Game 7, 2025: Buffalo (10/18)

[photoman]

You've probably heard that bad publicity if better than no publicity. I've never heard 98.5's Beetle Bertrand do 10-15 minutes on UMass football but the disaster game vs. Buffalo apparently warranted it. Any of you hear it? He's calling for action, be it firing of the coach or AD....just fire someone!

In addition, he played a clip from WMUA student radio play by play guy announcing the interception and saying "The Minutemen are going to win this one!"

[Jack]

Disappointing result but I am 100% all in w/Coach H. The team demonstrated significant improvement and effort. Tough loss but I think Coach H is on the brink of turning things around in a positive way !

[InnervisionsUMASS]

As photoman referenced, Beetle went on a full rant this time, taking up a full segment of the show. It was in the 1pm hour of today's show if you want to dig through the 98.5 podcast. You can also find it here:

https://x.com/kevbird/status/1980328425144651821


It would have been nice to see him focus more on the AD, but he said enough to get the point across.

[eldonabe]

I was in a perfect spot to ignore people and was able put the last 5 minutes on my phone to watch the events unfold as well as jump in from time to time during the entire game. My interest is waning, but morbid curiosity keeps me at least following along.

It does appear that they played significantly better - just the fact that they scored more than twice in a single game was a huge accomplishment.

I am not going to rehash that final sequence, it has been done to death already. The bottom line is that a coach failed and failed badly. It rests on H but the OC probably had a lot to do with it too. I simply do not understand the 3rd down play... you 100% make them burn the final time out with a running play - every - single - time.

They probably lose either way - but fuck.... just fuck, what a dumb play call.


I feel bad for them, they deserved to win that game. We are the NY Jets of College Football.

[umassbaseball]

I was in a perfect spot to ignore people and was able put the last 5 minutes on my phone to watch the events unfold as well as jump in from time to time during the entire game. My interest is waning, but morbid curiosity keeps me at least following along.

It does appear that they played significantly better - just the fact that they scored more than twice in a single game was a huge accomplishment.

I am not going to rehash that final sequence, it has been done to death already. The bottom line is that a coach failed and failed badly. It rests on H but the OC probably had a lot to do with it too. I simply do not understand the 3rd down play... you 100% make them burn the final time out with a running play - every - single - time.

They probably lose either way - but fuck.... just fuck, what a dumb play call.


I feel bad for them, they deserved to win that game. We are the NY Jets of College Football.

If you listened to his press conference from today, he called you stupid. He said anyone can have an opinion but he gets judged by the "professionals" who "do this for a living." Also in case we didn't know, they give him a grade for coaching and they said to disregard anything the broadcast people said about how bad the game management was. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We still support and show up for this program who doesn't have a home FBS win since 2021 and the program calls his stupid and treats us like garbage. It's brutal

[eldonabe]

I was in a perfect spot to ignore people and was able put the last 5 minutes on my phone to watch the events unfold as well as jump in from time to time during the entire game. My interest is waning, but morbid curiosity keeps me at least following along.

It does appear that they played significantly better - just the fact that they scored more than twice in a single game was a huge accomplishment.

I am not going to rehash that final sequence, it has been done to death already. The bottom line is that a coach failed and failed badly. It rests on H but the OC probably had a lot to do with it too. I simply do not understand the 3rd down play... you 100% make them burn the final time out with a running play - every - single - time.

They probably lose either way - but fuck.... just fuck, what a dumb play call.


I feel bad for them, they deserved to win that game. We are the NY Jets of College Football.

If you listened to his press conference from today, he called you stupid. He said anyone can have an opinion but he gets judged by the "professionals" who "do this for a living." Also in case we didn't know, they give him a grade for coaching and they said to disregard anything the broadcast people said about how bad the game management was. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We still support and show up for this program who doesn't have a home FBS win since 2021 and the program calls his stupid and treats us like garbage. It's brutal

HMMMMM..... Let's see:

Option 1: Run the ball - regardless of how may yards are gained - Buffalo needs to stop the clock with a TO (their final time out)

Option 2: Throw the ball - which has (at least) decent odds of an incompletion and automatically stopping the clock - Buffalo saves time out and does not have to rush into every remaining offensive play to try to score and instead, they get to use their last time out to get properly set up to score and win the game.



Yup, Option 2 sounds like the winner to me.... I am stupid.



That is not even a hindsight opinion - like I said, they probably lose the fucking game anyways. But you do not make it easier for the other team to beat you.

[m626t]

I feel bad for them, they deserved to win that game. We are the NY Jets of College Football.
[/quote

It seems to me that after their latest game, the NY Football Giants are the UMass of professional football.

