By MATT VAUTOUR
FOXBOROUGH
The optimism from the UMass football team’s strong overall effort at Florida had all but disappeared after Saturday’s loss to Boston College.
Against the Gators, the Minutemen’s offensive struggles didn’t seem like cause for panic.
It was sophomore quarterback Ross Comis’ first start. It came in a hostile atmosphere against a team with a really good defense.
Comis made mistakes, taking sacks and missing throws, but he didn’t turn the ball over and seemed poised.
But against BC, UMass’ offensive mistakes were plentiful and more costly. Comis fumbled the ball three times, lost two of them and was intercepted once.
While the fan base tweeted vociferously for Andrew Ford, UMass’ No. 2 quarterback, Whipple stuck with his guy.
Making a QB switch in week two is dangerous. The second guy better be the answer or you’re stuck with a rudderless offense.
The quarterback always gets the blame when an offense isn’t moving the ball and Comis certainly deserves some of it. The Minutemen need him to be better if their season is going to turn around.
But he was far from the only player struggling on offense.
He was under pressure throughout and was sacked eight times. Some of that was the offensive line. Some of that was receivers not getting open and some of it was Comis not getting rid of the ball quickly enough.
The problems have started with the running game. UMass doesn’t have a run over 8 yards through two games. Opponents have stacked the box against Marquis Young and he hasn’t been able to get free. That’s put Comis in a lot of third-and-long situations which has also contributed to the sacks.
The wide receivers have been all-but invisible. Other than Andy Isabella, who had six catches for 150 yards in two games, Bernard Davis and Shakur Nesmith haven’t done much, and Jalen Williams isn’t healthy enough to break free. UMass’ tight ends can catch, but if the wide receivers aren’t stretching the field, there’s less room for them to work.
If UMass doesn’t get better production throughout its offense, no quarterback is going to be successful.
The offenses struggles have wasted back-to-back terrific efforts by the defense. The Minutemen have kept two Power 5 teams from breaking out offensively.
There is good news.
Florida is the best team UMass faces this season and BC was the nation’s No. 1 defense last year. The rest of the schedule should be varying degrees of more manageable, starting with Saturday against FIU in Amherst.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage