What will it take in 2026?

[minutefanjsf]

Expecting around 30, Feb 4th, signees based on the coach comments that he needs to flip the whole roster and this is not a hang out place. So expect dozens of player not being invited back next year.

I don’t expect that many based on coach’s goals from the meet. 30 signees would give us 50 freshmen. I’d expect no more than ten new HS signees and about 20 plus portal guys. We haven’t heard about too many hitting the portal. There were 40 seniors at senior day. I’d expect 10-15 guys to enter the portal. That is 20-25 percent of the roster after seniors are gone.

[Steve81]

Did not consider that we could still sign more freshman on February 4th. My bad there jsf. But also remember he said we'll have to sign a few more portal guys than he'd like. Guessing close to 50% of each, but a few more portal guys.

[69MG]

Did anyone go to the Sports Luncheon today to hear Ryan and Thorr? I couldn't make it and I would imagine the entire program about FB other than the 2 athletes of the week, DHS and Marcus. What a show those 2 put on in the ACC games!

[Berkman]

I talked to a friend of mine who lives in Amherst now and he said it was the best sport luncheon he ever went to.A lot of positive stuff for football. He was amazed that Thor came up to him and remembers him by name.

[Rolling Ridge]

Did anyone go to the Sports Luncheon today to hear Ryan and Thorr? I couldn't make it and I would imagine the entire program about FB other than the 2 athletes of the week, DHS and Marcus. What a show those 2 put on in the ACC games!

I was there. Frank Martin also stopped by and talked for about 15 minutes, which was cool.

Thorr spoke fairly briefly, focusing on his reasons for coming back to UMass. My two takeaways from what he said were: 1) he thinks we treat our student athletes very well and that pays dividends on recruitment and retention, and 2) he doesn't feel the stadium is what is holding us back from more immediate success on the football field. I did NOT take this as him meaning that upgrades, etc. aren't important, rather that this is not what is keeping us from recruiting and retaining players that can win in the MAC.

Ryan spoke for longer. He talked first about the current roster, including NIL offers to current players who the staff wanted to retain. Of those, I think they said they made 26 offers and all but two have been accepted, but those two may wind up staying with the team in the end. They have 100 players on their portal board and are working with a UMass grad who works for a sports analytics company that helps identify and quantify talent. This person really wants to help UMass win, and his analysis totally supported the 100 players our staff chose. There will be many more players hitting the portal in January and they are putting pieces in place to a good job selecting players in the portal.

Ryan said this year marks a pivot point in recruiting primarily from the portal versus high school freshmen. They want to get to a point where they are taking ~20 high school players and ~10 from the portal. They may need more from the portal this year, but that is the longer-term goal which is in line with what the better MAC teams are doing.

Ryan was asked about the stadium. He verified that money is secured for some immediate upgrades. The upgrades will be staged, with phase one including ADA compliance and a new PA/speaker system (which garnered great applause). My sense is that will be completed by next season, but it depends on the bidding process and availability of materials. Exterior improvements need to be scheduled when they won't interfere with commencement, and when they know the actual final budgets for the phase one upgrades.

He also talked about scheduling. There are some changes to the 2026 schedule. That was sort of "inside information," so I don't feel it's right to put that in print just now, but I think people will be basically pleased. An announcement should be made soon on the OOC schedule when it is finalized. The larger philosophy is that we will be playing only one P4 team per season, and they are taking steps to make that happen. Ryan is finishing up this year's schedule, and then scheduling will pass to Thorr.

I definitely left the luncheon feeling very positive. I know it's not an excuse, but I think Harasymiak's late start and the lack of staff in place hurt us in last year's recruitment cycle. They acknowledge that and seem to be laser focused on getting it right this year. I also think the pivot from portal heavy to high school heavy will help us, and I was really happy to see that we have high retention among the players we wanted to keep. Our NIL budget, coupled with other resources for our athletes, appear to be sufficient to attract and retain players. There's also a big focus on culture, which I think is also paying dividends. As bad as last year was, we're not seeing a mass exodus of the players we want to retain. Obviously, the proof will be on the field next season, but it seems to me they are taking the right steps toward some level of success in 2026.

