By Ryan Barry
NEFJ Staff

UMass head coach Don Brown took to the podium at his opening week press conference to discuss Saturday’s 35 – 31 win against Central Connecticut State – which was also his 100th win – as well as the upcoming road trip to Miami (OH).

Brown on preparing for Miami (OH)

“We know what kind of ability they have. Last year was probably one of the most unusual games in the country.The game started, stopped, and didn’t finish until after midnight. They’re perennially one of the better teams in the MAC so we know all about their ability. We were 31-28 with them a year ago competing with them on a high level, but this is a new year, and we’ve got to be ready to play. It’s nice to be able to go there with a win under our belt.”

Brown on anything he noticed on the CCSU tape after another look

“I’ll give you a couple of the things that stuck out. First off I think we kind of started pretty well. I felt we were able to make up for some self-inflicted adversity during the middle of the game, and then we finished on a very strong note. The good thing is we found a way to compete and win to get that first W. Just some things that are interesting, and I see it across college football, the rush game. We had 160-yards rushing, they had 90-yards. In passing we had 287 and they had 157. Total yards we had 450 in 88 plays and they had 247 in 47 plays. Third down we were six of 13, they were two of 11, which is a good number for us for the third week in a row really. In the red zone were four for four, they were five for five, and that’s field goals and touchdowns.

Penalties, you know, just losing my mind. Half of this is just preparing and getting ready to hash this thing out. We had 15 penalties 135-yards. Now they were no picnic either, but I’m not really concerned about them, I’m concerned about us. We had four on defense for 40 yards, six on offense for 45, and five on special teams for 50.

Just some points… Defensively we gave up three explosive plays and that’s plays over 16-yards. We had a 56-yarder against us, a 31, and a 21. Here’s some of the good stuff. We had 23 plays of zero or negative gains, that’s a significant amount and that’s where we want to be. We had 37 plays of three yards or less and we played 58 total snaps. We had 12 havoc plays, that means hitting the quarterback, knocking the ball out of the receivers hands, interceptions, which we also had. Ryan Barnes had his first (interception) and he made a significant contribution when Isaiah Rutherford went down. We’re 39th in the country in total defense. Last year at this time we were 111th. I think that’s a significant improvement for sure.

Offensively, we dominated the time of possession again, we had 37 minutes and 46 seconds, they had it for 22:14. We had three passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, and it’s the first time since that we had 450 yards of offense since week five of 2023. A good effort for sure.

On special teams we gave up a squib kick for a return that led to a touchdown. Gave up a surprise onside and we just flat out weren’t ready for it. That’s on me too. Laurie (kicker) had five extra points which was good.

That gives you an overview of the game. The best part of the game was we just kept playing. We didn’t stop playing. We didn’t start pointing the finger at the offense, defense, kicking, we just kind of kept on the path and kept playing. That’s what you’re really looking for.”

Brown on running backs coach Damian Mincey getting the players fired up when they needed a spark

“Damien and I go back a long way. He was with me here and was an interesting hire because I called him one morning at four o’clock and said be here by eight o’clock. That’s kind of how that started. He’s got 100% of my confidence, and if he’s going to grab those guys there’s a good reason for it. I knew about it, which is great.

That fourth quarter we just won, we had to stop them. Now how many of you guys wanted a piece of me when we went for it on fourth and one? I just felt like hey, we’ve got to win this football game and do aggressive things in nature. We didn’t make the first but we went four and out after that with a great stop on fourth down which led to the win, so that was all good.”

Brown on the dismissal of Anthony Simpson

“I’m not going to talk about any situation with the young man not here anymore on the football team.”

Brown on running back Jackson Paradis

“The big part with him and I mentioned back a week or so ago is injuries. Every time we got him going and he’d be geared up ready to take the next step, he’d find a way to stub his toe, sprain an ankle, you name it, it was just one thing after another. I felt as though when we were kind of ending summer workouts, he’s finally had a run of good luck, which usually happens when you’re a running back, you’ll have good and bad luck. He made a nice contribution along with Jalen John. I felt really good about his effort and production, along with Jalen’s effort and production.”

Brown on how they continue to build throughout the season on battling adversity in games

“We just keep getting better, that’s the whole thing. You don’t get high on it, you don’t just be happy that you won the game, we’re going to address these things today. At the same time, you don’t just want to put it like a weight on somebody’s back, but you’ve got to address and make sure that we’re moving forward in minimizing the damage. We had one drive that started on the two-yard line after the interception. Give me a break, that’s hard business right there. As a result of the kick we had one start on the 27-yard line, and then two at midfield, but then also at the end of the third we had a big three and out. I’ll tell you what I thought was a big one was, remember late in the third when they kicked the field goal? I thought that was a big key because we went down and scored a touchdown, and that gave us the separation. That was a big deal, because when you score a touchdown you’re just getting back to even, whereas when you force a field goal opportunity which was good, you give yourself a chance to get one possession to go down the field and score.”

Brown on the play of the defensive line

“It’s getting better. We’ve got so many new people there, but I’m happy with them, I like all those guys. They’re competing, they’re playing hard. Shambre (Jackson) will be at full strength in a few weeks. ET (Etinosa Reuben) is getting better all the time. All those guys are getting better. A lot of those guys were on major college rosters and weren’t getting playing time so joined us, and we’ve got them going in the right direction. I feel really good about what we’re doing.”

Brown on playing another MAC team on the schedule

“It’ll be nice when you’re locked in and you’re playing eight MAC teams and you kind of know who your opponents are. What I mean by that is we’ll play them year after year so it’ll be a development of understanding what their scheme is, what they like to do, and go from there.”

Brown on improving on the non-combat penalties vs. combat penalties

“You’ve just got to continue to work hard on your cadence and on your snap counts. Sometimes in the offense with all the clapping, our guys have to learn to get off on the proper clap, and it’s a bit of a learning issue for sure. The only thing that’s different about the combative ones is they’re longer, they’re 15-yards, as opposed to offsides which are five yards.”