Who on Earth might need one of many worst FBS jobs in l?
Effectively, that will be Joe Harasymiak. In the event you requested him, he would say he’s in all probability an fool.
“That's finally in all probability a fault of mine,” he advised USA TODAY Sports activities. "I have a look at some issues and wish the problem.”
Ask, and also you shall obtain. The 40-year-old coach has one in all, if not the, biggest problem in school soccer: s coach. It has been on the basement for greater than a decade, and in 2025, it reached its nadir: a winless 0-12 season.
It was the 18th time a staff went winless for the reason that growth to a 12-game schedule in 2006. Not precisely how Harasymiak envisioned his first season. However the vibe is completely different in Amherst this fall. UMass feels good about soccer.
“I really feel actually assured that we received it proper,” Harasymiak stated. “Hopefully we will present that this yr.”
There’s unhealthy, then there’s UMass
UMass soccer hasn’t at all times been unhealthy. In actual fact, it’s received some good historical past. It was a constant winner within the Nineteen Seventies, received the 1998 FCS championship and completed runner-up in 2006.
That success led to the choice in 2011 to maneuver as much as FBS for the 2012 season. Whereas there was pleasure over the bounce, there was one drawback: UMass wasn’t actually all that good at that juncture.
The n have been 16-17 within the three seasons earlier than the transfer, bringing in a brand new coach in Charley Molnar but hoped it could work utilizing the identical recipe. It didn’t, and UMass went 1-11 in Yr 1, an indication of issues to return.
Molnar went 2-22 in two seasons earlier than UMass introduced again Mark Whipple, who coached that 1998 title staff. There was some enchancment with back-to-back three-win seasons, and going 4-8 in 2017 and 2018.
That’s one of the best it’s gotten.
Since shifting to FBS in 2012, UMass is 28-142, a 19.7% win proportion that’s by far the worst by any staff since then. The following closest file is Kansas at 43-124 (34.7%). Years of shedding, whereas FBS newcomers like James Madison and Jacksonville State had no hassle making the transfer.
In actual fact, UMass is the one FBS staff to by no means make a bowl recreation, and that features Delaware and Missouri State, who made one in Yr 1 in 2025.
Why has it been so unhealthy? These in cost level to not an aligned imaginative and prescient for soccer, and no strong basis. UMass joined the MAC when it made the transfer, however solely stayed for 4 seasons, leaving to turn into an unbiased in 2016 whereas it looked for a brand new residence. It ended up staying like that for 10 seasons.
“It was an actual problem looking for our footing, given the truth that we didn't have a convention to play in,” stated athletic director Ryan Bamford, who’s been in cost since 2015. “There's a cause why Notre Dame's the one one which's endured as an unbiased, clearly due to their model and you realize their income traces and all of the ways in which they’ll assist their soccer program particularly. And there's a cause why all the remainder of us have gone out and in of unbiased.”
That, in flip, made it troublesome for Bamford to rent — and maintain — a coach. He’s employed 4 of them in his time period, with none lasting greater than three seasons.
“It was onerous getting individuals within the job. You couldn't construct out a full mannequin and plan for the long run,” Bamford added. “We didn't know what the long run appeared like, each from a useful resource perspective and from a convention perspective, and in the event you can't reply these two questions, it's onerous to get anyone .”
The primary inkling of change got here in February 2024, when UMass introduced a return to the MAC, as a full-time member for 2025. Coincidentally, it fired Don Brown late into the 2024 season, that means it could want one other new coach for its subsequent period.
After turning into the coach of Maine at 29 years previous and efficiently turning the Black Bears into an FCS playoff staff, Harasymiak hung out shoring up defenses at Minnesota and Rutgers when he determined he needed to be in control of a staff once more.
“I wouldn't have come except they joined the league,” Harasymiak stated. “I feel becoming a member of the MAC was a significant factor for me. I wasn't going to do it if it was unbiased as a result of that's just about — in addition to Notre Dame now clearly — it's sort of suicide.”
Nonetheless, he had his doubts of what would make his tenure any completely different from his predecessors. What bought him on it was the choice to think about this system with a clear slate; Harasymiak in contrast it to tearing a home utterly right down to the studs and constructing it again how he needed to.