[eldonabe]

I feel bad for them, they deserved to win that game. We are the NY Jets of College Football.
[/quote

It seems to me that after their latest game, the NY Football Giants are the UMass of professional football.

Yes, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on the regular is a skill only a few possess, but winless is winless......

[Steve81]

Disappointing result but I am 100% all in w/Coach H. The team demonstrated significant improvement and effort. Tough loss but I think Coach H is on the brink of turning things around in a positive way !

I'm 100% with you Jack. In fact, said would not increase my donations to football till 2027. Now thinking of adding at leas 1k to football, but that $970 including MassCo will have to go down a little. Can shave $50 off of men's soccer, idk about hockey donation or if MassCo will continue. Can not be at the zoom call tonight but will look on the bb forum 2morrow on any news.

umassbaseball will add that coach H said that college is different than the pros, where the clock stops for first downs. That Buffalo kicker was money from the 39 yard line and they would be getting great field position. So, it and the professionals said the right call was to go for the 1st down and that running the ball 14 yards was not the call.

He also said no one is talking about his decision to go for it in our own 33 yard line because it worked, but if it did not work would be talking about it. He also said that by going for it, we ran over 4 minutes off the clock and were in field goal range. The ball for the hit did not have the laces away from the kicker. It's so easy to me a Monday morning QB second guessing the decisions without knowing the context around the game, in the moment.

He did not say money but it was less words to type.

This is the replacement from the live video.
https://youtu.be/udSgO80bqsY

[R&G]

Did he also mention that it was a good idea to snap the ball (on multiple occasions) with over 20 seconds left on the play clock in their second to last possession. Coaching lost that game.

[Steve81]

...

[Steve81]

Remember he commented they intentionally speed things up a bit saying it gave AJ the best shot at scoring on the drive. He said we were in field goal range but kicked the laces, commented above.

[minutefanjsf]

Remember he commented they intentionally speed things up a bit saying it gave AJ the best shot at scoring on the drive. He said we were in field goal range but kicked the laces, commented above.

So, the flip side is they took what Buffalo gave them, or let Buffalo dictate the pace of play. That drive stalled and they didn’t line up the kick. He seems to justify everything he decides even when it doesn’t work.

[Steve81]

Spin the laces away from the kicker was the issue as that ball had plenty of distance and glanced the upright. He makes field goals every day from the 55 yard line. The only reason that drive was alive was going for it on 4th down on our own 33 yard line. It is what it is and appreciate if you guys listen to the press conference for context and his exact words. He took ownership of the call saying they asked if they should milk it. He is aggressive and we need to be to win. It's also the personal available as our top receivers are out. One guy did not earn the playing time, which I like in building the culture. He also took ownership on the last series when Branden Hood went down with a leg cramp on second down. He had 43 carries as Rocko is still out. He took ownership of that and a few other issues as it was on the coaching staff making sure he was hydrated. He owns his mistakes and a first year as a FBS head coach. The team is not perfect or the coaches. He talked about other stuff as well. But they are doing everything to win, have a depleted staff like most teams, but not at the same degree. 15 guys not available as of Monday. That is not counting others that are already out for the season and TY Harding and Franks come to mind.

I was pleasantly surprised how well we played and despite the outcome, it was a very good effort by all and in it against a top MAC team. The MAC is weak this year, but think with a good class and the benefit of the staff knowing the players and making better adjustments during the game, wins will come. Do not think there are any serious play calling issue. You can Monday quarter back, but like I've said, 110% support the guy, his staff and players.

I don't take upping my donations lightly. Love the direction and the processes and not getting stuck on the outcomes this year. Progress that we saw against Buffalo makes me want to give more and not complain about winning the game. Don't get me wrong, we all wanted to see the win, the staff, the players and the fans. That hurt, but respect him for his explanation. Whether or not if you agree and yes, take what they give you. He game planned to eliminate the explosives and let them have the hitch routes and make them march. We currently are not able to cover man to man. We are playing scout team members as 1's and 2's. We had some nice positive surprises at LB with Hinspeter going out around the half. Tyler Martin could not come out the whole game and played well.

[jjmc85]

If you listened to his press conference from today, he called you stupid.

I went back and listened to the press conference. I did not hear Coach H call anyone stupid. Can someone please provide the time stamp? I will withhold comment until I hear it.

Addressing my earlier post, I said there were two strategies. When addressing the offensive series before the punt, Coach H laid out the same two strategies. My interpretation of watching live was they switch strategies after second down. Coach H said this was not the case. They were trying to get the first down to win the game from first down. I’ll believe him and retract my criticism of switch strategies.

I might go back and watch the two run plays before the pass. Coach H went into a lot of detail about why each was called in the press conference. It may be interesting to watch the plays through the lens of attempting to get a first down.