The UMass football team will rack up the airline miles this week when it travels to California for its Mid-American Conference (MAC) opener against Sacramento State this Saturday.
The undefeated Minutemen (3-0) will take on the newest member of the MAC in the Hornets, who sit at 1-3 to begin the 2026 season. UMass has never played in the Golden State in its history.
“I think the maturity to handle that amount of time on the road will be our No. 1 [focus], Minutemen head coach Joe Harasymiak said. “We’re going to leave Thursday, which is pretty typical for cross-country trips.”
Once adjusted to the time change and any weather differences, Harasymiak added they’ll use all of Friday to further prepare for Sac State, which received praise from UMass’ second-year skipper from initial film viewings.
“I’m super impressed,” Harasymiak said. “They play violent, they play physical. They have a tremendous amount of athletes, in my opinion, that are explosive, that can run sideline to sideline.”
The Hornets have a question mark at quarterback as Carson Conklin, who started the season under-center, hasn’t played since suffering an injury in their season-opening loss to Eastern Michigan on Aug. 29.
Jackson Sharman has taken over for Sac State and has cooled off since tossing four touchdowns and 247 yards against Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 5. In the Hornets 31-10 loss to North Dakota State last Saturday, Sharman finished 25-for-40 for 238 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
“He can make every throw,” Harasymiak said of Sharman. “I watched that [North Dakota State] game, literally from start to finish on the TV copy as I was grading our game on Saturday night…He got hit, he stood in there, led them down to the last drive there and they played all the way to the end.”
The Minutemen will look to cut down on the penalties in conference play, a trend that has followed them through their first three games this year. UMass compiled nearly 100 yards in penalties against Stonehill.
“Penalties right now for our team are an issue,” Harasymiak said. “That’s what I spent most of my time on [Sunday] in the team meeting on. We’re 115th in the country and we’re last in the MAC. I gave the team the analogy, it’s like being a little kid, the stove is hot. Don’t touch it. If we touch it, that result is going to be a loss because it’s going to catch up to us.”
Sac State is the fifth-worst among MAC teams in penalties.
Expect the Minutemen to run the ball constantly against Sac State as their rushing game has outpaced their three previous opponents by a considerable margin. UMass has posted 547 rushing yards in three games compared to just 197 yards from the opposition.
Elijah Faulkner leads the Minutemen with 195 yards on the ground.
Kickoff at Hornet Stadium is set for 9 p.m.
