UMass Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford took questions from the media on Monday at the Martin Jacobson Football Performance Center and spoke on a number of topics surrounding the current struggles with the football program, which stand at 0-3 this season.
As part of his opening remarks, Bamford mentioned he met with head coach Joe Harasymiak during the bye week to begin preparing for the winter transfer portal window, which will serve as the only opportunity to grab transfers for the 2026 season as the NCAA voted last week to eliminate the spring transfer window.
Bamford then continued by talking about his focus moving forward centering around three factors with the program. The first being the athletic department’s “physical plan,” which includes a three-phase approach that the department is preparing to release in December that will feature “a complete overhaul of our stadium.” The second focal point is the “staffing resources within the program,” which Bamford admitted he’s pleased with at this point.
Lastly, the third area is “roster management,” more specifically, focusing on retaining talent rather than acquiring players through the portal. Bamford revealed the department is prepared to increase its spending to speed up UMass’ timeline for success.
“Candidly, we’re going to have to over-invest to win,” Bamford said. “We’ve had sort of deferred maintenance of this program for more than a decade and you have to invest more than maybe some others do to get out of it. The only way out is up. We’re focused on making sure we’re putting key investments in the right places and I think those are three — staffing, physical plan, and what we can do from an aid, additional benefits and N.I.L. standpoint — those are absolutely paramount to our success.”
Bamford followed that up with perhaps his most direct decree since becoming the athletics director in 2015.
“We had a two-to-three year plan, I talked about that when I hired Joe,” Bamford said. “Candidly, I’ve blown that up and we’re going to invest even more than we anticipated, because of this.
“We’re not content with what the plan was even six months ago,” Bamford continued. “We’re going into overdrive. We have to pull this program out of losing and it’s going to take a lot to do it. We recognize that and it’s been 12-plus years of mediocrity-to-little success at times here in the most recent future. Again, we’re going to have to over-subscribe and over-invest to get ourselves out of it.”
Bamford delved more into the stadium upgrades later on, discussing the first phase, that he’s hopeful will be ready for the 2026 season, and will upgrade the “fan experience.”
“You’ll see more of our sights and sounds, some of the things that are integral to the gameday experience in year one,” Bamford said. “The second and third phases, which will come in the second and third years, are going to be more structural. They’re going to be more aesthetic, they’re going to be more about what our stadium looks like, feels like, how it attracts people, what the visual is.”
The cost of the proposed upgrades will fall in between $25-30 million, per Bamford.
When asked why the announcement of these changes are coming now and not several years ago, Bamford credited the Minutemen’s place within the Mid-American Conference (MAC) as a reason to push the envelope in investment.
“Now that we’ve got a home, now that we’ve got a vision for what we can do to go to bowls and ultimately to win championships and to grow this program, the conference is by far the greatest growth opportunity we’ve had,” Bamford said.
Among the final remarks made by Bamford included the A.D.’s personal emotions at this point regarding the turnaround process.
“I have a calm about this because I can see what’s happening,” Bamford said. “I know that our fanbase is frustrated by it and they’re going to listen to that soundbite and they’re going to say ‘well, Ryan has been telling us these things.’ Listen, I’m always going to project positivity. But there’s a sense of purpose that the people in this building have and it’s harder than even our coaches thought coming in, I would acknowledge that. But there’s a calm and purpose to what we’re about to do now and what we’re doing now that I’m sort of excited about because I think we finally have the resources to do it.”
The Minutemen have posted a record of 21-94 since Bamford has been in charge.