Sheck]

This year sucked but Carvy only won 5 games in his first year

This comparison was brought up in the football broadcast, but I really don’t get it. Hockey has a great facility, in an area that cares about hockey, in the second best conference in the sport, with plenty of local talent to try to recruit, plays local rivals that make sense, and the proof of concept existed-both by looking at other flagship New England campuses that had success (Maine had titles, UNH and Vermont both went to Frozen Fours) plus a head coach that was successful at the ECAC level-while not quite hockey east-still highest level of division 1. In addition there are many local small schools that had success and went to frozen fours like UML and Quinnipiac. If we want to stretch local a bit throw in Union. Plus there are way less schools competing and the “smaller” schools typically do better. Only the B1G is a power conference in hockey and objectively speaking, they’re battling with ECAC for third best conference, and I’d give the edge to the ECAC for actually winning titles. I don’t think a P4 school has won a hockey title since BC in 2012. Unless I guess you count big east as a power conference and then it’s PC in 2015.

So everything was aligned for a school like UMass to be able to compete in hockey. And they went out and did it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think UMass can compete at the MAC football level, but the comparison to hockey IMO makes no sense.

The stuff you're bringing up is kinda the point. How much of this can really be on the coach when we are not aligned to be competitive in FBS? Our stadium is not FBS level and neither is the roster. I'm looking at his track record, specifically taking Maine all the way to the FCS semifinals which still gives me confidence that he can coach if the resources are in place. But he's gotta go out and have the support of the administration with NIL, with an upgraded stadium that is comparable to the other teams in the conference, and other things like marketing and improved Gameday experience to get people to come out for a game.

If you do want proof of concept for football though, just look at UConn. They were as bad or worse than us in 2021 and they completely turned it around. Same region of the country and they can't even sell the idea of playing for a conference championship to recruits. Yet they're coming off back to back 9 win seasons. Yeah, we'll see what happens with them now that Mora left but that's a much more attractive job than it was 4 years ago.

[minutefanjsf]

Here’s my hope for coach Joe, he can realize what he has recently been saying. He wants guys that are obsessed with football. Those were the guys he sent packing. Someone, somewhere got to him and he got stuck in analytics and spent the first two thirds of the season talking about explosive plays and analytics. He came in saying he knew what size, speed, and strength he wanted. Bamford wants high achieving students. Building the roster this way failed. No idea if Joe had complete control, I assume he did. I believe his new mantra is 180 from the metrics approach. Obviously we don’t want Walt Bell style of recruits a 5’3” QB who has heart. 105 Joey Coltons probably wouldn’t cut it either, but it would be much more entertaining. I’d like to see guys that are fired up to hit and run. I also would like to see discipline and team on the sidelines. When BG was all standing, arms locked for the coin flip, UMass was literally a mess on the sidelines. More than half of them weren’t even paying attention to the coin flip. Some milling about. Some laughter. Some watching. Guys who obsessed watch the coin flip to see if they get to go out and make the first hit.

[JoleonLescottsHair]

This year sucked but Carvy only won 5 games in his first year

This comparison was brought up in the football broadcast, but I really don’t get it. Hockey has a great facility, in an area that cares about hockey, in the second best conference in the sport, with plenty of local talent to try to recruit, plays local rivals that make sense, and the proof of concept existed-both by looking at other flagship New England campuses that had success (Maine had titles, UNH and Vermont both went to Frozen Fours) plus a head coach that was successful at the ECAC level-while not quite hockey east-still highest level of division 1. In addition there are many local small schools that had success and went to frozen fours like UML and Quinnipiac. If we want to stretch local a bit throw in Union. Plus there are way less schools competing and the “smaller” schools typically do better. Only the B1G is a power conference in hockey and objectively speaking, they’re battling with ECAC for third best conference, and I’d give the edge to the ECAC for actually winning titles. I don’t think a P4 school has won a hockey title since BC in 2012. Unless I guess you count big east as a power conference and then it’s PC in 2015.

