AMHERST — Joe Harasymiak’s early days leading the UMass football team have been defined by mounting challenges across multiple fronts. Through three games, the Minutemen have been blown out twice, lost to an FCS team (Bryant) on a last-second field goal after blowing a 20-3 lead, and experienced a boatload of injuries to several playmakers on both sides of the ball.
Two wins heading into this weekend’s bye felt like a real possibility entering the season due to the caliber of transfers and returning players on the UMass roster. But now sitting at 0-3 with just Missouri left in the non-conference slate before UMass gets its first taste of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) as a full member in October, it looks increasingly likely that 2025 will be chalked up as another disappointing year as an FBS program.
Enter Ryan Bamford, the school’s Director of Athletics for the past decade. Bamford hired Harasymiak — his third coaching hire after picking Walt Bell and Don Brown (the three coaches have a combined record of 8-59) — back in December after impressive stints at Rutgers and Minnesota serving as the defensive coordinator.
Despite the rocky start, Bamford reiterated on Monday at The Massachusetts Collective Golf Invitational held at Crumpin-Fox Club in Bernardston that he has full confidence in Harasymiak to dig the program out of the mud.
“Listen, Joe’s the right answer,” Bamford said. “Joe’s going to be good here. I think we’re going through a little bit of growing pains in this new moment, trying to take some transfers and some incoming kids and meld them together. Unfortunately, we’ve run into a rash of injuries. Those aren’t excuses, [but] I think the healthiest teams, especially early in the year, end up persisting. And we haven’t been able to catch many breaks… So we’ll see if we can get healthy. We just need to keep taking some steps forward, and Joe’s got the right mindset about that.”
Certainly, injuries can derail a season; particularly if they happen to key players at important positions. But every team in the country deals with roster turnover every season — that’s simply how college athletics are run today.
Temple head coach K.C. Keeler’s first game with the Owls came Week 1 against UMass. He had an entirely new coaching staff with a boatload of new players, and had a quarterback competition throughout the summer. Sounds familiar, right?
Keeler’s team came out and thumped the Minutemen 42-10 in the season opener, and beat its Week 2 FCS opponent, 55-7.
Timelines are different now. Building a program in this era doesn’t take nearly as long as it used to. UMass landed over 30 transfers in the offseason and, according to Bamford, had a $2 million NIL budget for 2025. That number is expected to increase to $3 million for the 2026 season, which Bamford said will be No. 1 in the MAC. And considering the Minutemen haven’t won more than three games in a year since Mark Whipple won four in back-to-back seasons (2017 and 2018), it’s understandable why fans are impatient and expecting immediate results.
Those results certainly didn’t include a loss to Bryant.
“We’ve built it to win and I don’t think anybody is pleased with where we are right now.”
UMass AD RYan bamford
“I get it,” Bamford said. “I understand it. We’re in a zero-sum enterprise, and you’re either winning or you’re losing in college football. We’ve built it to win and I don’t think anybody is pleased with where we are right now. But we’ve got the opportunity to take a big step forward, and I know we’ve preached patience. Patience when you’re an independent is a different realm. Now that we’re in the MAC, we’ve got a real opportunity to keep building this thing. And that Bryant loss is a step backward. There’s no doubt. We need to make sure that one step back equals two steps forward going into these next 10 weeks. As long as we keep a good mindset, hopefully we get people that want to continue to believe in what this program can be and not necessarily what it’s been. Because that’s all we’re focused on; what’s forward.”
The beauty of being in a conference is that the Minutemen do indeed still have their goals in front of them. Once their first MAC game against Western Michigan kicks off on Oct. 4, records are 0-0 and they still have a shot at a conference championship.
Given the current health standing of the team and the slow start to the year, that feels like a long shot. But it is still on the table. That’s where Bamford, Harasymiak and the team’s focus is right now as they try to salvage something from this nightmare first quarter of the season.
“We’re focused on plowing forward, trying to get healthy and ultimately trying to win some games in October and November to put ourselves in a good position to take advantage of this new conference and the environment in front of us,” Bamford said. “I feel really positive about it, even after three losses to start the year. It’s not where we want to be, but I think there are some good opportunities in front of us. The league’s kind of been up-and-down the first three weeks. It’s sort of wide open and I think our players should continue to be energized around what’s possible… That’s what Joe’s been preaching. Don’t listen to the noise and people saying ‘Same old UMass.’ You know what? Let people believe that. We’re going to focus on getting better every day and see if that can allow us to win some games here in the next 10 weeks.”