[Steve81]

Great information Rolling Ridge, thank you. Like hearing about the 26 NIL offers and 24 accepted. Based on Ryan's 2024 Football Vision, expect the Hawaii game to disappear.

[Juice Stand]

I was there...

Outstanding and very thorough reporting, Ridge. Nice job and thanks for the info. I think the high rate of retention you mentioned speaks to two things: our NIL budget is competitive, and they like coach Joe. The skeptics will say they're staying because they can't get any better offers, but I say that spending another year learning the system, getting stronger in the weight room, and blending together as a group will pay dividends. The 2025 season is in the rear view mirror, and the rose colored glasses are back on.

[UMass1991]

Wish someone would step up and ask why does Bamford deserve to remain AD

[vanmeter]

I was also there and I thought they indicated 15 players that they offered to come back and 13 accepted and not the 26/24 that RR alluded to. (I hope I was mistaken) they indicated 21 early signees with hopefully another 8 down the road. This would indicate 44 or so with my understanding and 55 with RR’s understanding. In any event we would need 25-36 in the portal to get the required 80 scholarships.
Having Frank Thorr and Ryan speak made for a very enjoyable luncheon. Also DHS and Marcus banks spoke briefly upon getting athlete of the week award. Both seemed happy to be at UMass from what I could gather.

[Rolling Ridge]

I was also there and I thought they indicated 15 players that they offered to come back and 13 accepted and not the 26/24 that RR alluded to. (I hope I was mistaken) they indicated 21 early signees with hopefully another 8 down the road. This would indicate 44 or so with my understanding and 55 with RR’s understanding. In any event we would need 25-36 in the portal to get the required 80 scholarships.

You could well be right about that 15/13 number. For some reason, I felt like it was more than that, but there was quite a bit of information, and I could have gotten mixed up. In either case, we're definitely in the ballpark that you laid out in terms of our needs from the portal.

[minutefanjsf]

I was also there and I thought they indicated 15 players that they offered to come back and 13 accepted and not the 26/24 that RR alluded to. (I hope I was mistaken) they indicated 21 early signees with hopefully another 8 down the road. This would indicate 44 or so with my understanding and 55 with RR’s understanding. In any event we would need 25-36 in the portal to get the required 80 scholarships.
Having Frank Thorr and Ryan speak made for a very enjoyable luncheon. Also DHS and Marcus banks spoke briefly upon getting athlete of the week award. Both seemed happy to be at UMass from what I could gather.

Required 80 scholarships? What does that mean? I thought we had to allocate 90% of scholarships.

[minutefanjsf]

So....what was the schedule information that was shared at the luncheon? My guess is that UConn allowed us to have our game in Amherst this year, so we could have 6 home games, instead of 5. I'd be surprised if we had any OOC changes in terms of teams. We could add a 13th game because of Hawaii over Thanksgiving. No home MAction games would also be a bonus after getting two at home and four this year.

[Steve81]

Good question. My guess is we buyout Hawaii and schedule a home game. If that is not it, we schedule a week 0 game before Rutgers.

[minutefanjsf]

Good question. My guess is we buyout Hawaii and schedule a home game. If that is not it, we schedule a week 0 game before Rutgers.

Hawaii is basically a Bowl game for us. It is a home and home, so it could be flipped to a week zero home vs Hawaii. My assumption is one of UConn or Hawaii are flipped. Rutgers is the P4 and we have the FCS. 2027 has five OOC games three home and two away. Either Hawaii or UConn could be flipped as they are home for us in 2027 and away in 2026.

[inthescoop]

Our OC just left to take the QB coach job at Michigan State with his old drinking pal, Pat Fitzgerald.

Good riddance. He made Casula look good. He was so bad I already forgot his name.