So everything was aligned for a school like UMass to be able to compete in hockey. And they went out and did it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think UMass can compete at the MAC football level, but the comparison to hockey IMO makes no sense.

This post.

Reality checks about regional sport culture and what it takes for success are rare in these parts.

[doubledribble]

Joe- It’s been a tough year, hope you can find a way to have a Happy Thanksgiving

[jjmc85]

The stuff you're bringing up is kinda the point. How much of this can really be on the coach when we are not aligned to be competitive in FBS? Our stadium is not FBS level and neither is the roster. I'm looking at his track record, specifically taking Maine all the way to the FCS semifinals which still gives me confidence that he can coach if the resources are in place. But he's gotta go out and have the support of the administration with NIL, with an upgraded stadium that is comparable to the other teams in the conference, and other things like marketing and improved Gameday experience to get people to come out for a game.

If that’s the point, then it doesn’t make sense to me to bring up Carvel (or Cal for that matter) in this context. There have been plenty of UMass coaches who had disappointing first years. Why not compare to Michelleto? Or Molnar? Or Bell?

Maybe I’m reading too much into it but when I hear the radio broadcast bring up Carvel’s first season in the context of Harasymiak, or I see a post in this thread bringing it up, I’m thinking that the point of bringing it up is to give hope and draw comparisons between the two. But the comparison doesn’t exist.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

I think people are diving a bit too much into the Cal/Carvy First Year comparison stuff. The first year has been much worse, yes, but it is also ok for one to point to successful coaches struggling in year one.

[Sheck]

The stuff you're bringing up is kinda the point. How much of this can really be on the coach when we are not aligned to be competitive in FBS? Our stadium is not FBS level and neither is the roster. I'm looking at his track record, specifically taking Maine all the way to the FCS semifinals which still gives me confidence that he can coach if the resources are in place. But he's gotta go out and have the support of the administration with NIL, with an upgraded stadium that is comparable to the other teams in the conference, and other things like marketing and improved Gameday experience to get people to come out for a game.

If that’s the point, then it doesn’t make sense to me to bring up Carvel (or Cal for that matter) in this context. There have been plenty of UMass coaches who had disappointing first years. Why not compare to Michelleto? Or Molnar
Maybe I’m reading too much into it but when I hear the radio broadcast bring up Carvel’s first season in the context of Harasymiak, or I see a post in this thread bringing it up, I’m thinking that the point of bringing it up is to give hope and draw comparisons between the two. But the comparison doesn’t exist.

I have hope because Harasymiak has a track record of being a successful head coach (similar to Carvel prior to coming here). Yeah, it was FCS but Maine is not an easy place to win and he got them all the way to the semifinals. Plus he was held in high regard by Rutgers fans when he left. I thought Bell was a bad fit since day 1 and while I had hope that Molnar was going to do great things for this program, that was through the distorted lens of maroon colored glasses.

I'm not saying we're definitely going to win with Harasymiak but I'm less concerned with him and more concerned with what the administration is going to do to get this thing turned around.

I think people are diving a bit too much into the Cal/Carvy First Year comparison stuff. The first year has been much worse, yes, but it is also ok for one to point to successful coaches struggling in year one.

Yes, thank you. The larger point is that a tough year 1 is not a guarantee of failure rather than it correlating to success.

[Floyd]

Joe- It’s been a tough year, hope you can find a way to have a Happy Thanksgiving

Yup, good post. Enjoy, rest, & reset

Happy Thanksgiving to all the knuckleheads here too

[LS71]

Agreed!

Right back at ya, Floyd, dd and the rest of my fellow UMassholes!

[stevemaz]

One move i would make and i doubt it happens is to jettison the whole offensive approach. Why do we have to run the same offense everyone else does? Id go to a pro set with QB under center 50% of the time if not more. And i dont care who the QB is right now as that doesnt matter. Lets bring in good OLs and DLs.