AMHERST — For the first time in a month, Andrew Brito took the field as the UMass quarterback.
The redshirt sophomore missed two games with a concussion he suffered on Sept. 21 against Coastal Carolina then was the emergency quarterback two weeks ago against Louisiana Tech. But thrust into the spotlight as the starter Saturday against UConn, Brito earned mixed reviews at best for his return to the field.
It couldn’t have started much worse for Brito on his first two drives leading the Minutemen’s offense. On the fifth play of the game, Dalton Tomlinson’s snap was well to Brito’s right and the signal-caller couldn’t corral it with the timing of the play call. As the ball laid on the ground, Brito looked hesitant to dive on the loose ball and UConn pounced on the fumble.
His next play was an ill-advised throw into double coverage as the Huskies’ blitz pressured him up the middle. He tried to heave the ball deep where he had a receiver in the vicinity, but he didn’t get enough on the pass to make it a challenge for O’Neil Robinson to intercept it.
“For the first time out there in a couple of weeks, I didn’t think it was all too bad,” coach Walt Bell said. “Probably one or two choices he’d like to have back in the RPO (run-pass option) game, probably being a little too overaggressive there. But he gave us a chance to win the football game, especially in the situation where you’ve got some older guys who have played a couple more reps than him are beat up. Andrew had his chance to go out there and I thought he did a decent job.”
It did get much better for Brito after the disastrous opening two drives with zero turnovers while moving the offense for 35 points, the second-most the unit has scored this season. Where Brito really gave the Minutemen a spark was in the passing game, becoming the first UMass quarterback this season to throw for at least 200 yards. He completed only half of his 40 attempts, but he gained 239 yards through the air and had a pair of strong touchdown passes.
Both Brito and Bell credited the increase in passing yards to the development of the deeper passes UMass has struggled to connect on this season. Brito completed four passes of at least 20 yards in the game and took his shots deep on several other occasions. That opened up the room for the shorter and more intermediate passes where Brito was more accurate and more decisive with the ball.
“The biggest thing is we were able to push the ball down the field and create some shot plays,” Bell said. “There’s a lot of things that go into that, whether it’s receivers winning, whether it’s linemen pass protecting, but I think more than anything else, we were able to hit some bigger balls down the field.”
Brito especially was able to establish a connection with freshman wideout Jermaine “OC” Johnson Jr., who had four catches for 92 yards, easily setting a season high for a single receiver in a game. Johnson caught two of Brito’s long passes, saving his quarterback with a 36-yard third-down catch on a throw into double coverage that set up UMass’ first touchdown. He also had a score of his own, sprinting past his man with ease for a routine pitch-and-catch 40-yard touchdown.
“OC, he’s probably one of the fastest guys on the team and we love to use him as a weapon,” Brito said. “He would be a great asset to any offense, so when we see a one-on-one matchup, we want to take it.”
ALLY FINDS HIS ALLEY — Junior running back Bilal Ally had a career day as well for the Minutemen, rushing for 159 yards on 25 carries – both career highs – with two touchdowns on the ground.
On a day where UMass was overmatched in the trenches, Ally helped keep the UConn defense honest with his runs. He had a critical field-flipping run on the Minutemen’s first drive of the third quarter that helped UMass trim the deficit to a single score for the last time in the game.
“The O-line, they did a tremendous job,” Ally said. “They got the push that we needed and the reads that we needed were key to just gashing them up the field. We knew coming into this game, we wanted to play hard-knocks football and just run it up their throats.”
RETURN WOES — It was a tough day for UMass’ normally explosive kickoff return unit as well.
Although Isaiah Rodgers averaged 23.5 yards per return, it was evident the unit wasn’t opening up the same size holes it typically does for the senior. Rodgers also had a fumble on a return – a mistake he rectified by blocking the field-goal attempt that ensued from the turnover – but it was one of the several special teams units Bell said were letdowns Saturday.
“We were just overthinking a lot,” Rodgers said. “Everyone was trying to make big plays and we just need to learn to just do our jobs and focus more on details.”
BUDDING RIVALRY — Right now, UMass and UConn are scheduled to play just two more times in football, but that doesn’t mean more games aren’t planned between these two independent programs.
In a joint press conference before Saturday’s game, UMass athletics director Ryan Bamford and his UConn counterpart David Benedict pledged support for getting the game onto the schedule in perpetuity. Both men said the game is vital to development of football in the greater New England area and stressed the importance of regional games to helping sustain the programs.
“I told David early on, ‘We’re here and you need to go get other games, so know we’re here and we’re here to help and we want to get games on the schedule,’” Bamford said. “Our goal is to try to play UConn every year and try to build that rivalry. It’s a really good healthy thing for both schools, being flagship institutions in each of our states, it’s a pretty neat thing.”
Next season’s game is the season opener. They will meet in 2021 on Oct. 9.