When he received settled, the primary particular person to knock on his workplace door was Tyler Martin, a Massachusetts-born linebacker who transferred from Arizona in 2023. This program meant one thing private to him, and he made it clear his mission to vary what was occurring.
“I used to be like, you realize what? I'm seeing this by,” Martin stated. “I'm gonna depart this place and when whoever stays with me right here leaves, persons are gonna know that this was one of many courses that was in a position to get this, to proper the ship.”
Whereas Bamford admitted UMass “weren't going to be world beaters” in 2025, there was some renewed optimism.
The consequence? 0-12.
UMass averaged an FBS-worst 11.1 factors per recreation and final in giving up 38.6 factors per recreation. It solely had two one-score video games, a one-point loss to FCS Bryant and a 28-21 defeat to Buffalo.
“Actually very troublesome,” Harasymiak stated. “By no means actually had something near this experience-wise.”
Accidents have been cited as a significant cause 2025 went so unsuitable. The defensive depth was depleted, and quarterbacks have been constantly getting harm.
Martin stated it could have been simple to simply hand over, however he implored individuals to not bounce the ship. The message resonated, with gamers not resembling zombies, however nonetheless coming in day-after-day with an perspective that this may get higher.
“We're doing all the proper issues. The outcomes simply weren't there,” he stated. “Clearly, the result’s what everybody goes to take a look at, however in the event you don't have a great course of, you'll by no means discover the consequence. Whereas in the event you're no less than doing the method the proper approach, you give your self the preventing likelihood on the final result that you really want.”
The result UMass desires appears much more believable going into 2026. Going into his first season, Harasymiak described his first switch class as a “catastrophe,” taking dangers on gamers hoping it could stick.
This time round, UMass focused gamers with school manufacturing. There’s funding in NIL, diet and nearly every little thing Harasymiak says is required “to be able to put this proper.”
“I might argue a majority of the inputs that impression success have utterly modified right here,” Bamford stated. “I couldn't have stated that within the final decade.”
One of many gamers added was William “Pop” Watson III, a senior quarterback from Virginia Tech. Searching for to be the man for a program, he knew UMass “was working with the quick finish of the leash” when it reached out to him about becoming a member of. Nevertheless, he didn’t get that feeling from talking with the workers, and it hasn’t appeared prefer it all since then.
Seeing the buy-in and the instruments to be a great staff led Watson to take the microphone on the finish of the Minutemen's spring recreation and ship a daring proclamation.
“This ain’t the identical staff you noticed final yr,” he advised the gang at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. “We gonna come by, we gonna (expletive) the MAC.”
Effectively then.
“Most likely the verbiage I used wasn't one of the best, however that's how I really feel. Like that's the idea I received in these guys, and that's the idea I received in these coaches,” Watson stated. “I nonetheless stand agency on what I stated.”
You’d suppose after an 0-12 season, UMass would simply attempt to win no less than one recreation to snap its 16-game shedding streak, proper? Or beat an FBS staff for the primary time since October 2023.
“We're not eager about ‘How do you win a handful, three, 4, 5 video games?’ We're eager about profitable as many video games on our 12-game schedule as you’ll be able to,” Bamford stated. “No one's operating from the thought… I don't suppose any of us take ethical victories anymore."
UMass’ first likelihood at its first FBS win in 1,041 days comes within the season opener at Rutgers on Thursday, Sept. 3. It additionally has by no means crushed a Energy convention staff. There are some simpler probabilities for wins afterward with FCS groups Sacred Coronary heart and Stonehill, nevertheless it expects greater than that.
All of it’s good speak for a staff making an attempt to get out of the dumpster, however let’s be actual: Who truly thinks UMass is able to profitable a number of video games, not to mention make a bowl recreation? The n has the Minutemen ending 2-10, these victories towards FCS groups and pushing the FBS-winless streak to 33 video games.
“Simply realizing that nobody else believes in us, and I feel that that’s truthfully one in all my private greatest motivators,” Martin stated. “I'm going to completely love strolling into Rutgers, Week 1, and realizing that the one individuals there that suppose we will win are the mother and father which might be lucky sufficient to make the sport, and the blokes that went on that airplane and received off the bus collectively and are in our locker room.”
If it does certainly occur, there received’t be any onerous emotions from the non-believers. Bamford stated there are many seats on the bandwagon, and so they’ll take “all people who desires to leap in with us.”
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